Rep. John Conyers' son and potential successor was arrested earlier this year for domestic violence

The House's longest-serving member, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), announced his resignation earlier this week after being accused of inappropriately touching female staffers and using taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment and wrongful dismissal complaint in 2015. In stepping down, Conyers, 88, endorsed his son — who is beset by accusations of his own.

John Conyers III, 27, was arrested the day after Valentine's Day when his girlfriend called the police and claimed Conyers "body slammed her on the bed and then on the floor where he pinned her down and spit on her," NBC News reports. His girlfriend, who went unnamed in the report, also suffered knife cuts.

"She says I stabbed her, which makes no sense," Conyers told The New York Times. "I didn't do this. She and I had a verbal altercation and that escalated. She pulled the knife on me. She was chasing me. I tried to take it from her. There was a struggle. I pinned her to the wall. She kept swinging and she cut herself."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Prosecutors did not ultimately charge Conyers because it "could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim's injury was not accidentally sustained." Conyers and his girlfriend split up after the incident after being together for two and a half years. His girlfriend also got a restraining order after the incident, which The New York Times writes is in effect through next March.