Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) insists there was nothing romantic about any of it.
He even told investigators he knows exactly what sexual harassment looks like, having once written corporate policy on it. The House Ethics Committee wasn’t convinced, citing 30 pints of ice cream, strip clubs, a gifted handgun, and a poem he couldn’t get through without crying.
Edwards called her ‘the most amazing woman’ who had ‘written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading.’
The married father of two dropped his re-election bid after “much prayer and reflection,” announcing the decision early Wednesday morning.
The announcement came after a House Ethics Committee report released Monday found substantial reason to believe Edwards may have violated House rules on sexual harassment and hostile workplaces through a sustained pattern of conduct toward two young female staffers — one hired at 19, the other in her early 20s.
The 25-page report documents gifts of jewelry worth over $1,000, designer purses, a laptop, a robotic vacuum, a KitchenAid mixer, vacations, and one-on-one dinners.
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He reportedly skipped House votes to help decorate one staffer’s Christmas tree, booked her spa treatments, and took her to the casino, where he bought her drinks and paid for her to gamble.
According to the report, Edwards had roughly 30 types of ice cream delivered to her home. When she called that excessive, he replied, “You looked like you needed a lot of cheering up! My heart was breaking seeing you like that.”
In what appears to be a handwritten letter bearing his signature, Edwards called her “the most amazing woman” who had “written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading,” and he arranged for a singer to perform Ed Sheeran’s “The Hills of Aberfeldy” at her birthday as a message “from a special someone,” according to one of the staffers.
In his interview with the committee, Edwards reportedly said this was the staffer’s favorite song.
At her office going-away party, he read the poem aloud, crying as he did. Staffers present said they felt uncomfortable — something Edwards himself acknowledged in testimony.
The committee found the pattern especially troubling because Edwards’ voluntary message production, completed after what Edwards called a “costly and extensive search,” excluded over 400 texts with one staffer, plus a nine-month gap missing 400 more — including the ice cream photo and several texts that could be interpreted as romantic that surfaced anyway.
The panel found no evidence of sexual activity or explicit propositions, but it concluded a “reasonable observer” would read his pattern of behavior as advances and recommended the full House censure him — the first recommendation of its kind since 2010.
Edwards disputes the findings and denies impropriety, arguing the committee bypassed normal procedure and that “the report’s narrative rests, at several of its most consequential points, on inferences the record does not support, and in places affirmatively contradicts.”
Edwards said he would serve out the remainder of his current term.
The censure vote awaits the House’s return from recess on August 31.
Blaze News contacted Edwards’ office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
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