Report: Pelosi aide was told of Massa charges

The chief of staff for former Rep. Erica Massa (D-N.Y.) informed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) office in October 2009 of complaints about Massa's inappropriate behavior, The Washington Post reported Wednesday evening.

An unnamed source told the Post that Joe Racalto, Massa's former chief of staff, told Pelosi's director of member services that the 50-year-old ex-congressman was living in a house with several male aides and he used foul language around them. Racalto decided to report the behavior when Massa invited to lunch a staffer in his 20s who worked for Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

Here is more from the Post:

According to a person briefed on the call, Racalto was concerned that the lunch followed a pattern by Massa — who is married and has two children — of trying to spend time alone with young gay men with no ostensible work purpose. Racalto, according to this person, also alerted Frank's chief of staff. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the political sensitivity of the matter.

The New York Democrat resigned on Monday amid an ethics investigation. Massa appeared on two cable television shows Tuesday to give his side of the story just after it was reported that he was under investigation for groping male staffers.

On Fox News, Massa admitted to "tickl[ing]" a staffer at Massa's 50th birthday party "until he couldn’t breathe" but said that he did nothing sexual.

But the fact that Pelosi's office knew about other, related complaints in October could cause greater scrutiny of the incident just as the House ethics committee shuttered its probe of Massa. The ethics panel only investigates sitting members of the House, other officials and employees.

House Republicans are considering calling for a probe into Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's (D-Md.) knowledge and handling of the complaints.

Hoyer's office has said that a Massa aide informed him of the former congressman's inappropriate behavior on Feb. 8, about four months after Pelosi's office knew of the separate but related information. Hoyer said that he informed the aide to report the matter to the ethics committee within 48 hours or else he would do so.