Rep. Nancy Mace particulars accusations of rape and sexual abuse in a speech from the Home flooring

WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., took to the Home flooring Monday evening to accuse 4 males — together with her ex-fiancé — of rape, intercourse trafficking and different intercourse crimes towards her and different feminine victims, which she known as “among the most heinous crimes towards ladies conceivable.” 

Mace additionally accused South Carolina Lawyer Common Alan Wilson, a possible GOP rival for governor in 2026, of failing to prosecute the lads after, she mentioned, she introduced his workplace with proof.   

Mace, who’s in her third time period, made the accusations throughout a greater than 50-minute speech that was attended by a number of GOP colleagues, her mom and a dozen different feminine supporters. 

“I rise as we speak to name out the cowards who suppose they’ll prey on ladies and get away with it. Right now, I’m going scorched earth. So let the bridges I burn this night mild our approach ahead,” she mentioned in her flooring speech. 

“We’re speaking about rape, nonconsensual photographs, nonconsensual movies of ladies and underage women and the premeditated, calculated exploitation of ladies and women in my district,” Mace continued.

All 4 males Mace named on the Home flooring vehemently denied the allegations to NBC Information. 

Mace’s former fiancé, Patrick Bryant, a Charleston software program entrepreneur, mentioned in an announcement: “I categorically deny these allegations. I take this matter severely and can cooperate totally with any obligatory authorized processes to clear my identify.”

Mace is broadly anticipated to leap into the 2026 race for governor, and considered one of her potential rivals is Wilson, the legal professional common, who’s the son of Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C.

In her speech, Mace accused Alan Wilson of delaying an investigation into the allegations after she handed over graphic movies, photographs and different proof of the lads raping her and others, in addition to pictures of underage women, final yr. 

Lots of the particulars Mace shared had been extraordinarily graphic. She mentioned that in November 2023, her ex-fiancé gave her entry to his cellphone. On it, she mentioned, she found movies of “incapacitated” ladies being raped. To her shock, considered one of them was her, she mentioned. 

“I turned up the amount to listen to if there was audio. I heard my voice. I zoomed in on the video. And that girl was me,” Mace mentioned. “My whole physique was paralyzed, and I couldn’t transfer. Had been my toes on the ground? Was I respiratory? I do not know.”

When she turned over the proof, Mace mentioned, Wilson’s workplace instructed her that she can be investigated.

“Ladies who come ahead in your system are handled like criminals beneath your management, in your system and in your watch. Lawyer Common Alan Wilson, you realize there have been deliberate delays in an investigation in what I turned over,” Mace mentioned. “200 and twenty-eight days of delay. And you realize this, 228 days of delay. That’s seven months, two weeks and 4 days of delay to analyze. As soon as once more, as we speak, you’re kicking the can down the highway such as you all the time do.”

Mace made her remarks throughout “common speeches,” a time when any lawmaker can go to the Home flooring and converse on any matter. Home guidelines prohibit lawmakers from impugning different members of Congress in speeches, however they don’t say something about different residents.

Wilson’s workplace issued a prolonged assertion Monday evening calling Mace’s accusations that the workplace did not act “categorically false.” 

“Ms. Mace both doesn’t perceive or is purposefully mischaracterizing the function of the Lawyer Common. Presently, our workplace has not obtained any reviews or requests for help from any legislation enforcement or prosecution businesses relating to these issues. Moreover, the Lawyer Common and members of his workplace have had no function and no data of those allegations till her public statements,” Wilson’s workplace mentioned.

The workplace’s assertion added that Mace and the legal professional common have attended “a number of occasions collectively during the last six months” and that Mace has Wilson’s cellphone quantity however has by no means spoken to him concerning the issues. The workplace mentioned it might all the time direct residents who’ve proof of crimes to their native legislation enforcement businesses, which might be accountable for the investigations.

“It’s clear that Lawyer Common Alan Wilson has constructed his profession on defending probably the most weak in our state; any assertion in any other case is blatantly false and politically motivated,” his workplace mentioned.

As a state lawmaker in 2019, throughout a contentious debate over a proposed abortion ban in South Carolina, Mace pushed for an exception for rape and incest and publicly mentioned for the primary time that she had been a sufferer of rape when she was simply 16 years outdated.