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Congresswoman Nancy Mace was sued by one of the four men she accused of rape and other horrific crimes during a February 10, 2025 address on the floor of the United States Congress.
Mace’s “scorched earth” speech publicly called out multiple individuals she claims perpetrated horrific abuses against her and other women. She also blasted a justice system which, according to her, lacked “the guts to call them out or hold them accountable.”
“When I uncovered evidence of rape, illegal filming of women, illegal photographing of women, and sex trafficking, I didn’t just see victims — I saw a system which failed to protect them,” she said.
Specifically, she slammed Charleston, S.C. entrepreneur Patrick Bryant – her former fiancée. Mace and Bryant were engaged in May of 2022, but she terminated the relationship in late 2023 after catching him on a dating app. She also named three of Bryant’s business partners – including Brian Musgrave – as participants in the alleged abuse, holding up a sign labeling them as “predators.”
“Why are they still on the streets of South Carolina?” Mace asked.
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Mace also slammed S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – one of her top prospective opponents in the race for governor of South Carolina in 2026 – for his alleged failure to prosecute crimes against women.
Two hours after Mace’s floor speech, the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) – the Palmetto State’s top law enforcement agency – confirmed it was conducting an “active and ongoing” investigation into the allegations raised in her remarks.
“SLED opened an investigation regarding allegations of assault, harassment and voyeurism on December 14, 2023, after being contacted by the United States Capitol Police,” agency public information director Renée Wunderlich said in the statement. “The subject of the investigation is Patrick Bryant.”
While Wunderlich did not name any additional individuals as being subjects of the investigation, the agency’s public statements haven’t expressly ruled out other potential subjects.
Two weeks ago, Mace was sent an open letter on behalf of Musgrave by his attorneys, Eric Bland and Ronnie Richter. That letter challenged Mace to either “show us evidence in the form of metadata” linking Musgrave to the alleged criminal activity or “retract your allegations… and issue an apology.”
“Refuse either of these options and we will bring an action to test the limits of your protection,” Bland and Richter wrote.
Musgrave’s action was brought in the U.S. District Court in Charleston, S.C. on Friday (March 14, 2025) – naming Mace and five unnamed co-defendants, currently listed as Jane and John Does 1-5. Mace is accused of multiple counts of libel and abusing her office, allegedly having spent “over an hour on the floor of Congress systematically defaming Brian Musgrave and destroying his good name and reputation.”
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RELATED | NANCY MACE’S ‘SCORCHED EARTH’ SPEECH
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“Mace was a federal official acting under federal authority when she delivered a speech that libeled and defamed (Musgrave),” the suit alleged.
Mace and the other defendants were accused of defamation and conspiracy to defame.
“Nance Mace and her team destroyed the lives of Brian Musgrave and his family,” the complaint alleged. “Perhaps the defendants felt that the message was so powerful that a little collateral damage in the form of Brian Musgrave’s name and reputation was acceptable. It is not acceptable to Brian Musgrave. It is not acceptable to his family.”
Bland and Richter also argued that Mace is not protected from accountability – and liability – due to the protections afforded to members of congress on the floor of the chamber.
“While the speech and debate clause of the United States Constitution affords broad protection to members of Congress acting as part of its deliberative process, it does not transform the floor of Congress into a sanctuary for defamation, nor does it protect Congresswoman Mace’s extra-Congressional defamatory statements surrounding her speech,” they wrote.
In the complaint, Bland and Richter denied all of the allegations against their client, saying he “has no idea what transpired in the intimate relationships between Congresswoman Mace and any of her romantic partners.”
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Innocent people don’t try to silence, harm or intimidate witnesses and victims.
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) March 15, 2025
Hold. The. Line. pic.twitter.com/NCV2LPCJ5s
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The suit also stated that while Musgrave “has been informed that there is in fact an active SLED investigation, he is also informed that he is not a target of any criminal investigations.”
SLED wasn’t immediately available to comment on that assertion, stating only that its investigation was “active and ongoing,'” per agency public information director Renée Wunderlich.
The lawsuit filed by Bland and Richter seeks a judgment against Mace as well as “an award of damages both actual, in an amount sufficient to compensate (Musgrave) fully for all losses herein, and punitive, in an amount determined by a jury to be sufficient to impress upon the Defendant the seriousness of her conduct and to deter such similar conduct in the future.”
Mace did not respond to FITSNews directly regarding the substance of the lawsuit, but in a post on X she made it abundantly clear what she thought of the action.
“Innocent people don’t try to silence witnesses and victims,” Mace said. “Innocent people don’t try to hurt or harm witnesses and victims.”
“Innocent people surely don’t try to intimidate witnesses and victims,” she added. “The system is completely broken.”
Count on our media outlet to follow the latest developments in this saga as they unfold.
BANNER VIA: DYLAN NOLAN/ FITSNews
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THE COMPLAINT…
(Bland Richter Law Firm)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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8 comments
You don’t reckon they know that anything said on the floor of the
You don’t reckon they know that anything said on the floor of the House of Representatives if protected speech? Come on fits, you know that.
No it is not. Go read the law
Hopefully, Mace’s irrational outburst will cost her the Governor’s race and maybe that of her current house seat. There are reasons for Biblical prohibitions on women having power over men. They are good reasons it would seem.
Bland et al are just as big a grandstanders as Mace. They know the case is going to get tossed but they get their name in print once again.
People who are not smart enough to understand the law often think they are protected by things that are not what they think…
Mace screwed up. Almost like she is a blogger who wrote a story she didn’t research at all. And made up facts. The protections her, or our hypothetical blogger, think they have are always fun to test.
See you soon.
I do believe that Nancy Mace has been abused in some way. The floor of Congress was not the appropriate place for her grandstanding
Are all statewide elected SC “Republicans” shithouse crazy?