A far-right activist offered to pay $10,000 for documents implicating Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) in a string of sexual harassment allegations and a financial settlement with one accuser, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Mike Cernovich, a Trump supporter who has previously encouraged conspiracy theories such as “Pizzagate,” provided the documents to BuzzFeed News, which said it then independently confirmed the authenticity of the documents.
Cernovich said in a series of now-deleted tweets last week that he would pay “$10,000 for the details of these settelements. Cash or Bitcoin or check or whatever you want.”
Cernovich declined to say whether he in fact paid anyone, and BuzzFeed did not return a request for comment on whether it was aware of the offer, the newspaper reported.
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The report said Conyers settled a wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015 with a former employee who alleged he fired her because she would not “succumb to [his] sexual advances.”
Other staffers alleged that he made requests for sexual favors, inappropriately touched staffers and used congressional resources to transport women who they believed he was having affairs with at the time.
Conyers, the longest-serving member of the House, said he will “fully cooperate” with an investigation “to the extent the House determines to look further at these issues.”
Earlier in the day, Conyers appeared to deny knowledge of the dismissal settlement, telling The Associated Press he had been “looking at these things in amazement.”
His office issued a statement clarifying that Conyers was confused by the question.