Two months after a discrimination lawsuit accused Rep. Blake Farenthold of creating a hostile, sexually charged work environment, the Texas Republican claims his former communications director was fired for not showing up to work and lying about the circumstances of her absence.
In a detailed, 14-page response filed by attorneys from the Office of House Employment Counsel, Farenthold, 53, denied that he was attracted to 27-year-old staffer Lauren Greene or that he had the “sexual fantasies” and “wet dreams” Greene alleged in her complaint.
The document filed in D.C. federal court on Thursday acknowledges some of the eyebrow-raising details described by the fired press aide are true.
Staff “occasionally joked” that Farenthold finds redheads attractive, but the office denies Greene’s claims that staffers who accompanied him to Capitol Hill functions would joke that they had to be on “red head patrol” to keep him out of trouble, or that the three-term lawmaker drank to excess.
Did Farenthold once, disclose during a staff meeting, that he had been propositioned for a threesome? His office admits that one is true, but denies that the woman who propositioned Farenthold was a lobbyist, and rejects Greene’s claim that he told his staff about the proposition for “an improper or lascivious purpose.”
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