WASHINGTON — Rep. Chuck Edwards defended himself to his House colleagues this week by telling them that he bought a gun for a male staffer — not just the two women formerly on his staff that he’s accused of sexually harassing.

And to both male and female employees, he says he gifted wine, olive oil, cookware, rum and Kennedy Center tickets.

On Aug. 5, the House Ethics Committee recommended Edwards, 60, a married Republican from Flat Rock, for censure after finding “substantial evidence” that he sexually harassed two female staffers 40 years his junior and created a hostile work environment — which coincided with an almost complete turnover of his office’s employees.

Edwards has continually denied the allegations, the first of which became public through Axios’ reporting in April, and defended himself by saying he neither had sexual contact with nor propositioned the two women so he did not sexually harass them.

“An affectionate friendship is not a sexual proposition,” he wrote in Tuesday’s letter.

“A gift is not sexual misconduct.”

“A compliment is not sexual misconduct.”

“Poetry is not sexual misconduct.”

“Socializing with a colleague is not sexual misconduct.”

“Caring deeply about someone with whom you have worked and come to know for years is not sexual misconduct,” Edwards finishes.

This is part of a six-page letter in a 22-page report Edwards released this week on why he doesn’t deserve to be censured.

Following the ethics committee’s release of its report, Edwards chose to end his reelection campaign, but fulfill his term that ends in early January. That means Edwards could still face censure.

For one of its members to be censured, the House must take a vote. And if they vote for his censure, Edwards would be brought to the center front of the House and the allegations against him would be publicly read. If he fails to show up for his censure, he can be arrested and brought in for the proceedings.

Several groups within Congress called for his censure, with one lawmaker even calling for his removal, prior to his decision to walk away from his campaign. It’s not clear what House members plan to do as they return from their August recess next week.

But Edwards did what he could to convince them he’s innocent, including sending a news release about his letter to the media.

“(The committee) takes conduct that was not prohibited, removes important contextual evidence, identifies communications that ‘could be interpreted as romantic,’ aggregates them, and then makes an extraordinary leap to the profoundly damaging characterization of sexual harassment — despite finding no sexual activity or proposition or harrasement,” Edwards wrote, misspelling the last word. “That is not simply a disagreement over interpretation.”

The House Ethics Committee found Edwards did not take responsibility for what he did and even at times tried to cover it up, or make it look like the women were responsible by deleting text messages, the committee wrote in its report.

In the letter, he again pointed to what the staffers themselves did, saying they bought him:

—An NFL jersey

—Bourbon

—Whiskey

—Custom throw blankets

—Whiskey glasses

—A taxidermied animal

—Wall plaques

Edwards wrote that he gave the committee 186,000 communications and documents that supported his assertion that he had a father/daughter and mentor/mentee relationship with the women.

In the House ethics report, one of the women testified that Edwards saw her as “a daughter-figure.” But after he sent someone to publicly serenade her at her birthday party, she texted a friend that she no longer believed that was “just” how he viewed her and that she was “scared lowkey.”

The ethics report also detailed how the women were made uncomfortable by Edwards’ actions toward them and how a senior staffer tried to intervene, but Edwards became angry.

Edwards told fellow House members that nothing prohibits members and staff from being friends, socializing together or genuinely and deeply caring about people with whom they work closely for years.

“The report repeatedly relies upon interactions that it says ‘could be interpreted as romantic,’” Edwards wrote. “But something that could be interpreted as romantic is worlds apart from establishing an unwanted sexual advance.”

And he says the House rules allow him to give gifts to established friends.

“The committee essentially moved from this might be interpreted as romantic to therefore this constituted sexual harassment — without first establishing the sexual conduct, proposition or unwanted advance that one would reasonably expect to support such a grave conclusion,” Edwards wrote.

Edwards asked his colleagues to look at his actions individually before deciding his fate.

“I am not asking anyone to approve of every gift, compliment, friendship, social interaction or personal communication described in the thousands of pages of material,” Edwards wrote. “I am asking you to distinguish between conduct that someone, examining isolated excerpts after the fact, might consider unconventional and conduct that actually establishes sexual harassment.”

_____

©2026 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.