Republican Congressman George Santos is under fire after a former staff member accused him of sexual misconduct.
Derek Myers, 30, also charged Mr. Santos with breaking the law by hiring him as a volunteer.
Later, a job offer to Mr. Myers was withdrawn, and Mr. Santos expressed his concern over the aide’s wiretapping claims from his earlier work as a journalist to news organization Semafor.
The allegations are the most recent in a string of disputes for Mr. Santos.
The congressman’s office has been contacted by the BBC for comment.
On Friday, Mr. Myers claimed on Twitter that he had reported occurrences he alleges occurred during his brief time working in Mr. Santos’s office to Capitol police and written a letter to the House ethics committee, which can look into possible violations of House rules.
He outlined his accusations against Mr. Santos in a letter that he put online. He claimed that during the end of last month, he received an opportunity to work as the congressman for Long Island’s staff assistant.
Since his election in New York last year, the 34-year-old has come under increasing pressure to quit after he acknowledged to falsifying some of his resume and biography.
Additionally, he is the subject of numerous inquiries into his campaign finances and spending. He has in the past refuted misconduct.
On January 25, Mr. Santos allegedly asked Mr. Myers if he had a profile on the well-known LGBT dating app Grindr. Then, according to Mr. Myers, Mr. Santos allegedly told him that he had a Grindr profile.
Why is George Santos in trouble and who is he?
On a different occasion that same day, Mr. Myers and Mr. Santos worked together in solitude to sort mail in the congressman’s office.
He demanded that I sit next to him on the sofa and called me “buddy,” Mr. Myers wrote. “I started talking about the mail, but the congressman stopped me by putting his hand on my left leg, just above my knee.”
After declining the congressman’s invitation to go to karaoke, Mr. Myers alleged that the congressman then “took his hand and moved it down my leg into my inner-thigh” and “felt” his groin.
Then, according to Mr. Myers, Mr. Santos allegedly informed him that his husband was out for the evening and extended an invitation to visit.
I hurriedly yanked the mail off the table, moved the congressman’s hand away, and we started talking about constituent contact, Mr. Myers wrote.
According to Mr. Myers, he was working as a “volunteer” at the time of the event because he was waiting for the payroll department to finish his new hire papers. He claimed to have discovered afterwards that this violated House regulations.
Mr. Myers claims that on Monday, January 30, he was brought into Mr. Santos’ office and questioned about his background as a journalist, topics that, according to Mr. Myers, had already been covered before obtaining a job offer.
He was accused of wiretapping last year while working as a journalist in Ohio after disseminating audio of court testimony provided by a source inside the courthouse. The Committee to Protect Journalists has criticized the accusations.
According to Mr. Myers, the case was automatically dismissed under Ohio’s criminal rules of process after no indictment was brought within 60 days after he entered a not guilty plea, according to CBS, the BBC’s US partner.
According to Mr. Myers, his job offer in Mr. Santos’ office was withdrawn on February 1.
Last week, Mr. Santos told Semafor that he anticipated that tapes of the two men’s conversations will be published on a progressive news website because “he’s betrayed the trust that we had in him.” Parts of a chat between the two were published by Talking Points Memo on Friday.
According to Mr. Myers, the House Ethics Committee has not responded to his letter, and the Capitol Police informed him that a report would be available on Monday, according to CBS.
The police and the Ethics Committee, respectively, will, hopefully, appropriately address these issues in due course, according to Mr. Myers.