Conyers supporters call for due process at rally

Supporters of Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) are demanding due process for the longtime lawmaker, saying at a rally in Detroit on Monday that accusations of sexual misconduct should be investigated before there are calls for him to resign. 

More than 200 people showed up at the rally to support the longest-serving current member of the House, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The more than a dozen speakers told the crowd that while Conyers’s accusers should not be forgotten, the Michigan Democrat deserves due process, the newspaper said.

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“We have one commonality today and it is called due process. Why is it that John Conyers is the only individual to be denied due process?” said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, head of the NAACP’s Detroit chapter, according to the report.

“It is my belief that good intentions have turned into mob rule. It is a false dichotomy that you support his right to due process or you support his accusers,” said the Rev. Christian Adams, who leads the Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, where the rally was held.

A flurry of lawmakers — including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) — publicly called for Conyers to step down after several women came forward and accused him of sexual misconduct.

Conyers has repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing.

Late last month, Conyers announced he would resign from his powerful post as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee amid a House Ethics Committee investigation into the accusations.

Melanie Sloan, a Washington-based ethics lawyer, last month publicly accused Conyers of becoming “increasingly abusive” toward her while she worked for him from 1995 to 1998.

Sloan said she felt the need to come forward after BuzzFeed News published a report that Conyers settled a wrongful dismissal complaint for nearly $27,000 with an unidentified former employee in 2015 over allegations of sexual harassment.