Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., announced his retirement from office Dec. 5 while speaking on the Mildred Gaddis Show, a Detroit-based radio program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am retiring today, and I want everyone to know how much I appreciate the support, the incredible undiminished support I have received across the years from my supporters, not only in my district but across the country as well,\u201d said Conyers. \u201cI am in the process of putting my retirement plans together and I will have more about that very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 88-year-old Conyers faced a sexual misconduct scandal in November after BuzzFeed News reported that he had settled a complaint in 2015 from a female staffer alleging that she was fired for rejecting his advances. Since then several women have come forward with allegations of sexual harassment by the congressman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Top Democrats \u2014 such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca.; Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.; and House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. \u2014 called on Conyers to resign in the wake of the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conyers was hospitalized on Nov. 30 due to stress, according to his aides, and made the announcement of his retirement from an undisclosed hospital. According to Conyers\u2019 attorney, Arnold Reid, the congressman felt that it was important to address his constituents in Michigan separately from making the announcement in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Conyers also endorsed his son, John Conyers III, to take his house seat, saying that his family will carry on his legacy of civil rights and judicial reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy legacy can\u2019t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we\u2019re going through now. This too shall pass. And I want you to know that my legacy will go on through my children,\u201d said Conyers, who was first elected in 1964.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though Conyers denied allegations of his sexual misconduct, saying that he \u201ccan\u2019t explain where they came from,\u201d he supported the \u201copening of the books\u201d on similar misconduct payments made by members of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think that there should be a complete disclosure in revealing to all of the citizens of the country of what your federal legislators are doing or not doing and any costs that have been incurred as a result of that,\u201d said Conyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will hold a special election for someone to fill Conyers\u2019 seat for the rest of his term, the timetable for which will be determined after his office receives an official letter of resignation, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking on the Mildred Gaddis Show, a Detroit-based radio program, the Michigan Democrat announced his retirement Tuesday after five decades in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":38,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[38,106,33,9],"tags":[8451],"coauthors":[2853],"class_list":["post-9436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-brief","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight","tag-retirement"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"AE4YAUTCBJAHTKAMLIR35QTVD4","arc_canonical_url":"\/federal-oversight\/congress\/2017\/12\/05\/rep-john-conyers-announces-retirement-amid-sexual-misconduct-allegations\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n