{"id":39304,"date":"2018-04-27T14:25:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T18:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=39304"},"modified":"2018-04-27T14:25:50","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T18:25:50","slug":"meehan-resigns-will-repay-costs-of-employee-settlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=39304","title":{"rendered":"Meehan resigns, will repay costs of employee settlement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-7)<\/p><\/div>\n

U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-7) announced Friday that he would immediately resign from office and repay costs from a severance agreement to a former staffer of his who claimed that Meehan had attempted to initiate a romantic relationship with her, and then, when rebuffed, mistreated her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meehan \u2014 who was facing a House Ethics Committee investigation over the incident \u2014 had announced earlier this year he would not seek reelection is his district \u2014 which looked to be a toss up. But with the new Congressional map, the old 7th District morphed into the new 5th, which looks to be a heavily Democratic District.<\/span><\/p>\n

The resignation was announced by a statement issued by his office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith the knowledge I would not be standing for another term, I have decided that stepping down now is in the interest of the constituents I have been honored to serve,\u201d Meehan said.\u00a0\u201cI have stayed to fight for important priorities like fully funding our troops, increasing support for medical research and preserving promising clean energy solutions. And now that work is accomplished.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meehan maintained that he had done nothing wrong, but felt a continued fight against charges would hurt his current staff and constituent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I do believe I would be exonerated of any wrongdoing, I also did not want to put my staff through the rigors of an Ethics Committee investigation and believed it was best for them to have a head start on new employment rather than being caught up in an inquiry,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd since I have chosen to resign, the inquiry will not become a burden to taxpayers and committee staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI will pay $39,000.00 to the U.S. Treasury to reimburse for the severance payment that was made from my office account. That payment will be made within 30 days of my resignation from the House of Representatives. I did not want to leave with any question of violating the trust of taxpayers.<\/span><\/p>\n

While residents of the 7th \u2014 including a large swath of Chester County which will be part of the new 6th District \u2014 will be left with no sitting Congress member until a new one can be elected, Meehan said that constituent services will continue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy resignation will trigger the transition of operations of my offices at the Capitol and in the District to the Clerk of the House. Constituents will continue be served until my successor takes office,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meehan thanked his family for their support.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply grateful to my wife who is so supportive, and who has made many sacrifices in her own career so that I could pursue mine in public service,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI am equally thankful for the unwavering support of my children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the statement, Meehan has no future plans to discuss at this time.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a national level, Republicans appeared to be glad that the issue would be resolved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI fully respect Congressman Meehan\u2019s decision to resign. I\u2019m pleased to hear he will pay back the taxpayer money used for his office\u2019s severance payment. We must continue to hold ourselves to a higher standard,\u201d said National Republican Campaign Chairman Steve Stivers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pennsylvania state law mandates a special election be held within 60 days of Meehan\u2019s resignation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-7) announced Friday that he would immediately resign from office and repay costs from a severance agreement to a former staffer of his who claimed that Meehan had attempted to initiate a romantic relationship with her, and then, when rebuffed, mistreated her. Meehan \u2014 who was facing a House Ethics Committee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7372,320,7426,2132,11137],"class_list":["post-39304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-7th-congressional-district","tag-congress","tag-featured","tag-patrick-meehan","tag-resigns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39304"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39305,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39304\/revisions\/39305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}