Massa Sexual Harassment Scandal Deepens

More twists and allegation are emerging in the ongoing scandal surrounding alleged sexual harassment by former Congressman Eric Massa, reported Politico on April 19.

The article recounted that Massa's alleged sexual harassment of male aides and others began much earlier than initially thought. A previous story in the Washington Post, run on April 13, said that complaints about Massa began as early as three months after he took office, with the earliest known claims of harassment by young male staffers starting in March of last year. The Post article said that the harassment ranged from improper touch to admissions of sexual interest.

Word of Massa's conduct reportedly didn't reach the ears of senior members of Congress until a year later; at that time, an ethics probe was launched, the story broke in the media, and Massa resigned from office, citing a health scare late last year.

But the Politico article said that the former congressman's own staff had kept his behavior a secret for a year before the scandal broke, with Massa's senior staff trying to put a lid on his behavior. However, the system for constraining congressional abuse of status is questionable in its effectiveness, the article said, citing a lawyer for one former aide, Debra Katz, who told Politico, "Despite the fact that this was a major problem in the office, no one was able to rein in the congressman's behavior until it exploded."

The Post reported that the House Minority Leader, Republican John Boehner, politicized the scandal, naming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, as he condemned Democrats for what he characterized as a failure to act on their part.

"It is now readily apparent that Congressman Massa's pattern of troubling behavior continued long after Democrats first became aware of his conduct," stated Boehner. "Speaker Pelosi's staff has acknowledged they knew about problems in Mr. Massa's office back in the fall of 2009. What action, if any, did the Speaker and the Democratic leadership take to protect Rep. Massa's subordinates from harassment and abuse?"

Politico noted that Pelosi staffers had heard about Massa's misconduct about seven months after it began--nearly half a year before word of his behavior reached the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and the press.

A law passed in 1995 was intended to prevent members of Congress from exercising their status to harass members of their staffs, but junior staffers are still afraid, in many cases, of damaging their careers by speaking up. The Post quoted Katz, as saying that the scandal "speaks to the significant power differential that exists between members of Congress and the personnel they employ." Katz added that, "staffers by and large are fearful of retaliation and career suicide if they file complaints or go outside of their offices to report sexual harassment."

Early reports of Massa's behavior seem to have stayed within the ranks of Massa's staff, with junior staff taking their concerns to Massa's chief of staff, Joe Racalto. But Racalto himself was allegedly also a target for the Congressman's purportedly predatory conduct, and Racalto himself has brought allegations of sexual harassment against the former Congressman, Politico reported. Racalto indicated to the Post that there were multiple instances when he sought to intervene and shield junior staffers from Massa. Racalto's lawyer, Camilla C. McKinney, issued a statement in which she declared, "When Mr. Racalto did witness something or hear a complaint concerning inappropriate conduct, Mr. Racalto made every effort to curtail the Congressman's behavior by directly addressing each issue with the congressman."

In one memo sent to staffers, Racalto wrote, "It has been brought to my attention that casual conversations of a sexual nature are ongoing. This is highly inappropriate, offensive, and against the law," the memo continued. "I want to invite all staff to immediately contact me if you are aware of any inappropriate conversations that are taking place." The article said that though junior staffers were assured that Massa's conduct would be reigned in, the harassment only continued to worsen. Racalto went so far as to prevent Massa from taking male interns with him on overnight trips.

Finally, after Massa's conduct spilled over to the outside world--with Massa reportedly having invited a male bartender out to dinner, leading to a blog posting that accused Massa of sexual impropriety--Racalto and his then-deputy chief of staff, Ron Hikel, went to Congressional Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who insisted on a prompt report to the ethics committee.

Politico noted that it had earlier reported on Racalto receiving a payment of $40,000 from the former congressman's campaign, a transaction that took place a day before Massa's March 5 resignation from the House. Shortly that story was published, Racalto filed his claim against Massa--but Massa now says that he did not authorize that payout. Nor, Massa claims, did he approve a pay raise for Racalto; indeed, Massa intimated that his name had been forged on documents needed for Racalto's pay raise.

Attorney Camilla C. McKinney, who represents Racalto, denied that there was anything improper about Racalto's pay hike or the money he received just before Massa left office, saying, "The former congressman is trying to discredit someone who is making a sexual harassment complaint against him." Racalto's camp insists that the payout he received was money owed him for campaign work between election cycles.

Massa has refused to answer questions about his sexual orientation, but as the scandal has grown, men who served with him in the Navy have come forward to say that he was inappropriate with them. This development has led some conservatives to point to Massa as an example of what would happen in the ranks of the military if closeted gays in uniform were allowed to serve openly--even though the alleged instances of sexual harassment between Massa and his reported victims while Massa was in the Navy did not involve anyone serving as an openly gay man.