Massa, D-N.Y., resigned from Congress on Monday.
"Aides to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew of concerns about the behavior of former Rep. Eric Massa months earlier than Ms. Pelosi previously acknowledged, a senior Democratic leadership aide said Wednesday," The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Washington Post says that "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office was notified in October by then-Rep. Eric Massa's top aide of concerns about the New York Democrat's behavior, two congressional sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday night."
In both stories, it's reported that Massa's chief of staff told a Pelosi aide that he was concerned about the congressman's living arrangements — Massa was sharing quarters with several young, unmarried aides — and the upstate New York lawmaker's salty, sometimes sexually explicit language.
The Post adds that the chief of staff, Joe Racalto, also was troubled by "a lunch date that Massa made with a congressional aide in his 20s who worked in the office of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass." The newspaper adds that:
"According to a person briefed on the call (to Pelosi's office), Racalto was concerned that the lunch followed a pattern by Massa — who is married and has two children — of trying to spend time alone with young gay men with no ostensible work purpose. Racalto, according to this person, also alerted Frank's chief of staff. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the matter."
In the Journal story, Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly says that as soon as "serious allegations" were brought to the Democratic leadership's attention, action was taken: "In February, when serious allegations against Mr. Massa were brought to the attention of Leader (Steny) Hoyer and a member of our staff for the first time, the staff concurred that an ethics investigation was the proper course of action."
If you need to catch up on the Massa story, our posts here and here should be of help.
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