Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold insisted he "didn't do anything wrong," though he will pay back the $84,000 in taxpayer's money used to settle a 2014 sex harassment allegation from a former congressional aide.
In an interview with Corpus Christie outlet KRIS 6 News aired Monday, the GOP lawmaker said, "I want to be clear, I didn't do anything wrong, but I also don't want the taxpayers to be on the hook for this."
According to The Dallas Morning News, multiple news outlets reported last Friday that Farenthold had used funds controlled by Congress' Office of Compliance to settle the allegation filed in federal court by his former communications director, Lauren Greene.
"I want to be able to talk about it and fix the system without people saying: 'Blake, you benefited from the system. You don't have a right to talk about it or fix it,'" he told KRIS 6 News.
The Office of Congressional Ethics found insufficient basis to recommend an ethics inquiry regarding Greene's allegations. She accused the congressman of making sexually suggestive comments to her, and said he had told another aide he had sexual fantasies about Greene, the News reported.
Greene alleges she was fired in July 2014 after complaining to Farenthold about being "bullied" by his chief of staff, the News reported. Farenthold denied the allegations and maintained in court Greene was fired for poor performance, the News reported.
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