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The hacking allegation: 'I hacked into his computer and phone'

A sworn affidavit by South Carolina journalist Ashleigh Messervy attests that at a private August 28, 2024 meeting, Rep. Nancy Mace, after explaining she 'used to be a programmer,' told her: 'I hacked into his [Patrick's] computer and phone.' In her own court filings Mace denies that she 'hacked' the phone, saying her former fiance gave her express permission, added her thumbprint, and told her she could access it whenever she wanted, though she admits she accessed the hidden folders on his phone using a four-digit code. The word, and whether it fits the conduct, is contested; the matters remain unproven and in ongoing litigation.

The hacking allegation: 'I hacked into his computer and phone'

The single word at the center of this matter is one Rep. Nancy Mace did not write in a filing and has, in her filings, taken pains to deny: hacked. It appears instead in a six-page sworn affidavit by South Carolina journalist Ashleigh Messervy, who swears that Mace said it to her, in person, at a restaurant on Daniel Island on August 28, 2024. This page is the record of that allegation and of Mace's denial.

The sworn statement

According to Messervy's affidavit, Mace prefaced the remark by explaining that she "used to be a 'programmer,'" then said:

"I hacked into his [Patrick's] computer and phone."

Messervy attests that Mace produced an envelope of photographs she said she had taken from Patrick Bryant's phone, flashing the images and "quickly" returning each to the envelope, and that of the photographs, "none of these women are identifiable in the photos." Messervy, who dated Bryant before his relationship with Mace, swears Mace declined to name any alleged victim or witness who could corroborate the claims she made at the meeting. The affidavit reproduces a later text in which, asked how she could be sure of the allegations she was making, Mace replied: "Because they recorded it and I found the recordings … allegedly …"

Messervy states she gave an oral statement to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) on November 13, 2024, and signed the affidavit under penalty of contempt before a South Carolina notary on June 30, 2025. The paragraph containing the statement (¶9), as filed, is shown below.

Page 2 of the sworn affidavit of Ashleigh Messervy, paragraph 9, in which she attests Nancy Mace said, "I hacked into his [Patrick's] computer and phone" Page 2 of the sworn affidavit of Ashleigh Messervy (June 30, 2025, redacted), paragraph 9. One paragraph of the affidavit, concerning a minor child, has been redacted. The full six-page affidavit is reproduced on her page.

What Mace says: she did not "hack"

In her own sworn court filings, Mace denies that she "hacked" Bryant's phone. Answering Bryant's third-party complaint in Berg v. Bryant, she admits she "sought access to Bryant's phone" in the fall of 2023 but maintains in the same paragraph that Bryant then gave her express permission, added her thumbprint to the device, and told her she could access it whenever she wanted, and she says she reported what she found to SLED. That denial, and the verbatim admissions she does make about accessing the phone and the files she kept, are catalogued, each line quoted from the stamped filing it sits on, on In Her Own Words: The Phone & the Files.

So the dispute is not only about what happened but about the word for it. Messervy's affidavit puts "hacked" in Mace's own mouth in a private conversation; Mace's filings reject the label and assert consent. Both are part of the public record, and both are reproduced here.

The admission in her own Answer: hidden folders, a four-digit code

The denial is narrow, and it sits beside an admission. In the same sworn Amended Answer, Mace admits she got into the locked, hidden area of Bryant's phone, what the filing calls his "hidden folders," and that she did it with a four-digit code. Her account is that the code was one Bryant had given her for his safe, and that he had reused it for the hidden folders:

"Mace denies that she 'hacked' the phone. Mace accessed hidden folders on Bryant's phone using a four-digit code that Bryant had provided to her for his safe; Bryant chose to use the same code for both his safe and the hidden folder on his phone." (¶28)

Earlier in the same Answer she puts it the same way: Bryant "provided Mace with a four-digit code for his safe, which Bryant chose to use for hidden folders on his phone" (¶22). So the conduct she admits, opening a hidden, code-protected area of the device, is not itself in dispute; what is disputed is the word for it and whether it was authorized. Mace's position is that it was: that Bryant gave her express permission, added her thumbprint, told her she could access the phone whenever she wanted, and that she later gave what she found to law enforcement.

Page 7 of Nancy Mace's sworn Amended Answer in Berg v. Bryant, paragraph 28, in which she denies she "hacked" the phone while admitting she "accessed hidden folders on Bryant's phone using a four-digit code that Bryant had provided to her for his safe" Page 7 of Mace's sworn Amended Answer (Berg v. Bryant, No. 2025-CP-10-03124, filed Jan. 15, 2026), ¶28: she denies "hacking" while admitting she "accessed hidden folders on Bryant's phone using a four-digit code." The full filing, with every admitted line shown on the stamped page it sits on, is catalogued at In Her Own Words: The Phone & the Files.

Where this stands

The allegations Mace describes, and the accusations against her, are unproven and contested. No criminal charges have been filed. Bryant has categorically denied the underlying claims; Mace denies wrongdoing and maintains her conduct was undertaken in her official capacity as a Member of Congress, a scope-of-employment question that is contested and unadjudicated. Related civil litigation and a SLED inquiry remain pending. Nothing here is a finding of fact.

Sources & related coverage

This page reproduces a sworn affidavit and quotes from publicly filed court documents. The statement attributed to Rep. Mace appears in Ashleigh Messervy's sworn affidavit; Rep. Mace denies in her own filings that she "hacked" the phone and asserts she had permission to access it. The allegations on all sides are contested and unproven, and the matters remain in ongoing litigation and under a SLED inquiry. Nothing here is a finding of fact. One paragraph of the affidavit, concerning a minor child, has been redacted.

The hacking allegation: 'I hacked into his computer and phone', image 1

On the Record