Texas U.S. Congressman Blake Farenthold (R-Corpus Christi) is currently withholding a reimbursement he pledged to make after it was revealed that he used taxpayer dollars to settle a sexual harassment complaint.
According to the Hill, Farenthold has not yet paid back the $84,000 settlement after pledging to last month. Farenthold's communications director, Stacey Daniels, says that Farenthold is moving forward under the guidance of counsel in waiting to see what reforms lawmakers make to the House's misconduct policy before repaying the settlement.
Farenthold told KRIS-TV last month that he plans to present a check to Speaker Paul Ryan reimbursing taxpayers for the settlement.
"I'm ... going to hand a check over this week to probably Speaker Ryan or somebody and say, 'Look, here's the amount of my settlement. Give it back to the taxpayers. I want to be clear that I didn't do anything wrong, but I also don't want the taxpayers to be on the hook for this,'" Farenthold told the television station.
Farenthold has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2011, representing the Corpus Christi area.
