South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace is facing new legal trouble, this time from her former fiancé, who accuses her of defamation, blackmail, and conspiring to seize property the couple once owned together.
In a lawsuit filed this week, Patrick Bryant claims Mace “weaponized personal information” to damage his reputation and gain control of several Charleston County properties the two purchased while engaged. The 55-page complaint lays out a series of explosive allegations — including hacking, emotional coercion, and collusion.
According to the filing, Bryant alleges that in November 2023, Mace accessed his phone without consent, installing software to retrieve deleted messages and files. He says she later met with a political consultant, telling them she planned to use what she found “as leverage to get my houses.” The consultant reportedly urged Mace to contact police if she had uncovered evidence of wrongdoing. Mace allegedly refused, saying she intended to use the information to pressure Bryant during an ongoing property dispute.
The lawsuit also references comments Mace allegedly made about continuing to travel with Bryant that same week — reportedly telling the consultant she was “going to get her free Caribbean vacation.”
When asked about the suit, Mace dismissed the allegations outright, characterizing them as yet another legal ploy from Bryant. “It’s almost as if Patrick Bryant is trying to write me another check,” she told reporters. “I just got him sanctioned in court. And rape victim Jane Doe and I are still waiting on him to pay our legal fees after he weaponized the court against us.”
Bryant’s lawsuit paints a darker picture of what happened next. He claims that after a failed mediation session in January 2024 — during which Mace allegedly presented photos from his phone to pressure him into signing over property — the congresswoman coordinated with two others, Melissa Britton and an individual referred to as Jane Doe, to resurface long-dormant allegations from 2018 involving a poolside incident.
According to court filings, Britton once wrote a “diary email” describing what she said she witnessed that night but never contacted law enforcement. Bryant argues those claims were revived years later, at Mace’s urging, to “destroy his reputation” and bolster her public image. The suit further alleges that Doe, whom Mace contacted directly, had “no independent memory” of the event.
All of this, the complaint says, culminated in Mace’s fiery speech on the House floor in February 2025, when she accused Bryant of being a “predator.” That moment, Bryant claims, pushed the private dispute into a public scandal.
Court records show Bryant’s legal team was sanctioned earlier this year — ordered to pay more than $48,000 in fees to law firms representing Mace and Doe — after a judge ruled their previous filings violated state law.
Now, Bryant is pressing forward with this new case, accusing Mace of defamation, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy. He’s seeking monetary damages and a court order barring Mace and her alleged co-conspirators from making further statements about him.
