Fist-pounding rage, verbal abuse and raunchy jokes
CNN Exclusive
begin quote from:
A former staffer says Rep. Blake Farenthold's crude remarks drove him to quit
Al Franken's Senate replacement named
Exclusive: Ex-Farenthold aide shares new details of vulgar and abusive behavior
Story highlights
- Michael Rekola was Blake Farenthold's communications director in 2015
- The House Ethics Committee is already investigating Farenthold
WARNING: This story contains graphic language.
(CNN)A former senior aide to Rep. Blake Farenthold has
approached the House Ethics Committee to share a damning account of
working for the Texas Republican, with the intent of describing the
congressman as verbally abusive and sexually demeaning -- and his
congressional office as an intensely hostile environment that drove the
aide to physical and emotional distress.
Michael
Rekola, who was Farenthold's communications director in 2015, described
in an interview with CNN new details of the congressman's abusive
behavior. It ranged from making sexually graphic jokes to berating aides
-- bullying that Rekola says led him to seek medical treatment and
psychological counseling, and at one point, caused him to vomit daily.
One
comment from the congressman was especially personal. Rekola was about
to leave town to get married in July 2015, when, he said, Farenthold,
standing within earshot of other staffers in his Capitol Hill office,
said to the groom-to-be: "Better have your fiancée blow you before she
walks down the aisle -- it will be the last time." He then proceeded to
joke about whether Rekola's now-wife could wear white on her wedding day
-- a clear reference, Rekola said, to whether she had had premarital
sex.
"I
was disgusted and I left. I walked out," Rekola said. Almost
immediately after returning from his wedding, he gave his two-weeks
notice.
Those crude remarks in the
summer of 2015 marked just one of many instances in which Farenthold
made sexually charged comments to or in the presence of aides, Rekola
said. During the nine months that he worked for the congressman, Rekola
said, he was also subject to a stream of angry behavior not sexual in
nature -- screaming fits of rage, slamming fists on desks and
castigating aides, including regularly calling them "f**ktards."
Elizabeth
Peace was hired to help with Farenthold's communications efforts in May
2015 when Rekola was sometimes out of the office to deal with his
stomach ailment. Peace, who eventually became a full-time communications
director, confirmed in an interview that Farenthold regularly called
aides "f**ktards." She also said she was present when Farenthold made
the oral sex comment about Rekola's then-fiancée.
"Every staffer in that area heard it," Peace said. "It was the most shocking thing I'd heard him say at that point."
Michael Rekola was Rep. Blake Farenthold's communications director in 2015.
In
a response to questions from CNN, Farenthold denied in a statement ever
making comments to Rekola about receiving oral sex from his
then-fiancée or whether she could wear a white dress. He acknowledged
that he regularly referred to aides as "f**ktards," but that it was "in
jest, not in anger."
"In hindsight,
I admit it wasn't appropriate," Farenthold said. He also denied that he
engaged in regular verbal abuse of his staff.
Rekola's
interview with CNN is the first time that the 31-year-old Massachusetts
native is speaking out to the media since leaving Farenthold's office
in September 2015. CNN interviewed Rekola's wife, friends and
colleagues, and viewed medical records, photos, correspondence with
friends and colleagues and notes in Rekola's journal to help corroborate
his story.
With his detailed
account of pervasive abuse in Farenthold's office, Rekola is a rare male
staffer to come forward with charges of misconduct. Up to this point,
the people accusing lawmakers of sexual predation and other improper
behavior have almost all been women, though many staffers say Capitol
Hill is an often-hostile workplace for men as well.
As
a part of his decision to speak out about the congressman, Rekola also
approached the House Ethics Committee last week. In an email to a top
aide to GOP Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana, the chairwoman of the Ethics
panel, Rekola wrote that he wished to provide the committee "examples of
sexually inappropriate comments" that Farenthold made, and speak about
the congressman's "emotionally damaging" and "intimidating" actions. The
Brooks aide responded that Rekola's email had been forwarded to the
Ethics Committee's investigative staff, according to the exchange that
CNN viewed.
The
Ethics Committee declined to comment to CNN, per its usual protocol of
not commenting on any ongoing investigations. It is currently
investigating sexual harassment allegations made by Farenthold's former
aide, Lauren Greene. The congressman has previously denied any
wrongdoing in the Greene case.
Rekola
told CNN that in 2015, the media coverage of Greene's lawsuit against
the congressman appeared to fuel Farenthold's erratic and volatile
behavior.
A former aide to GOP Rep.
Darrell Issa of California, Rekola started working for Farenthold in
December 2014 with an explicit mandate to help create positive headlines
for the congressman. Greene's allegations were in the spotlight soon
after Rekola started his job, and he said the congressman grew
increasingly prone to lashing out at staff.
Minor
mistakes or oversights -- a typo or a failure to respond to emails fast
enough, regardless of what hour of the day -- could trigger furious
outbursts.
