A former political consultant and advisor to Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said in a sworn deposition that the congresswoman asked him to “blackmail” her fiancé to obtain ownership of two properties they jointly owned, using nude pictures of women she had discovered on his phone as leverage. 

The deposition adds a new twist to the lowcountry congresswoman’s very public accusations against her now ex-fiancé. Mace alleged that he took nude photographs of her and other women without consent.  

Mace accused her ex-fiancé and three other men in February of physical abuse and recording sex acts with her and others without their consent in a House floor speech, alleging that she found a trove of 10,000 videos and other photographic evidence. The ex-fiancé and the other men have strongly denied the allegations, including one man who is suing Mace over the accusations, Just the News previously reported. 

Mace’s former political strategist, Wesley Donehue, was deposed late last month by attorneys representing the ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant, who the congresswoman publicly alleged had “filmed women without their knowledge,” “filmed rape too,” and “stored these images for years.” Mace has even accused Bryant of engaging in a sex trafficking scheme. 

Mace "sat on" information for a year

Byrant vehemently denies all the accusations, calling them “false and outrageous.” 

Donehue noted that Mace never shared any of her findings with law enforcement before coming forward publicly with the accusations. Instead, he told the lawyers, after Mace became suspicious of Bryant for cheating, she aimed to use the photographs she had discovered on his phone to blackmail the ex-fiancé to surrender two houses jointly owned by the couple. 

“[What] I know is that she believed and she did believe -- that Patrick cheated on her and had pictures of women without their consent; and she sat on that information for well over a year, did not wanna contact authorities, and asked me to blackmail Patrick Bryant,” Donehue told the lawyers according to a deposition obtained by local media and reviewed by Just the News. 

You can read that transcript below: 

Donehue did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News, but the political consultant told a local South Carolina website that he was not trying to get involved in legal proceedings against Mace before being compelled to appear for the deposition by Bryant’s attorneys. 

“I didn’t want to talk about these things,” Donehue told the website, FITSNews. "I was questioned by SLED and subpoenaed by Patrick’s attorney after refusing to give them a statement. I have told them everything I know about Patrick and Nancy’s relationship. I hope we can soon move past the soap opera drama and focus on the issues important to South Carolina’s beautiful Lowcountry.”

Donehue told the lawyers that Mace asked him to intervene in her relationship with Bryant on several occasions and that she often blurred the lines between the professional and personal in ways that made Donehue uncomfortable. 

“More so than any client I've ever worked with, Nancy blurred the lines between personal and official. To the point that a professional relationship becomes very unprofessional very soon, very quickly,” Donahue said. 

Mace vacationed with her ex-fiancé after her discovery

The consultant said around November 2023, Mace showed him the inappropriate photographs that she had allegedly discovered on Bryant’s phone. Mace then told Donehue that she feared for her life and planned to end her relationship with her fiancé. 

However, Donehue said Mace ignored his advice against going on a vacation to the Caribbean for Bryant’s birthday just days after showing him the photographs. 

“I said ‘Nancy, you can’t say you fear for your safety and you’re going to the Caribbean with him and some of his friends,'” Donehue said. “Then she said – I remember as clear as day – ‘I’m taking my free vacation to the Caribbean.’ And she said while she was there she was gonna try to get more information out of his phone; and I told her that she need(ed) to contact the authorities, and she asked me why.”

Donehue said Mace wanted to obtain further evidence from her fiancé's phone in order to secure two properties the couple jointly owned after the breakup. “I said ‘Nancy, as your campaign consultant, if it ever comes out that you knew of women being harmed, and you didn’t do anything about it, your career is over,” Donehue continued. “But also, it’s just the right thing to do.” 

“And she said ‘I’m going to use this information to get my houses’,” Donehue said. 

Congresswoman Mace did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News. 

Witnessed signs of physical abuse

Donehue’s testimony also appears to confirm some aspects of her allegations against Bryant and some of his friends. Donahue told the lawyers that he believed Mace genuinely feared for her personal safety. “There was… a lot of conversation about us being concerned for her safety,” Donehue said. “Like I was concerned about it. I mean, I was very concerned about it. To this day, I’m still concerned about it.”

Donehue also said that Mace told him that she had been physically abused by Bryant. He told the lawyers that he noticed bruises on Mace’s forearm. “I would call them fingertip-size bruises on her forearm, about four of which -- above her elbow, little bruises on her arm about right here, and said that he grabbed her,” Donehue stated. 

Donahue’s testimony also sheds light on unrelated matters, including recent reports that Mace programmed her own social media bots to attack critics. This claim was first reported by Wired Magazine earlier this week, which quoted former staff members. 

“She programs her own bots. She sets up Twitter burner accounts. This is the kind of thing she does. She sits all night on the couch and programs bots, because she’s very, very computer-savvy. She controls her own voter database, she programs a lot of her own website, she programs Facebook bots and Instagram bots and Twitter bots. It’s what she does for fun,” Donehue said. 

Mace made headlines last week when she displayed a nude still of herself during a House subcommittee hearing, which she claimed was from one of the videos of her taken by her former fiancé without her consent, Just the News reported. 

Mace shared the shot during a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing on "surveillance in private spaces," and claimed Bryant's actions and those of the other men were "creepy" and “criminal.”

"This naked silhouette is my naked body. I didn't know that I had been filmed," she said. "I didn't give my consent. I didn't give my permission and this particular video that Patrick Bryant recorded of me on his secret camera, he saved for over three years without my knowledge."

Mace first aired her allegations in February in a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives. After the speech, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) confirmed that Bryant is being investigated for assault, harassment and voyeurism, the South Carolina Daily Gazette reported.

The SLED said in a statement that the investigation started on December 14, 2023, after SLED was contacted by U.S. Capitol Police. Multiple interviews and search warrants have happened since. A "well-documented case file" will eventually be available. But the “complex” case is ongoing and involves multiple lawyers. Once the investigation is complete, the file will be sent to a prosecutor for review, the statement also reads.