Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., accused her former fiancé and three other men of drugging and raping her and filming assaults of other women without their consent in a stunning speech on the House floor Monday—drawing denials from all four men.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., talks with a reporter after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ... [+]
Declaring she was going “scorched earth,” Mace told her colleagues she was “unveiling evil in the state of South Carolina,” before alleging that she found lewd photos of herself and underage women, along with more than 10,000 videos of assaults of apparently incapacitated women, on a cellphone that belonged to her ex, Patrick Bryant, in 2023.
Bryant assaulted Mace a week later, she said in the speech, displaying photographs of him and the three other South Carolina men—Eric Bowman, Brian Musgrave and John Osborne—she said were business associates of Bryant’s, accusing them of “premeditated calculated exploitation of women and girls in my district.”
Mace also said she was raped by someone in 2022 at one of Bryant’s Isle of Palms properties after blacking out from only two drinks, alleging, “they purposely incapacitated” her and questioning whether “it was filmed” or “sold on the dark web.”
Bryant told The New York Times in a statement later Monday: “I categorically deny these allegations” and “take this matter seriously and will cooperate fully with any necessary legal processes to clear my name.”
Musgrave called Mace’s claims “a dangerous mix of falsehoods and baseless accusations” in a statement to The Post and Courier, Osborne said they were “categorically untrue” and Bowman told the paper, “I unequivocally deny all the allegations” and plans to take legal action.
Mace did not answer follow-up questions from reporters after the speech and she did not display any direct evidence of her accusations, but said she has supporting material in her possession.
By giving the speech on the House floor, Mace is protected by the Constitution’s speech and debate clause that prevents lawmakers from criminal or civil legal action for official legislative acts.
Mace accused AG Alan Wilson of being a “do-nothing attorney general” and failing to adequately investigate her allegations. Wilson’s office called the allegations “categorically false” in a statement. Wilson spokesperson Jaqueline Lane told The Times the office first learned of Mace’s claims from her floor speech Monday, noting that Mace and Wilson regularly attend the same events and Mace has Wilson’s cellphone number, but she has never reached out to express her concerns.
A staunch Trump ally, Mace was elected to Congress in 2020 after serving two years in the South Carolina state legislature. While she strongly condemned Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and refused to support his claims of fraud in the 2020 election, she defended Trump against his federal criminal cases and endorsed his 2024 election bid. Mace recently made headlines for introducing legislation to ban transgender women from accessing women’s bathrooms at the Capitol. Mace, 47 and the first female graduate of the Citadel’s Corps of Cadets program, has cast herself as a women’s rights advocate and broken with her party to oppose strict abortion limitations, like Florida’s six-week ban, though she has also described herself as “staunchly pro-life.” She worked in public relations prior to her involvement in politics.
In 2019, Mace revealed she was raped at the age of 16 in a speech before the South Carolina state legislature in support of exceptions to the state’s abortion ban for rape and incest. Mace has also previously said she was molested at a swimming pool at the age of 14.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) spokesperson Renée Wunderlich told the Washington Post in a statement it opened an investigation into Bryant in 2023 after receiving information related to “allegations of assault, harassment, and voyeurism” from Capitol police. No charges have been brought.
Bryant is the co-founder of a Charleston-based software development company and Media Content Services, a television production company, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Mace Takes to House Floor With Charges of Rape and Sexual Predation (New York Times)
Nancy Mace makes House speech accusing ex-fiancé, others of raping women (Washington Post)
Rep. Nancy Mace details accusations of rape and sexual abuse in a speech from the House floor (NBC)