Sheila Jackson Lee Leaves 2 Posts After Aide Says She Was Fired for Reporting Sexual Assault
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, resigned as the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.
Credit
Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times
By Nicholas Fandos
Jan. 23, 2019
WASHINGTON — Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, facing blowback from a lawsuit claiming she fired an aide who said she was sexually assaulted by a supervisor at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, has decided to resign as the foundation’s chairwoman on Wednesday.
And Ms. Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat in her 13th term, will also step down temporarily from an important House Judiciary subcommittee chairmanship.
Ms. Jackson Lee made the decision to step aside from the foundation role as pressure was growing within her own party to account for the claims in a Jan. 11 lawsuit brought by a woman who worked in her congressional office and who said she was sexually assaulted by a Black Caucus Foundation supervisor. Ms. Jackson Lee has adamantly denied that she fired the woman for retribution, but she planned to say Wednesday that she would step aside nonetheless.
[Read the lawsuit.]
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s board had given Ms. Jackson Lee an ultimatum late last week after the claims became public: step down as chairwoman or face a vote of removal as soon as this week, according to an official familiar with the conversations who was not authorized to discuss them.
Other liberal advocacy groups are asking the congresswoman to step aside from leadership positions as the case unfolds. The National Alliance to End Sexual Violence said it could not continue to work with Ms. Jackson Lee as the lead sponsor of legislation reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. And fellow Democratic lawmakers had been prepared to force her from her chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee’s crime, terrorism, homeland security and investigations subcommittee.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/us/politics/sheila-jackson-lee-cbc-chairwoman.html