South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace’s ex-fiancé filed a retaliatory lawsuit in opposition to her on Thursday, claiming that she inaccurately portrayed him as a sexual predator as half of a bigger scheme she concocted with a buddy’s estranged spouse.
Businessman Patrick Bryant filed the lawsuit within the Palmetto State’s Charleston County on Thursday.
In it, he accuses Mace of organizing an elaborate ploy to take him and Eric Bowman, a mutual acquaintance, down by means of a fabricated assault story the congresswoman explosively revealed in a speech on the Home flooring in February.
Mace delivered the impassioned speech in February the place she outed 4 males she accused of drugging, molesting and filming a number of feminine victims, together with herself.
Bryant, her ex-flame, was among the many males she accused. The pair broke up in November 2023 throughout what he described as a interval of heightened paranoia that pushed Mace to hack his telephone and place a tracker in his automotive, based on the grievance obtained by WCSC.
Bryant claimed he discovered Mace sifting by means of his telephone and accused her of putting in a secret app to pilfer footage and different knowledge with out his information.
Whereas the dispute was ongoing, he alleged Mace and Bowman’s estranged spouse cooked up an elaborate ploy to persuade an unnamed Jane Doe — who beforehand labored for the businessman — that they discovered a video of the worker being “gang raped” on his telephone.
From there, the congrsswoman allegedly informed the “impressionable” Doe that the video was taken at Bowman’s house and that he, Bryant, and John Osborne had been all concerned within the act, based on the grievance.
The sufferer insisted she had no thought what they had been speaking about and had no reminiscence of the incident, however Mace saved pushing and mentioned she had proof, based on the lawsuit.
“What Mace didn’t inform Doe is that she concocted a complete false narrative of an assault, to blackmail Bryant, acquire leverage of their separation proceedings, and attempt to smash Bryant for her private acquire,” based on the lawsuit.
The Doe sufferer filed her personal lawsuit in opposition to Bryant, Bowman and Osborne in Could. In it, they’re every being sued for battery, conspiracy and inflicting emotional misery, with the Doe claiming she was raped and photographed whereas incapacitated at Bowman’s house in October 2018.
Bryant insisted that he’s “the one sufferer,” based on his grievance.
Mace, a mom of two, is wading into South Carolina’s 2026 Gubernatorial race whereas concerned in a number of lawsuits that stemmed from her infamous Home speech.
She shortly responded to the brand new lawsuit and overtly highlighted that she “simply obtained [Bryant] sanctioned in court docket” and that she and Doe are “nonetheless ready on him to pay our authorized charges.”
On Oct. 29, a court docket order decided that Bryant’s firm and his lawyer violated South Carolina regulation by issuing subpoenas and deposing individuals with out court docket approval in Doe’s case.
“It’s virtually as if Patrick Bryant is asking to jot down me one other examine,” Mace mentioned within the assertion.
Mace added that she plans to “file a movement to dismiss and counter declare abuse of course of, conspiracy, and also you guessed it – extra lawyer charges.”
Bryant is suing for defamation, invasion of privateness, and intentional infliction of emotional misery.
The 4 males Mace publicly accused had been investigated by the South Carolina Regulation Enforcement Division, however none had been charged.
Brian Musgrave, the fourth man Mace accused throughout her speech, filed a lawsuit in opposition to the congresswoman in March and has largely been excluded from the following litigation.
