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Law360 (May 13, 2021, 10:00 PM EDT ) A former staffer for Rep. Doug Lamborn tore into the lawmaker in a lawsuit Thursday, telling a D.C. federal court that the Colorado Republican had a "reckless and dangerous" approach to COVID-19 that put his employees at risk and got many of them sick.
Brandon Pope, who was a defense and business adviser in Lamborn's Colorado Springs office, claimed in his complaint that Lamborn fired him for trying to protect employees from the unsafe conditions there.
Notably, Lamborn didn't require employees to wear masks or keep socially distant, according to the suit. When the congressman and other senior members of the office got COVID-19 in the fall, Lamborn still refused to implement or follow COVID-19 protocols, Pope said. The virus subsequently spread widely through both Lamborn's Colorado and D.C. offices, he alleged.
"Indeed, even after he knew that he had been in close contact with his deputy chief of staff, who had been infected, Lamborn told one staffer that he did not care if his employees got infected and that he was not going to wear a mask or isolate himself," Pope said.
Employees who came into contact with the infected — including Lamborn — weren't notified, Pope added.
According to the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Lamborn initially told staffers that COVID-19 was a "hoax" and that it was being used to alter the course of congressional and presidential elections.
Lamborn ended up closing the D.C. office temporarily after 20 employees got sick. However, all the staffers at both offices were told that they couldn't tell anyone, including their families or roommates, about the situation at the D.C. office, Pope said. And several people were ordered to keep working at the Colorado office, even though they'd been in contact with the sick, he said.
Lamborn also lied to the congressional Office of the Attending Physician and said he hadn't been in contact with any of the sick D.C. staffers when in fact he had been sleeping in his office and holding meetings during that time, Pope said.
As more and more staffers began contracting COVID-19, Pope said he asserted his opposition to Lamborn's practices and stood up for others in the office who were either at risk themselves or who had close family members who were at greater risk.
"Lamborn and his chief of staff, Dale Anderson, terminated Mr. Pope on Dec. 7, 2020, because plaintiff opposed their reckless approach to COVID-19 and their refusal to implement commonsense and reasonable protective measures in the workplace," according to the suit.
Cassandra Sebastian, a spokeswoman for Lamborn's office, told Law360 on Thursday that Pope's workplace safety allegations are "unsubstantiated and did not result in the termination of his employment."
"Congressman Lamborn looks forward to full vindication as all facts come to light," she said.
Counsel for Pope didn't immediately return a request for comment late Thursday.
Pope is alleging retaliation, claiming that he engaged in protected activity under the Congressional Accountability Act. He's seeking unspecified damages, court costs and attorney fees.
Pope is represented by Leslie D. Alderman III of Alderman Devorsetz & Hora PLLC.
Counsel information for Lamborn's office wasn't immediately available Thursday.
The case is Brandon Pope v. the Office of Doug Lamborn, case number 1:21-cv-01321, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
--Editing by Karin Roberts.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
