The Senate Ethics Committee has announced it will not investigate allegations of sexual harassment against Sen. Brock Adams, D-Wash., because no complaint has been filed of any incident since he began his Senate service in 1987.
The decision came Friday in a letter to Louise Chernin and Thalia Syracopoulos, co-sponsors of the Seattle chapter of the National Organization for Women, who had requested an investigation based on a series of newspaper articles quoting women who claimed they were sexually harassed by by Adams. None of the women was identified.The Ethics Committee said the only instance of alleged harassment that occured since Adams started in the Senate was investigated by the U.S. attorney's office which "concluded that the case was without merit."
The letter said, "While it is not bound by the decision of the U.S. attorney, the committee is not aware of any evidence different from that on which the U.S. attorney's office based its conclusion."
"Moreover, in the five years since the incident allegedly occured, the committee has never received any indication of a desire to initiate proceedings here," the committee said.
Since the articles appeared in the Seattle Times, Adams has announced he will not seek re-election but has resisted calls to resign.