Buzzfeed reports that a communications director for former mayor Ed Murray faced allegations of sexual harassment before taking his job in Seattle.

City officials knew about the complaints, documents show, though it's unclear how many details they knew and exactly when they learned. The communications director, Benton Strong, resigned earlier this month after Buzzfeed reached out to the city with questions.

Before working for Murray, Strong worked at the Center for American Progress, a major Democratic advocacy group. There, women employees complained he made sexual comments during a team meeting and sent sexually explicit text messages to a junior staffer. Buzzfeed reviewed CAP documents and spoke to 19 current and former employees at the organization.

Two women filed complaints to CAP about Strong in 2016, Buzzfeed reports. One alleged he "asked several women on the team if they had been flashed or masturbated in front of and then mocked a woman in a team meeting for saying she had cried when it happened to her." Buzzfeed reports that Strong acceped the job with Murray "shortly after" the woman reported him. A second woman said that in the weeks leading up to his departure for Seattle, Strong sent her explicit text messages. Buzzfeed:

In her exit memo, Mary described receiving “lewd and inappropriate text messages” from Strong that caused her to feel “uncomfortable being in the workplace around him.”

Five former staffers told BuzzFeed News that they saw screenshots of a text in which Strong, a manager on Mary’s team (though not her direct supervisor), messaged Mary late at night saying that he wanted to perform oral sex on her. In other texts, Strong told Mary that he was discussing with several other male CAP staffers whether white women or black women were better at giving blow jobs; he repeatedly asked her to come over to his apartment or let him come over to hers for a drink; and he frequently made comments about her body. These messages were often interspersed with Strong asking Mary if he had crossed a “line” she had apparently drawn.

A friend of Mary’s, another former CAP employee who viewed the texts, said, “It was, like, incessant. ... It was like strings and strings of texts and her just being like, ‘no no no.’”

According to CAP, the organization investigated the texts and told Strong not to return to the office or contact the woman. Strong did not deny the allegations to Buzzfeed, writing that he "made mistakes" and his "actions hurt someone." Employees have criticized the organization's handling of the complaints.

Strong received a formal job offer from Murray's office in May 2016 and started work August 1, 2016, according to city documents.

Buzzfeed reports that after Strong began work in Seattle, at least two employees in Murray's office told the city's human resources department that they had heard about complaints at CAP. The city then requested information from CAP, which it gave to Strong and he then gave to the city in September or October of 2016, according to Buzzfeed.

Strong's Seattle personnel file, given to The Stranger through a public records request, includes several CAP documents. The documents reference "inappropriate jokes" and "inappropriate communication," but do not detail the specifics of the allegations.

The documents include a brief summary of a May 2016 meeting at CAP to discuss an incident that "involved Benton and others reportedly making inappropriate jokes during a team meeting." In reference to the second complaint, involving the text messages and Strong's departure from the organization, his city personnel file includes only an email informing Strong he would be suspended with pay for three days because of "a complaint of your inappropriate communication from a junior staff person."

Strong made $135,000 during his first year as communications director for Murray. In 2017, he received management coaching paid for by the City of Seattle. The city hired coaching for Strong after it learned about the CAP allegations, according to Buzzfeed. Invoices included in his personnel file show that coaching cost $280 an hour.

Strong left the mayor's office in early October 2017, after Murray resigned amid allegations of child sexual abuse and former Council Member Tim Burgess became interim mayor. In November, he was hired for a temporary position in the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment.

Strong's file indicates that a city employee also raised concerns about his time at CAP in late October, after his time in the mayor's office but around the time he was rehired by the city. On October 27, the employee requested a meeting with HR staff about an unspecified issue. The emails setting up the meeting are included in Strong's file. The file also includes one page of handwritten notes taken by Heather Hartley, an HR business partner at the city, labeled with the date and time of that planned meeting. The notes are vague and difficult to read, but they include mention "texts/want to have sex," "fired by employer after giving notice for this job," and "left city but returned."

Stephanie Formas, a spokesperson for Mayor Jenny Durkan, said Durkan and others in her office knew only of the “inappropriate jokes” and “inappropriate communications” referenced in the file—not about the specific nature of the those allegations—until the Buzzfeed story was published.

Formas said Strong submitted his intent to resign from OSE in early April and formally resigned during the week of April 9. She would not say whether Strong was asked to resign.

This story has been updated with additional information.