Eric Massa - Resignation

Resignation

Massa announced on March 5, 2010, that he would resign his seat in Congress effective 5:00 p.m. on March 8, 2010. In a published statement on his website, Massa identified his declining health and the ongoing ethics investigation as the reasons for his departure. He apologized in response to the sexual harassment complaint, saying that "There is no doubt in my mind that I did in fact, use language in the privacy of my own home and in my inner office that, after 24 years in the navy, might make a Chief Petty Officer feel uncomfortable. In fact, there is no doubt that this ethics issue is my fault and mine alone."

On March 7, 2010, in his weekly radio address on WKPQ, Massa accused White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel of orchestrating the ethics investigation in an effort to intimidate other first-term Democrats who oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Massa claimed that there was a conspiracy "to oust him because he had voted against overhauling health care." Massa placed specific blame for his resignation on Emanuel, stating that Emanuel "is the son of the devil’s spawn... He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive." Massa also commented on the following alleged confrontation with Emanuel in the congressional gym locker room: "I am sitting there showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me because I wasn't going to vote for the president's budget... He goes there to intimidate members of Congress... He's hated me since day one, and now he wins. He'll get rid of me, and this bill will pass." A Democratic spokesperson denied the existence of the alleged conspiracy.

On March 10, 2010, The Washington Post reported that Massa was under investigation for allegations that he had groped multiple male staffers working in his office. In the Washington Post article,

The freshman Democrat told Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck that "not only did I grope, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe," then said hours later on CNN's "Larry King Live" that "it is not true" that he groped anyone on his staff.

He told Beck that he resigned from the House because he made the mistake of "getting too familiar with my staff" members, but he told King that he left primarily for health reasons. Massa, 50, has survived non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but he said he is afraid that he is facing his "third major cancer-recurrence scare."

Massa claims that he contemplated vehicular suicide at least twice on his way back to his home in Corning, New York, following his resignation. As of June 2012, he resides in Corning and is unemployed. He has refused to grant interviews to the press since his resignation. Later campaign finance filings revealed that his campaign funds were being used to fund his wife's salary well after his resignation, as well as to pay legal fees stemming from disputes with his staffers.