At her weekly press conference this morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters that she had no prior knowledge of allegations that Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), harassed a junior staffer.
“I asked my staff, has there been any rumors [about this] before,” Pelosi said. “There had been a rumor…nobody made a formal notification to our office that anything happened. A one, two, three person rumor that had been reported to Mr. Hoyer’s office, and then reported to my staff, which they did not report to me, because you know what? This is rumor city.”
According to Hoyer, the issue was brought to his attention a month ago, after which it was promptly taken to the House ethics committee.
The allegations against Massa were first reported hours after another New York Democrat, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D), was forced to step aside as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee because of a separate ethics investigation. This morning, Pelosi sought to distance her caucus from the controversies.
“Some of the issues that…transpired in the last few days, they’re behind us,” Pelosi said.
