Patrick Bryant, Nancy Mace’s former fiancé, and two associates were charged with sex crimes over a year after the congresswoman exposed their alleged abuse on the House floor.
Prosecutors charged Bryant, Eric Bernard Bowman, and John Douglas Osborne in connection with alleged 2018 sex acts involving a highly intoxicated 23-year-old woman in Charleston, South Carolina, the New York Post reported.
Bryant and Bowman face voyeurism counts for allegedly watching while Osborne engaged in the acts. Osborne faces two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and first-degree assault and battery. The charges arrived more than a year and a half after Mace named the men in a February 2025 House floor speech.
The timeline matters. The alleged assault came in 2018. Mace and Bryant got engaged in 2022 and called it off in 2023. She went public with the accusations in 2025. Only later did the formal charges land.
In that floor speech, Mace described what she said she uncovered after the relationship ended. She did not soft-pedal the language.
Before the chamber, Mace stated:
"I accidentally uncovered some of the most heinous crimes against women imaginable, we are talking about rape, nonconsensual photos, nonconsensual videos of women and underage girls, and the premeditated, calculated exploitation,"
She continued:
"Today you will hear about the depraved men behind these gutless, evil acts,"
And she added:
"These men didn’t just harm their victims; they recorded their depravity as if it were a badge of honor."
Prosecutors later alleged the men coordinated about who would carry out acts on the highly intoxicated woman. A witness observed a security feed at the home and chronicled it in a journal. The alleged recording and photos were tied to a home in an affluent part of Charleston.
Cases involving the exploitation of vulnerable people keep surfacing in court, from local charging decisions to cross-border work like the FBI and Canadian arrest of an American sailor on child sex charges.
Just the News reported that Mace said she found a large trove of videos and photos on Bryant’s phone in November 2023. South Carolina’s State Law Enforcement Division confirmed an investigation of Bryant for assault, harassment, and voyeurism began Dec. 14, 2023, after contact from U.S. Capitol Police. The case remained complex and ongoing at the time of that reporting.
State Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office said it had received no referral and had no prior knowledge of the matter. Bryant denied the allegations and said he would cooperate with legal processes to clear his name.
After the speech, Bryant sued Mace for defamation. She claimed protection under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which shields members of Congress for statements made in the course of legislative work.
Accountability fights over serious abuse allegations also appear in other high-profile dockets, including the continuing case in which a former reality TV star pleaded guilty to animal sex counts while child rape charges proceeded.
Mace has pressed the issue beyond one speech. While chairing a hearing on private-space surveillance, she displayed a poster of a security-camera view with a yellow-circled blurred naked silhouette she identified as herself and said she had never consented to being filmed.
Breitbart reported her push for the Sue VOYEURS Act, to create a civil right of action, and the Stop VOYEURS Act. She argued existing law, including the Violence Against Women Act, left gaps on voyeurism remedies. The claims were tied in part to a rental property co-owned with Bryant.
Bryant’s response was categorical. He denied raping anyone, hiding cameras, or harming any woman. He said he complied with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigation and challenged Mace to repeat the accusations outside Speech or Debate Clause protections.
Public attention to crimes against the vulnerable often collides with slow process and contested claims, a pattern also visible when Mace demanded severe punishment after a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy child murder case.
The Wednesday charging decision names three men and specific counts. Bryant and Bowman are tied to voyeurism for allegedly watching. Osborne is tied to the sexual conduct and assault counts. The alleged victim is described as incapacitated and highly intoxicated. The setting is a Charleston home. The witness account rests on a security feed and a journal.
None of that erases the lag. The alleged acts date to 2018. The engagement came later. The breakup came later still. The floor speech came in February 2025. The charges came more than a year and a half after she put the names and the conduct on the public record.
Mace used her office to force the story into daylight when private channels had not produced charges. Prosecutors have now filed counts that track the core allegation of an incapacitated woman, watching, coordination, and recording. Bryant continues to deny wrongdoing and has already tested the limits of her legislative immunity through a defamation suit.
Families and victims still wait on courts to finish what investigations start, a grind familiar from other abuse and violence cases that drag through hearings and records long after the first headlines fade.
When a member of Congress has to walk onto the House floor to describe rape, nonconsensual recordings, and calculated exploitation before prosecutors move, the system has already shown the public where the delay lived.
