Rubio Chief of Staff Fired for ‘Improper Conduct’ with Subordinate

Late Saturday night, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced he fired his chief of staff for violating “office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and subordinates.”

In the statement released by his office, Rubio said he traveled from Florida to Washington, D.C. to fire chief of staff Clint Reed. Reed had been serving as Rubio’s chief of staff since the beginning of 2017.

Statement as follows:

“Yesterday afternoon, I was made aware, for the first time, of allegations of improper conduct by my Chief of Staff while under the employment of my office. These allegations were reported directly to me instead of our General Counsel or the Congressional Office of Compliance. Immediately upon receiving this complaint, I along with our General Counsel, began an investigation of this matter.

“By early this afternoon, I had sufficient evidence to conclude that while employed by this office, my Chief of Staff had violated office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and their subordinates. I further concluded that this led to actions which in my judgement amounted to threats to withhold employment benefits.

“This evening, I traveled from Florida to Washington D.C. and terminated his employment effective immediately.

“We have taken steps to ensure that those impacted by this conduct have access to any services they may require now or in the future. Pursuant to the wishes of those victimized by this conduct, we will not be disclosing any further details about the incidents which occurred. We will be formally notifying the appropriate Congressional and Senate administrative offices of this matter when they return to work Monday morning.”

Before serving as Rubio’s chief of staff, Reed was the campaign manager for Rubio’s 2016 U.S. Senate reelection bid and worked on his failed 2016 presidential campaign.

According to Politico’s Marc Caputo, deputy chief of staff Jessica Fernandez will serve as Rubio’s interim chief of staff.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor