A high Senate Republican is urgent Meta for particulars on its dealing with of sexual harassment allegations going again greater than a decade.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, despatched a letter to the corporate on Tuesday asking about allegations made public in March that one among its executives, Joel Kaplan, despatched sexually harassing emails to an worker in 2015 and 2016. The letter additionally requested for details about every other substantiated allegations of sexual harassment or office misconduct towards “firm management” since 2010 and for supplies associated to Meta’s office coaching.

Later Tuesday, Meta responded to Grassley by letter and mentioned it deliberate to show over an inside report that, in keeping with the corporate, cleared Kaplan of wrongdoing in 2017. Meta mentioned it investigated the allegations towards Kaplan and located them to be “fully with out advantage.”

Heidi Swartz, Meta’s vice chairman of employment regulation and investigations, additionally provided within the letter to satisfy with Grassley’s employees.

Grassley’s evaluation of the matter seems to be in an early stage, and it’s a part of a broader set of questions the senator has been asking about how Meta is complying with federal legal guidelines that shield whistleblowers.

Grassley’s questions are a part of the fallout from a bestselling memoir, “Careless Individuals,” by former Fb worker Sarah Wynn-Williams. The guide chronicles her six-plus years dealing with worldwide affairs for the social media large, a job that gave her direct contact with CEO Mark Zuckerberg and different C-suite executives.

Within the guide, Wynn-Williams, a lawyer and former New Zealand diplomat, blames the corporate for upending politics within the U.S. and elsewhere. She additionally makes allegations towards Kaplan, who was her boss, and writes that she confronted retaliation and was fired in 2017 after she reported Kaplan internally.

A spokesperson for Grassley mentioned in a press release to NBC Information on Wednesday that the senator was “reviewing the allegations Wynn-Williams introduced earlier than his committee to attempt to decide their veracity,” and can also be reviewing Meta’s response.

“Cooperation from each Meta and Wynn-Williams is crucial as his workplace works to find out the actual fact sample surrounding Wynn-Williams’ allegations,” the spokesperson mentioned. 

Meta has pushed again on Wynn-Williams’ allegations, saying that she was fired for efficiency causes and is unreliable.

“Ms. Wynn-Williams introduced her allegations solely after it had been made clear to her that her ongoing and well-documented efficiency points may now not be ignored,” Swartz, the Meta lawyer, wrote in her response to Grassley.

Swartz added that “Ms. Wynn-Williams is the only real individual to have made such an allegation about Mr. Kaplan throughout his 14 years working on the firm.” And she or he accused Wynn-Williams of being a frequent “instigator” of off-color jokes throughout her time on the firm.

In March, Meta gained an arbitration order saying Wynn-Williams had violated a nondisparagement clause in her severance settlement. That has prevented her from selling however not from releasing the memoir, which has spent a number of weeks on The New York Instances’ checklist of top-selling nonfiction.

Grassley, who has a protracted file of advocacy for whistleblower protections within the Senate, has expressed concern about Meta’s remedy of Wynn-Williams as a whistleblower. Final month, he wrote to Zuckerberg with considerations that Meta was “bullying” Wynn-Williams into staying silent. Meta says there isn’t any restriction on Wynn-Williams talking with investigators.

Final month, Wynn-Williams testified earlier than a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, the place lawmakers of each events expressed deep anger on the firm on a wide range of topics. Many senators targeted on the corporate’s yearslong quest to interrupt into the Chinese language market, the place its apps Fb and Instagram are banned, and the privateness compromises Meta thought of earlier than abandoning the hassle in 2019.

Ravi Naik, a lawyer for Wynn-Williams, mentioned that Wynn-Williams welcomes Grassley’s inquiry.

“My shopper appreciates the seriousness with which Chairman Grassley and his Senate colleagues are investigating these points,” Naik mentioned in a press release. “Regardless of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg’s claims of being free speech champions, they proceed to silence my shopper, a whistleblower who stepped ahead to report wrongful and criminal activity by the corporate that threatened the security of its customers, U.S. nationwide safety, and its staff.”

In Grassley’s letter to Meta, he quoted three emails from Kaplan to Wynn-Williams, all three of which Wynn-Williams additionally quoted in her memoir. In a single from 2016, Kaplan requested whether or not her U.S. citizenship check included the phrase “soiled sanchez,” a sexual slang phrase and racial slur. In a second electronic mail from 2015, after Kaplan secured funding for a brand new place on her workforce, he emailed, “Who’s your sugar daddy?” And in a 3rd from 2015, he promised that if she met a finances purpose, he would “personally purchase you ‘one thing good’ (niceness TBD by the beholder/purchaser).”

Grassley wrote: “I take very severely allegations of whistleblower retaliation and sexual misconduct.”

On the time of the emails, Kaplan was Wynn-Williams’ boss and a vice chairman for world public coverage. Wynn-Williams wrote in her memoir that she thought of the 2015 emails “fairly gentle” however that the “soiled sanchez” query was a “new low,” “completely inappropriate” and an indication that his conduct was “getting worse.”

In January, Zuckerberg promoted Kaplan to chief world affairs officer, making him the pinnacle of all lobbying exercise for the corporate. Her allegations turned public in March, when Wynn-Williams spoke about them in an interview with NBC Information forward of the publication of her memoir.

Meta has not disputed the accuracy of the emails or commented on their contents. Kaplan has additionally not commented on the allegations, and didn’t reply to an electronic mail request for touch upon Grassley’s letter. Some present and former Meta staff, together with ladies, have mentioned that they had optimistic experiences working with and for Kaplan.

Swartz, the Meta lawyer, wrote to Grassley on Tuesday that the interior investigation of Kaplan didn’t cowl his emails as a result of, she wrote, Wynn-Williams didn’t elevate the emails over the course of the investigation. Swartz wrote that she believed Wynn-Williams didn’t elevate the emails on the time “as a result of she was conscious that she was generally the instigator and had a observe file of constructing off-color jokes and didn’t need to immediate an investigation into her personal conduct.”

In her memoir, Wynn-Williams describes the investigation otherwise. She writes that Meta rapidly closed out the interior evaluation of Kaplan “earlier than they’d acquired or reviewed all of the documentation and data I mentioned I might provide.”

Naik, the lawyer for Wynn-Williams, mentioned in a press release: “The emails and documentation converse for themselves. My shopper testified underneath oath earlier than the Senate about this harassment and can proceed to face by the reality.”

David Ingram

David Ingram is a tech reporter for NBC Information.