Sen. Marco Rubio on Saturday night traveled to his home state of Florida from Washington to fire his chief of staff over “allegations of improper conduct,” the Republican lawmaker said.
“Yesterday afternoon, I was made aware, for the first time, of allegations of improper conduct by my Chief of Staff while under the employment of my office,” Rubio said in a statement Saturday. “These allegations were reported directly to me instead of our General Counsel or the Congressional Office of Compliance. Immediately upon receiving this complaint, I along with our General Counsel, began an investigation of this matter.”
Rubio, who did not identity the staffer by name in his statement, further explained, “By early this afternoon, I had sufficient evidence to conclude that while employed by this office, my Chief of Staff had violated office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and their subordinates. I further concluded that this led to actions which in my judgement amounted to threats to withhold employment benefits.”
Rubio, who has held his position in the U.S. Senate since 2011, continued, “This evening, I traveled from Florida to Washington D.C. and terminated his employment effective immediately … We have taken steps to ensure that those impacted by this conduct have access to any services they may require now or in the future.”
“Also, Pursuant to the wishes of those victimized by this conduct, we will not be disclosing any further details about the incidents which occurred,” the statement said.
On Monday morning, Rubio’s office “will be formally notifying the appropriate Congressional and Senate administrative offices of this matter when they return to work,” he said.
