Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold Won't Seek Re-Election In The Face Of Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Rep. Blake Farenthold ((R)

U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas has announced he will not run for re-election in 2018.

Farenthold, currently in his fourth term in the House of Representatives, has been under fire since it was disclosed that he settled a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former aide with $84,000 in taxpayers’ money.

Via CNN:

A former senior aide to Rep. Blake Farenthold has approached the House Ethics Committee to share a damning account of working for the Texas Republican, with the intent of describing the congressman as verbally abusive and sexually demeaning — and his congressional office as an intensely hostile environment that drove the aide to physical and emotional distress.

Michael Rekola, who was Farenthold’s communications director in 2015, described in an interview with CNN new details of the congressman’s abusive behavior. It ranged from making sexually graphic jokes to berating aides — bullying that Rekola says led him to seek medical treatment and psychological counseling, and at one point, caused him to vomit daily.

One comment from the congressman was especially personal. Rekola was about to leave town to get married in July 2015, when, he said, Farenthold, standing within earshot of other staffers in his Capitol Hill office, said to the groom-to-be: “Better have your fiancée blow you before she walks down the aisle — it will be the last time.” He then proceeded to joke about whether Rekola’s now-wife could wear white on her wedding day — a clear reference, Rekola said, to whether she had had premarital sex.

In 2014, Rep. Blake Farenthold’s former communications director Lauren Greene sued alleging she’d been sexually harassed by the Congressman while working in his office.

Farenthold denies any sexual misconduct saying he only settled the lawsuit to put the matter to rest.

In the photo above, Farenthold (in the pajamas) posing with two women who were not his wife. You'll note the woman on the left has an "M" on her hand which apparently meant she was underage and couldn't legally drink at the event.

Rumors have swirled for years about Farenthold's excessive drinking and inappropriate behavior.