"Every time he didn't
like something, he would call me a f**ktard or idiot. He would slam his
fist down in rage and explode in anger," Rekola said. "He was flying off
the handle on every little thing. I couldn't find a way to control it."
Farenthold
also frequently made lewd comments about the appearance of women
including reporters and lobbyists, Rekola said, remarking on the size of
women's breasts and buttocks. Some of Rekola's colleagues joked about
being on "redhead patrol" -- a reference to Farenthold's well-known
affinity for women with red hair (this detail was also described in
Greene's lawsuit against Farenthold).
Rep. Blake Farenthold speaks to attendees at a 2015 event in Corpus Christi, Texas.
By
spring 2015, Rekola said, he was suffering from deep anxiety and
chronic stomach pain. In early April, he was dispatched on a multi-day
trip across Farenthold's Texas district. At one community party hosted
aboard the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi on April 9, Rekola said,
Farenthold berated him about social media posts that he was unhappy
with.
Rekola passed out in a
bathroom aboard the aircraft carrier. When he came to, he said, he had
"unbearable pain" in his stomach. He drove himself to a nearby hospital,
with his wife giving him directions on the phone.
Farenthold
and the congressman's wife visited him at the hospital, Rekola said,
and were "super friendly," going out of their way to try to ensure that
the hospital took special care of him.
When
he returned home to Washington, Rekola underwent medical testing and
sought counseling. One doctor who examined him said in one email viewed
by CNN that he believed Rekola's recent history of "anxiety, stress,
reduction in eating," among other factors, could be a cause of his
stomach acid triggered problems.
Two
of Rekola's close friends who worked on Capitol Hill at the time told
CNN that he confided in them throughout 2015 about Farenthold's abusive
behavior and witnessed his deteriorating health. They asked not to be
identified to protect their privacy.
"He looked sick," one of the friends recalled. "His skin was sallow. He lost weight. He had trouble eating."
The
second friend told CNN that she and Rekola took walks within the
Capitol complex and that Rekola would describe Farenthold's bullying.
"The
conversations were often about inappropriate things that he would say,
whether it was sexual humor or really abusive in terms of shouting and
overall anger that's not professional," the friend said. "It's not the
way to treat someone else who's working for you."
Rekola
described 2015 as the darkest period of his life. He said he was
healthy until starting his job at Farenthold's office and began
suffering from stomach pains and daily vomiting.
Farenthold said in the statement to CNN Wednesday that he witnessed Rekola's constant struggle with his stomach ailment.
"We
accommodated him by giving him time to go to the doctor, letting him
work from home, and roughly a year after he left our office, he came in
and spoke with a number of my aides, delighted that the doctors had
finally found out what was causing his stomach distress," Farenthold
said. "It was not stress related, but we recall him saying he was
allergic to anything he ate."
Rekola
said he visited former colleagues at Farenthold's office a handful of
times after leaving his job. He said that he was recently tested for
food allergies and is allergic to some things. While there is no way to
know for sure the exact cause of Rekola's medical problems, he said his
doctor and therapist believed the stomach illness likely stemmed from
stress.
Rekola said he thought
about quitting constantly. But it was a financial move he and his
fiancée could not afford to make at the time, and they decided to stick
it out until at least after the wedding. Rekola said he looked for ways
to spend as little time on Capitol Hill as possible, particularly when
he knew Farenthold would be in the office. He never reported his boss'
behavior to the Office of Compliance.
"I
made a conscientious effort with my then-fiancée at the time, because
our wedding was August 8," Rekola said. "Like any staffer who's been
bullied, I knew that the dirty secret is: There's no remedy for staffers
like us. Move off the Hill and be silent or risk coming out and being
blackballed."
Peace, the
communications director who replaced Rekola and no longer works on
Capitol Hill, maintains that Farenthold never sexually harassed her. But
sexual jokes were a constant in Farenthold's office, she said, as well
as comments about women's appearances, including which congresswomen
Farenthold found to be unattractive. Peace said the congressman would
throw objects in angry bursts, and sometimes wipe all of the objects off
of his desk, leaving aides scrambling to clean up the mess.
Even
as allegations of sexual misconduct have led to the resignations of
three male members of Congress last week -- Democratic Rep. John Conyers
of Michigan, Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota and GOP Rep. Trent
Franks of Arizona -- House Republican leaders have not called on
Farenthold to leave office. Farenthold settled with Greene, with the
former aide receiving $84,000 from a taxpayer fund set up by the Office
of Compliance.
Rekola told CNN
that he has heard from multiple female friends and colleagues in recent
days, encouraging him to share his story. In one text message viewed by
CNN, Rekola's friend wrote: "Dude I'm proud of you. There needs to be
more people, (especially) guys coming forward and saying this has got to
stop, it's not the 1950s anymore where you can play grab ass with all
the secretaries."
Rekola said he
hopes his story can show that "anyone, not just women, can suffer from
either a hostile work environment, bullying or sexual harassment."
"John
Adams said always stand on principle, even if you're standing alone,"
Rekola added. "And I want staffers on Capitol Hill to know that they're
not alone."
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