'You'll give me drinks but you won't f*** me!' Director at Office of Congressional Ethics accused of 'verbally and physically abusing' owner of Pennsylvania bar and left 'her fearing for her life'

  • Omar Ashmawy is staff director of the Office of Congressional Ethics
  • A lawsuit accuses him of verbally and physically abusing women at a Pennsylvania bar in 2015
  • Bar owner's wife said 'billigerent' Ashmawy was ' clearly sexually harassing' bartender
  • Bartender said she feared for her life 
  • Responds that he 'was the victim of a wholly unprovoked assault for which those responsible were investigated, arrested and charged' 
  • Two men dragged Ashmawy out of the bar and he got beat up
  • Three men were charged with assault and one is suing Ashmawy 
  • Invoked his credentials to try to prod police investigation 

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.s. Political Editor For Dailymail.com

Published: | Updated:

The top staffer on an independent panel investigating the swarm of allegations against members of Congress has himself been accused of harassing and assaulting women at a Pennsylvania bar.

Omar Ashmawy is staff director of the Office of Congressional Ethics, a panel created after a wave of ethics scandals to provide independent voice in ethical conduct of lawmakers.

On Valentine's day on 2015, he visited the Dimmick Inn in Milford, Pa., when the highly-paid staffer took his girlfriend for drinks.

By the end of the night, three men were arrested for assaulting Ashmawy, Foreign Policy reported.

Omar Ashmawy, the taff director of the Office of Congressional Ethics, is accused in a lawsuit of harassing and verbally abusing two women at a Pennsylvania bar. Three men are accused of beating him up the night of the alleged incident

Omar Ashmawy, the taff director of the Office of Congressional Ethics, is accused in a lawsuit of harassing and verbally abusing two women at a Pennsylvania bar. Three men are accused of beating him up the night of the alleged incident

One of them, Greg Martucci, claims in a federal lawsuit that before the alleged assault, Ashmawy was 'clearly sexually harassing' the Inn's bartender, Joey Lynn Smith.

'You'll give me drinks, but you won't f*** me,' Martucci claims Ashmawy complained to his server.

According to the suit, Martucci witnessed 'an extremely violent and belligerent' Ashmawy get verbally abusive toward Smith and Dawn Jorgenson, the wife of the owner.  

Another woman who was there, Christina Floyd, also also complained Ashmawy was abusive in a statement given to police reviewed by the publication.

'I am a 5 foot 3 woman who never knew this man. I was very scared of him and was afraid he'd come back around for weeks after,' Floyd wrote police a month after the incident.

The incident happened at the Dimmick Inn in Milford Pennsylvania

The incident happened at the Dimmick Inn in Milford Pennsylvania

Omar Ashmawy, staff director at the Office of Congressional Ethics

Omar Ashmawy, staff director at the Office of Congressional Ethics

'I have never had a man physically harm me or scare me in that matter. He was sexually harassing, abusing and I feared for my life.'

Ashmawy disputed the accounts and noted that he wasn't arrested while his alleged attackers were.

'To be clear, I did not harass anyone that evening, physically or verbally,' he wrote Foreign Policy. 'To the contrary, I was the victim of a wholly unprovoked assault for which those responsible were investigated, arrested and charged. Any allegation to the contrary is unequivocally false.'

The suit also charged Ashmawy used his position as a Capitol investigator to try to prod the local police to act.

The suit accuses him of 'threatening to use his position as staff director and chief counsel of the Office of Congressional Ethics to induce a criminal proceeding to be brought against Plaintiff and/or others.'

According to the LegiStorm site, Ashmawy earns $168,000 per year in his position, which has lead him to open probes into a number of powerful lawmakers.

Ashmawy has moved to dismiss the suit, and other witnesses corroborate at least part of his story. 

His legal brief says a witness 'called 911 after witnessing Defendant Ashmawy be attacked by three men and then one of the men involved in the attack dragging him outside.'

According to the brief the witness said it seemed like the men set up Ashmawy 'to get jumped.'

In a statement to police, he wrote that there had been a 'previous altercation' between his girlfriend and the bartender, who 'spoke fighting words to me' and that two other women “abruptly came up to me.'

He wrote that three men assaulted him, choked him, and threw him to the ground.  

'My handwriting is affected by the fact that I have only the sight of one eye and I’m bleeding from multiple wounds to include my eye and my lip,” he wrote.

The Office of Congressional Ethics did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the incident. 

 

 

 

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