John Conyers should he stay or should he go now...

bshole

Diamond Member
Mar 12, 2013
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This seems legit.

In the case of Mr. Conyers, the lawyer Lisa Bloom, who announced on Sunday that she was representing the woman who filed the complaint against him, said a confidentiality agreement was preventing the woman from telling her side of the story. Ms. Bloom urged Mr. Conyers to release her client from the agreement so she could speak publicly.

News of Mr. Conyers’s settlement was reported last week by BuzzFeed News, which published documents showing that he had settled a complaint in 2015 by a former employee who had said she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances.



https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/...wn-judiciary-committee-sexual-harassment.html
 

FIVR

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2016
3,753
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OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

We must purge these men from the party and then the republicans will say "Now we must hold Trump and Roy Moore to account because the democrats held their sexual harassers to account. We must not be hypocrites!"

It's actually tragically funny how easy this whole #MeToo campaign is being turned into a tool to bludgeon democrats while it seems to have zero affect on republicans. Nice "dirty trick" Roger Stone, quite impressive.
 
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Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
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Republicans only care about holding onto power by any means possible so they will strive to manipulate the circumstances to that end. Truth be damned!:eek: The rich and powerful will not let go of their positions no matter the cost.o_O
 

boomerang

Lifer
Jun 19, 2000
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Age limits and/or term limits should have broomed him from office long ago. If only...
 

Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
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The House has a procedure for handling this. Any reason why Conyers should not be entitled to due process?

He will also be coming up for re-election in less than a year-the voters can then decide whether or not to keep him regardless.
 

brycejones

Lifer
Oct 18, 2005
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The House has a procedure for handling this. Any reason why Conyers should not be entitled to due process?

He will also be coming up for re-election in less than a year-the voters can then decide whether or not to keep him regardless.

If true he needs to step down. I would argue the House's process has failed since payouts are being made to make accusations go away instead of members being held accountable.
 
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dawp

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
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The House has a procedure for handling this. Any reason why Conyers should not be entitled to due process?

He will also be coming up for re-election in less than a year-the voters can then decide whether or not to keep him regardless.

from what I understand of the reporting procedures, it's geared to protecting the institution and not the the person reporting and is a very convoluted process.
 

Thump553

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
12,649
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from what I understand of the reporting procedures, it's geared to protecting the institution and not the the person reporting and is a very convoluted process.

Whatever gag agreement was in the settlement cannot apply to keeping her testimony from the ethics committee.

This sure looks like an attempt by her attorney to shake down Conyers for some more money and plays right into the hands of the GOP. Well the GOP controls the House and Conyers is a senior Democrat, so if there is a problem with the system it is well within the GOP's power to fix it.
 

bshole

Diamond Member
Mar 12, 2013
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Whatever gag agreement was in the settlement cannot apply to keeping her testimony from the ethics committee.

This sure looks like an attempt by her attorney to shake down Conyers for some more money and plays right into the hands of the GOP. Well the GOP controls the House and Conyers is a senior Democrat, so if there is a problem with the system it is well within the GOP's power to fix it.

It should be noted that more than one woman filed suit against Conyers for sexual harassment. This is the second woman's complaint.

Conyers' longtime scheduler filed a complaint in federal court earlier this year alleging "sexual advances in the form of inappropriate comments and touches" that were so frequent "that they created a hostile work environment." She says in the filings, which were obtained by ABC News, that she's known Conyers since 2006 and began working as a scheduler in 2015. The woman alleges the repeated harassment led her to suffer “insomnia, anxiety, depression and chest pains.” She eventually requested sick leave in 2016, but when she wouldn't provide medical documents explaining the reason for her sick leave, her position was terminated. The woman says in the filings she didn't want to provide the documents because of an “atmosphere of mistrust.”


http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/john...xual-harassment-allegations/story?id=51298445
 

Sunburn74

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2009
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He should step down. He's been doing this for years and it's time to pay the price.

At the same time, the woman should not have complained if she agreed to a confidentiality agreement. Your word is your bond. For all we know he prostrated down on all fours and begged her forgiveness prior to her signing this. Of course he didn't but that's the point. We don't know the terms of the agreement which may have included and admission of wrong doing, an apology and other measures. Regardless of the terms a contract is a contract.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
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He should step down. He's been doing this for years and it's time to pay the price.

At the same time, the woman should not have complained if she agreed to a confidentiality agreement. Your word is your bond. For all we know he prostrated down on all fours and begged her forgiveness prior to her signing this. Of course he didn't but that's the point. We don't know the terms of the agreement which may have included and admission of wrong doing, an apology and other measures. Regardless of the terms a contract is a contract.

Screw that shit. Sounds like a false form of "Honour".
 

bshole

Diamond Member
Mar 12, 2013
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Screw that shit. Sounds like a false form of "Honour".

An agreement under which all the benefits accrue to the sexual harasser, allowing them to continue the behavior without meaningful consequence, sounds fair to me.
 

Sunburn74

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2009
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An agreement under which all the benefits accrue to the sexual harasser, allowing them to continue the behavior without meaningful consequence, sounds fair to me.
Again the terms are unknown. Maybe she got millions, all sorts of benefits, and an apology where he prostrated on all fours admitted guilt and literally kissed her ass. Who knows?

I remember reading some of the settlements that have gone to accusers from fox news and other places and looking at them it's very hard to say ALL the benefits went to the accused.
 

bshole

Diamond Member
Mar 12, 2013
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One could argue that agreeing to the confidentiality settlement was the less honorable thing.

I would argue that the person with all the power demanding confidentiality from the powerless was the FAR FAR less honorable thing, in fact I would argue it was a disgusting and filthy demand on his part.
 

Sunburn74

Diamond Member
Oct 5, 2009
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I would argue that the person in power demanding confidentiality was the FAR FAR less honorable thing, in fact I would argue it was a disgusting and filthy demand on his part.
You would the word demand. Others would say negotiate. What if her lawyer said "hey let's fight this all the way" and she said "ask them how much they will pay for the confidentiality agreement they want. I don't want my business and my family in the public eye either". Then a ridiculous price was floated and she accepted.

You make it sound like she was being beaten up as she signed the thing. Certainly there were lawyers involved and it was a civil discussion between two sides, two lawyers at the very least.

I don't like confidentiality agreements either but like most agreements and trades both sides win to some degree.
 
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bshole

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Mar 12, 2013
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You would the word demand. Others would say negotiate. What if her lawyer said "hey let's fight this all the way" and she said "ask them how much they will pay for the confidentiality agreement they want
I don't want my business and my family in the public eye either" and a ridiculous price was floated and she accepted.

You make it sound like she was being beaten up as she signed the thing. Certainly there were lawyers involved and it was a civil discussion between two sides, two lawyers at the very least.

I don't give a shit about that. Why would an INNOCENT man demand confidentiality? The demand for confidentiality is an indicator that he acted the part of a predator.
 

emperus

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Apr 6, 2012
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I was watching the news this morning and it seems all the Liberal News Media is talking about Conyers. Absolute amazing. The president of the US who has many many women accuse him of sexual harassment, just endorsed a man for the senate that tried to/did molest children, all the while being from the party of Christian Right. And this is what we are talking about this AM?

Yes, if this is true Conyers should go, but god dammit can we get a little more perspective in our news coverage. This reminds me of how the media spent the whole campaign covering Hilary's email server. Liberal Media indeed.
 
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Sunburn74

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I don't give a shit about that. Why would an INNOCENT man demand confidentiality? The demand for confidentiality is an indicator that he acted the part of a predator.
Who says guilty guys aren't allowed to have confidentiality agreements? Even in actual crimes with actual guilty pleas someone can negotiate a confidentiality agreement with a judge. In fact it happens all the time. People negotiate sealing trial outcomes, gag orders, expungements all the time (juvenile cases for example frequently do this after an admission of guilt). Civil cases also are fraught with this (think about whenever companies settle often they settle without and admission of guilt and negotiate confidentiality regarding the terms of the settlement)

Also what Conyers is accused of is at best a civil suit. And again you don't know the terms of the agreement which may have included him stopping or getting help or having more office scrutiny. Who knows? The point of the confidentiality agreement is to allow both parties to essentially move on (Conyers and his office and office staff, and the person hurt by the sexual harrassment. Don't forget if he goes a lot of people unrelated to this will be fired by whoever replaces him and often the replacement will bring all new staff. And I am someone against these sorts of agreements and want him to step down. I just however don't see these things as one sided as people claim they are)
 
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werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
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I would argue that the person with all the power demanding confidentiality from the powerless was the FAR FAR less honorable thing, in fact I would argue it was a disgusting and filthy demand on his part.
Especially given that he paid it with government and/or donators' money.

The only reason a party dumps someone for something like this is political advantage. I doubt anyone on the Dem side spends the political capital to force out either Conyers or Franken just to gain some political advantage since Trump is untouchable and Moore is in the hands of the voters. Instead, Dems will condemn these actions while supporting the people who have done them and throwing stones at Moore and Trump for doing the same thing. Especially given that Moore, their immediate opportunity, is accused of doing the same things to teenagers. Maybe Franken and Conyers can't claim the high road, but they can at least still claim not to be in the gutter alongside of the low road.

Of course, this might possibly change if the Pubbies can show that Conyers broke some law in arranging the payoffs, but the mainstream media is not going to focus on a grizzled old Democrat civil rights lion when they have Moore and Trump handy and nobody really trusts the GOP.
 

senseamp

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
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He should go, IMO. I don't see what he contributes to sending conservatism to the ash heap.