A Senate staffer accused of filming himself having sex in a congressional hearing room is threatening legal action after getting fired.
The explicit footage, published by the Daily Caller on Friday, shows two men having sex in what appears to be Hart 216, the judiciary room. Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a legislative aide for Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, was widely named on social media as one of the men in the footage.
Cardin’s office told Politico that “Aidan Maese-Czeropski is no longer employed by the US Senate”.
Capitol police said they were aware of the matter and were looking into it.
The room carries significant historical distinctions. It hosted the 9/11 commission hearings, and James Comey, the former FBI director, gave his testimony on Donald Trump there in 2017. The then Senate majority leader Tom Daschle received an anthrax-laced letter there in October 2001 just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the room saw supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina to attend nomination hearings for the nation’s highest court.
In a LinkedIn post, Maese-Czeropski did not address the video directly but said he was going through a difficult time.
“While some of my actions in the past have shown poor judgement, I love my job and would never disrespect my workplace,” he wrote. “Any attempts to characterize my actions otherwise are fabricated and I will be exploring what legal options are available to me in these matters.”
In the LinkedIn post, Maese-Czeropski also addressed an unrelated accusation that he accosted congressman Max Miller on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Miller, who is Jewish, was speaking to a journalist when a staffer allegedly confronted him to shout “Free Palestine”.
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“As for the accusations regarding Congressman Max Miller, I have never seen the congressman and had no opportunity or cause to yell or confront him,” Maese-Czeropski said.
Cardin chairs the Senate foreign relations committee. His office told the Washington Examiner in a statement on Friday: “We have seen media reports. As this is a personnel matter and under review, we will not be commenting further at this time.”