Conyers accuser: Young women on Capitol Hill like ‘shooting ducks’

One of the women who has accused Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) of sexual misconduct in a recent interview compared young females on Capitol Hill to “shooting ducks.”

“And I’m really trying to stand up for them because they are vulnerable. They come in Capitol Hill with their eyes just fresh as interns and fellows and hiring on to staff,” Deanna Maher told Fox News’s “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”

“And it’s very exciting and glamorous to be part of Capitol Hill, the congressional hearings. And this is where they are — they are just shooting ducks.” 

Maher’s comparison appeared to have a meaning similar to the idiom, “sitting ducks,” essentially meaning that women are easy targets.

{mosads}Maher, who worked for Conyers from 1997-2005 in a state office, accused the lawmaker of sexual misconduct in a report earlier this week by The Detroit News.

Maher told the newspaper that Conyers on one occasion propositioned her to stay in his hotel room and touched her inappropriately on two other occasions.

Arnold Reed, a lawyer for Conyers, cast doubt on the claims from Maher.

“At best, they are uncorroborated. At worst, they’re just not believable,” the lawyer told The Detroit News.

Conyers stepped down from his post as the House Judiciary Committee’s ranking member earlier this week. The congressman last week acknowledged that in 2015 he settled a wrongful dismissal complaint, but denied the sexual harassment accusations levied against him.

The House Ethics Committee said last week that it had opened an investigation into the accusations.