The Office of House Employment Counsel brokered a settlement in 2006 over allegations that Rep. Gregory Meeks fired a staffer in retaliation for reporting that she was sexually assaulted at a business tied to a campaign contributor, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. Andrea Payne, then a congressional aide in the New York Democrat’s Queens office, filed a complaint with the Office of Compliance, and Meeks fired her weeks later. He admitted that Payne’s termination did not have to do with the quality of her work, according to her lawsuit.