The staff member who accused John Falcicchio, the former chief of staff to Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and deputy mayor, of sexual harassment came forward on Saturday in a first-ever interview to share the alleged lewd and sexually graphic interactions that she experienced.
The anonymous accuser alleged that Falcicchio walked her to the metro one night in September 2022 and then invited her to dinner. The staffer, who was a recent hire still on probation, agreed to go with him to the Crimson Whiskey Bar downtown, where he ordered them several whiskeys and tequila.
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“You can’t tell your bosses we did this,” she alleges that Falcicchio told her that night. The staffer was drunk by midnight and went to his apartment, where he sought to have sex with her and is accused of masturbating in front of her.
Following their first encounter at his apartment, she claims she received a video of him masturbating, among other lewd explicit messages via Snapchat for the next five months. The staffer also accused him of “unwelcome touching of a sexual nature.” She alleged that he sent “unwanted and sexually-charged” messages in addition to “demands for sex and a graphic video.”
The staffer maintains that she never had sex with him but did feign interest to keep her job. In her complaint, she accused him of using the office “as his dating ground.”
Falcicchio abruptly resigned on March 17.
The D.C. Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel shared a report on June 17 about the investigation into the woman’s claims of harassment, and they substantiated that he made “physical sexual advances” and “inappropriate messages” but was not able to substantiate other allegations such as sexual or attraction-based favoritism, bullying, demotion, retaliatory interactions, or threatening behavior.
In the investigation summary, the staffer claimed that he retaliated against her for denying his sexual advances by “manipulating her at work, at times pulling her off staffing for certain events and shunning her.”
While Bowser has openly called her former chief of staff’s behavior “wrong,” she is getting pressure from D.C. Council members for a broader, independent investigation separate from the mayor’s office.
Prominent D.C. columnist Colbert I. King wrote on Friday that the “investigation into ex-Bowser aide can’t be left to the mayor’s staff.”
King called out the hypocrisy of Bower’s former D.C. Attorney General Karl Raccine for launching an investigation into the allegations of Washington Commanders executives.
“Surely D.C. residents and their government need no less dedication from their local chief prosecutor, now D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb (D),” King said. “Does the D.C. government deserve any less scrutiny? If it’s good enough for Snyder and company, ought it not be good enough for Falcicchio and city hall?”
One longtime D.C. political analyst told the Washington Examiner that “the so-called investigation” by Bowser’s administration is “woefully insufficient.”
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“The magnitude of Falcicchio’s abuse of power, and if it included other government officials, can only be known through an inquiry that is led by experienced investigators, not lawyers whose job it is to represent and advise the mayor,” Chuck Thies said.
Thies added, “The DC Council has the authority to investigate the entirety of District government, but so far, they’re all talk and no action. Congress, too, could investigate this mess. Surely if the Council does nothing, many members of Congress will see that as dereliction of duty and, therefore, justification for their own investigation.”
