WASHINGTON — Disgraced former New York Democratic Rep. Eric Massa admitted yesterday to aggressively tickling one of his male staffers nearly to tears at a party, but strenuously denied it was a sexual advance.
Massa’s defense came just hours after it was reported that the House Ethics Committee has been investigating the 20-year Navy veteran for allegedly groping multiple male staffers.
The allegations involve “a pattern of behavior and physical harassment,” the Washington Post quoted a source as saying. Massa resigned Monday.
“I never should have allowed myself to be so familiar with my staff,” Massa, from upstate Corning, told Glenn Beck on Beck’s Fox News show.
Massa said of his resignation: “I wasn’t forced out. I forced myself out.”