(José Niño, Headline USA) An ex-girlfriend of Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has accused him of offering her $5,000 in cash to drop a wrongful termination complaint, per a story Axios published on Wednesday—nearly a week before his Kentucky Republican primary.
Cynthia West, a social worker and school board candidate in Okaloosa County, Florida, claims she began dating Massie in August 2024, shortly after his wife Rhonda died, after he messaged her on X. She says Massie arranged a job for her in the Washington office of Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ill., so West could be nearby in D.C.
West alleges that after she refused to “engage in behavior I wasn’t comfortable with” and ended the relationship in mid-January 2025, she was fired from Spartz’s office. She then filed a wrongful termination complaint with the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. Congressional payroll records confirmed West worked for Spartz’s office, earning approximately $17,000 over a temporary 90-day probationary period as “Director of Operations and Scheduling,” per a report by The Washington Free Beacon.
The core accusation is that when West informed Massie she was naming him as a witness in her complaint against Spartz, he offered her $5,000 in cash at a Kentucky Cracker Barrel. According to Axios, West says the money was half of a $10,000 “envelope of $100 bills” he had given her earlier in their relationship as a financial cushion when she left her job to work for Spartz. She says she returned the cash to him at the meeting. West claims Massie told her: “You’re just one person. You’re not going to make a difference. Just walk away.”
She was later offered a $60,000 settlement with a non-disclosure agreement through the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, which she refused to sign, per a Newsweek report. Axios obtained the settlement document.
The allegations first emerged in a video interview West gave to Northern Kentucky attorney Marcus Carey—who ran against Massie in the 2012 Republican primary—that circulated widely on X before Axios published its own reporting. Massie declined to comment to Axios and referred questions to Kentucky State Rep. Steven Doan.
Newsweek reported that Doan argued that West has a “documented history of making false abuse allegations,” pointing to a domestic violence complaint she made against her ex-husband that was dismissed by a Florida court. West told Axios the petition failed because she chose to represent herself rather than hire an attorney, as court records confirm.
Per a Kentucky Lantern report, Massie issued his own statement denying the allegations: “All of the claims of inappropriate conduct are false.” His campaign separately called the story “last-minute dirty tricks” that “don’t merit a response” and labeled the allegations “trashy lies,” as RawStory reported.
A Spartz spokesperson confirmed West’s employment but said it was not extended “due to unsatisfactory job performance.”
The timing of the story has fueled accusations of a coordinated hit. The allegations surfaced exactly one week before what multiple outlets have described as the most expensive House primary in American history, with Trump’s MAGA PAC, AIPAC, and allied groups pouring millions into unseating Massie, who has become one of the president’s most vocal Republican critics.
West told Axios she did not coordinate with Trump’s operation or the campaign of Ed Gallrein, Massie’s Trump-backed challenger.
The Washington Free Beacon noted that Doan called $5,000 “too low of a price” for a genuine hush money scheme given Massie’s profile as a likely millionaire.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
