The Congressman whose posts on Flyertalk are being used in a sexual harassment suit against him by a former staffer has filed his formal response to the suit.
The frequent flyer forum postings were certainly interesting musings, sometimes lascivious boastings that were probably not believed by most at the time they were posted (and before he was a Republican Member of Congress from Texas).
In the Congressman’s legal response, he:
- Admits he finds redheads attractive, though claims staff didn’t have to be “on redhead patrol” to keep him out of trouble as the suit alleges.
- Admits telling staff about being propositioned for a threesome, but denies the woman suggesting it was a lobbyist.
- Denies having sexual fantasies and dreams about the former staffer that is suing him.
The entire pleading makes for an interesting read (I haven’t commented on the graphic stuff..), doubly so because it is drafted on behalf of the Congressman by attorneys employed by the House of Representatives.
Actually, the lesson to be learned if Flyertalk doesn’t want to be subpoena’d in the future: Do not have these eternal posts and threads if you want to create a welcoming environment for discussion. The lawyers could not have pulled Flyertalk into this if FT had taken the simple precaution of deleting all material after a reasonable amount of time. Travel discussion and deals are time sensitive, and there was never anything good that comes from a site holding onto ancient posts from a decade gone by.
@prach – hate to tell you this, but it’s there forever, even if Flyertalk deletes old posts. Maybe a bit herder to find, but it’s there . . .