This whole thing is wrong but you naysayers are right about one thing; it was his decision to make and he made it to quit rather than fight this nonsense. Politico had a fair write-up.
In a lengthy statement, Franks said he wanted to take “full and personal responsibility for the ways I have broached a topic that, unbeknownst to me until very recently, made certain individuals uncomfortable.” He said he and his wife had “long struggled with infertility” and gone through three miscarriages. They tried to adopt children multiple times, only to have the birth mothers renege before giving birth.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/07/trent-franks-expected-to-resign-286967
I never accused him of Abuse or Assault, but you can’t say he “did nothing wrong”. To approach and underling and ask them to do something like that puts them in a compromised position... He should have realized this. This isn’t a situation where you are asking a friend or associate you are asking and employee to do something for you that has nothing to do with their job... Doing that puts anyone into a bad position because their decision is not simply do I do it or not, it’s, if I don’t do it I’ll it hurt me professionally.
I agree it’s not assault or abuse, but it was wrong for him to have done it and had he done it only once you could use it as a teachable moment. If he was doing it repeatedly, that’s beyond a teachable moment.
It was poor decision making on his part, does it make him an abuser? No, but he clearly engaged in activity that was less than professional , and like it or not that unprofessional behavior clearly was of a sexual nature. I am sure his intentions were not nepharious, but it doesn’t mean it was appropriate or right.