Rep. John Conyers and Melanie Sloan.
Rep. John Conyers and Melanie Sloan.
Melanie Sloan, a well-known Washington lawyer who was Democratic counsel on the House Judiciary Committee for tghree years in thge 1990s, says she was not sexually harassed by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, but was subject to plenty of verbal abuse. She also said he also once came to a meeting in his underwear.
“He was just walking around in his office, not dressed," Sloan tells Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press.
"He wasn’t doing it to hit on me. It was more like he could do what he wanted. I was quite shocked by it and left quickly. . . .
"I'm no shrinking violet. His constant stream of abuse was difficult to handle and it was certainly damaging to my self-respect and self-esteem.
"It made me increasingly anxious and depressed about going to work every day. And there was no way to fix it. There was no mechanism I could use, no person I could go to."
Sloan tells the Freep Conyers once criticized her for not wearing stockings and another time ordered her backstage from a committee hearing on crime she had organized in New York City to babysit one of his children.
The latest allegations come amid calls fort the veteran Detroit Democrat to resign in wake of allegations his office paid off a former staffer who says she was fired after rebuffing the congressman's sexual advances. Conyers has denied the sexual harassment allegations.
Sloan founded and runs Triumph Strategy, a public affairs firm specializing in crisis response.
