WASHINGTON — Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., facing backlash after settling a sexual harassment complaint brought by a former aide, will not seek re-election this year.
Meehan informed Speaker Paul Ryan of his decision Thursday, a spokesman for Ryan said.
The decision is an abrupt reversal for Meehan, 62, who had insisted this week that he intended to run for re-election to a fifth term representing his suburban Philadelphia district.
Meehan, a father of three, had faced increasing pressure to step down after The New York Times revealed Saturday that he had used taxpayer money to settle a complaint brought by a female aide decades his junior. She had accused him of making unwanted romantic overtures toward her, then becoming hostile when she rebuffed him.
Meehan and his representatives did not respond to requests for comment Thursday evening.
But in a letter sent Thursday to his campaign chairman, Meehan wrote that “recent events concerning my office and the settlement of certain harassment allegations have become a major distraction,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, which obtained a copy of the letter. “I need to own it because it is my own conduct that fueled the matter.”
In an interview Tuesday with The Times, Meehan denied harassing the aide. Instead, he asserted that she “specifically invited” his intimate communications, which included conversations and a letter in which he professed his affection for her — calling her “a complete partner to me” — after he learned that she had developed a serious relationship with a man closer to her age.
Meehan, who had taken a leading role in fighting sexual harassment in Congress, had become increasingly politically isolated since the settlement was revealed.
He was stripped of his position on the House Ethics Committee by Ryan, who also said that Meehan should repay the amount of the settlement.
And on Monday, the committee announced that it had started an investigation into the aide’s accusations and the possibility that Meehan had “misused official resources” by using funds from his congressional office to settle the complaint. If Meehan remains in Congress through the end of his term, the Ethics Committee would retain jurisdiction to continue its investigation.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.