Resignation Now Effective Immediately
Seemingly out of the blue Republican Rep. Trent Franks on Thursday shocked Washington when he resigned as an eight-term U.S. Congressman and issued a scrambled and lengthy statement suggesting his staffers, unfamiliar with aspects of surrogacy, misunderstood his intentions. In addition to his odd and defensive statement, Franks announced his resignation would be effective January 31, 2018.
But Friday afternoon Franks, an ultra-hard-core anti-choice conservative, announced his wife was in the hospital and in order to spend time with her he was making his resignation effective immediately.
Shocking new details surrounding his actions, which depart dramatically from Franks’ statement Thursday, are now emerging. Speaker Ryan had said he immediately referred the issue to the House Ethics Committee as a sexual harassment case, and told Franks he needed to resign. It’s becoming clearer why.
“A former aide to Republican Rep. Trent Franks has told The Associated Press the congressman repeatedly pressed her to carry his child, at one point offering her $5 million to act as a surrogate,” the AP reports.
The now-former Arizona Congressman “allegedly made unwanted advances toward female staffers in his office and retaliated against one who rebuffed him, according to House GOP sources with knowledge of a complaint against him,” Politico also reports Friday afternoon.
On Thursday, Franks had claimed, “My wife and I have long struggled with infertility,” and said they had used a “gestational surrogate” to have twins. He added, “our children had made repeated requests…to have at least one additional sibling.”
“Due to my familiarity and experience with the process of surrogacy, I clearly became insensitive as to how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others,” Franks said.
But Politico reports a bit of a different story, saying that “sources said Franks approached two female staffers about acting as a potential surrogate for him and his wife, who has struggled with fertility issues for years.”
“But the aides were concerned that Franks was asking to have sexual relations with them. It was not clear to the women whether he was asking about impregnating the women through sexual intercourse or in vitro fertilization. Franks opposes abortion rights as well as procedures that discard embryos.”Â
A former staffer also alleged that Franks tried to persuade a female aide that they were in love by having her read an article that described how a person knows they’re in love with someone, the sources said. One woman believed she was the subject of retribution after rebuffing Franks. While she enjoyed access to the congressman before the incident, that access was revoked afterward, she told Republican leaders.
Trent Franks has a lengthy history of sponsoring or advocating for anti-LGBT and anti-women legislation.
To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license
If you find NCRM valuable, would you please consider making a donation to support our independent journalism?
Â