Nancy Mace Shares Nude Photo ‘Taken Without Her Consent’ As She Pushes For Tougher Voyeurism Laws
Republican Representative Nancy Mace showed a photo of her nude body that she claims was recorded without her consent during a hearing for tougher voyeurism laws.
Mace, the Republican Representative from South Carolina, shared the naked image of herself in a still from a video she alleges her ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant recorded of her without her consent during a House subcommittee hearing on “surveillance in private spaces” on Tuesday. Tech entrepreneur Bryant, whom Mace was engaged to between 2022 and 2023, has denied her allegations.
Republican Representative Nancy Mace showed a photo of her nude body that she claims was recorded without her consent during a hearing for tougher voyeurism laws.
Mace, the Republican Representative from South Carolina, shared the naked image of herself in a still from a video she alleges her ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant recorded of her without her consent during a House subcommittee hearing on “surveillance in private spaces” on Tuesday. Tech entrepreneur Bryant, who Mace was engaged to between 2022 and 2023, has denied her allegations.
The blurry photo that Mace says is her naked body was displayed on an easel behind her during yesterday’s hearing. The black-and-white still images were allegedly taken from a security camera installed in the living room of a home.
“Behind me is a screenshot from one of the videos I found of myself. The yellow circle, my naked silhouette, is my naked body,” Mace says as she points to the image. “I didn’t know that I had been filmed. I didn’t give my consent. I didn’t give my permission.”
Along with the photo of herself, Mace presented a series of censored images of unidentified women, which she claimed were taken from video recordings belonging to Bryant and were also filmed without their consent.
The photos were shared during a hearing by the committee on oversight and governmental reform — titled “Breach of Trust: Surveillance in Private Spaces” which Mace chairs — to support legislation expanding prohibitions on video voyeurism. She urged lawmakers to advance her Sue VOYEURS Act to create a civil right of action for victims and the Stop VOYEURS Act to expand the federal prohibition on video voyeurism.
“Freedom is not a theory. It is the right to breathe. It is the right to dress and undress, to sleep without someone’s camera filming your naked body. The Founders wrote liberty in parchment, but hidden cameras erase it in pixels,” Mace says. “I speak not just as a lawmaker, but as a survivor.”
In the U.S., laws against photo voyeurism currently vary by state. At the federal level, the Video Voyeurism Prevention Act of 2004 prohibits “knowingly videotaping, photographing, filming, recording by any means, or broadcasting an image of a private area of an individual, without that individual’s consent, under circumstances in which that individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
In a statement to POLITICO on Tuesday, Bryant vehemently denied accusations Mace made during the hearing as “false” and “outrageous.”
“I have never raped anyone,” Bryant tells POLITICO. “I have never hidden cameras. I have never harmed any woman. These accusations are not just false — they are malicious and deeply personal.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via U.S. House of Representatives livestream.
