Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., "should step down" from his position on the House Judiciary Committee amid allegations of sexual harassment, his Democratic colleague and fellow member of the Congressional Black Caucus said Wednesday.
Conyers, a founding member of the CBC and the longest serving member of Congress, is currently under investigation by the House Committee on Ethics over a wrongful dismissal case his office settled in 2015, in which a female former staffer accused Conyers of firing her for rejecting sexual advances.
"No one is exempt from bad behavior, and I think that he's agreed, and I clearly see where Leader [Nancy] Pelosi has said there will be an immediate ethics committee, a review," Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., told CNN.
"I really think that probably the appropriate thing right now is he should step down as the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and be subject to this ethics investigation so it can be determined whether or not there's a practice or pattern, and then appropriate consideration should be made at that time as soon as the Ethics Committee finishes its review."
Four other female former employees of Conyers' have signed affidavits that accuse the congressman of inappropriate touching, unwanted sexual advances and requests for sexual favors, according to the Washington Examiner.
"He should step down as the ranking member with the opportunity, if he defends himself and it shows there is nothing there, he can come back," Meeks said. "You can't, in my estimation, in the scenario we're in, be the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee at this time. I think that he should step down."
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