Man accused as ‘predator’ by Rep. Nancy Mace breaks his silence

Columbia, South CarolinaCNN — Brian Musgrave was out buying bird seed when he got the first hint that his life was about to be turned upside down. The text from someone he didn’t know just said he was going to be mentioned by South Carolina Rep, Nancy Mace in a speech on the floor of the US House of Representatives.“First reaction was, what could that even be? It just didn’t make any sense,” Musgrave told CNN in an exclusive interview.“I couldn’t think of a context where I would be named in a floor speech by Nancy Mace at all.”But named he was. And labeled a predator, with his name and photograph displayed on a board in the chamber during the speech last month that was televised and available online.Brian Musgrave and his wife, Jen, say they used to have a “quiet and happy” life.Brian Musgrave and his wife, Jen, say they used to have a “quiet and happy” life. CNNMace spoke for 53 minutes in a damning, personal address that has no precedent in the chamber’s history.“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call out the cowards who think they can prey on women and get away with it,” she began. “Today, I’m going scorched earth.”Mace accused her ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant of rape and said he, Musgrave and two other men, recorded sex acts without consent. She displayed the names and pictures of the four men and their hometowns on a placard with warnings in block letters “PREDATORS,” “STAY AWAY FROM” and the seal of the US House of Representatives.Musgrave said “Absolutely not” when asked if he had done any of the things Mace said he did. He also denied ever having witnessed any of the alleged crimes Mace talked about.Bryant’s representative sent CNN a statement after numerous attempts to reach him. In it, he denied all “criminal allegations.” Another of the men, Eric Bowman, told CNN in a statement that “no wrongdoing has been committed.” CNN was unable to reach the fourth man that Mace named.The four men are all entrepreneurs in South Carolina but did not have national name recognition before their reputations and personal lives were tarnished in Mace’s speech.Mace, a Republican congresswoman who’s talked openly about her personal trauma and cast herself as a GOP voice for women, declined interview requests by CNN and referred us back to her speech.‘Catastrophic’ impactAs she spoke on the House floor, Mace laid her hand on a Bible and swore to “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”Musgraves said the only true thing told about him was that he’s an old friend of Bryant –he was best man at Bryant’s first wedding – and they own a rental condo together in Isle of Palms on the South Carolina coast, near Charleston and Fort Sumter. He said he did not believe the allegations against Bryant.Mace said she found more than 10,000 hidden camera videos and photos after Bryant gave her access to his phone when they were still a couple but she didn’t provide any evidence. She said the assaults she uncovered in November 2023 spanned “over a decade, almost 20 years.” South Carolina Law Enforcement, known as SLED, told CNN in a statement they are investigating, and the subject of their inquiries is Bryant. CNN has confirmed that videos do exist, but a source would not comment on the contents. CNN has not obtained nor reviewed any videos or photos.Rep. Nancy Mace on the floor of the House of Representatives, where the speech of congressmen and women is protected.Rep. Nancy Mace on the floor of the House of Representatives, where the speech of congressmen and women is protected. House TVMusgrave said the condo he owns with Bryant is outfitted with a camera in plain sight in the kitchen, though it’s unclear if that is one of the cameras Mace was referring to. “The most control I could have over that camera would be to unplug it,” Musgrave said.He denied ever having a password or any control over that camera, which was installed to monitor use of the condo, or ever viewing any of the video that it may have recorded. His lawyers said he had never hidden any camera anywhere on the property.For Musgrave, the impact of the speech in February has been “catastrophic,” he said.“For the rest of my life, when someone Googles ‘Brian Musgrave’ this is going to be the thing that comes up,” he said. “I’m completely uncertain what tomorrow is going to be business-wise.”His wife, Jen, said the speech seemed like a bad dream. “He’s nowhere near any of those things that she was accusing him of,” she told CNN. “Anyone who knows him, there’s just no way it would ever be possible so to have someone say something like that, in public, it just blew my mind.”“It made me mad to think that someone could say that without an ounce of truth behind it,” she added.