D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser broke her silence Wednesday on the sexual harassment accusations that felled her deputy mayor and political confidante John Falcicchio, calling his actions towards a subordinate “wrong.”

“I’ve been completely devastated by these allegations since they were made. John’s behavior was wrong. Period. I’ve worked hard to build a team of hard workers who wake up every single day committed to delivering for the people of the District of Columbia. And we all swear to foster a workplace that reflects our policies and our values and to make decisions not motivated by fear or favor,” she said at an impromptu press conference on Wednesday. “So if any individual violates these policies or my expectations for a sexual harassment-free workplace, including John, they will be held accountable.”

Bowser’s comments come only days after an internal city investigation partly sustained a female government employee’s accusations that Falcicchio sexually harassed her. The investigation, which was launched in early March after he suddenly left the government, found that Falcicchio had made sexual advances, exposed himself, and sent thousands of “sexually-charged” messages to the woman. A second woman has since leveled separate accusations of sexual harassment against Falcicchio, which are currently being investigated.

Her comments also come amidst a growing push from the D.C. Council for an independent investigation into the accusations against Falcicchio, with more than half of the legislature’s members saying that they worry that the internal investigation may not have delved deeply enough into broader workplace issues fueled by one of the government’s most senior officials.

On Tuesday, Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) said she was even considering legislation that would require that an outside party investigate any accusations of sexual harassment involving senior government officials. Currently, an outside investigation is only triggered if the accusations involve the mayor or her general counsel.

Bowser said she doesn’t think an independent investigation is necessary, largely because the internal investigation did find Falcicchio at fault for some of the accusations made against him. “I believe in… the process that took place. There was a main allegation of sexual harassment against a deputy mayor that was substantiated. So I don’t know what else an investigation would would look into,” she said.

Vanessa Natale, the deputy director of the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel, which led the investigation into the accusations against Falcicchio, defended her office’s work.

“Our investigator did an exhaustive investigation. Thousands of emails, 21 interviewees, 32 interviews. I’m not exaggerating when I say hundreds of hours of thinking, talking, writing. That’s what you can trust. I stand behind our report and the findings 100%. And I know I shouldn’t say it, but I don’t think there can be any better report written on sexual harassment allegations,” she said.

Both Natale and Bowser conceded to criticisms the office received over the timing of the investigation’s release: findings were made public on the Saturday night of a long weekend, leading to accusations that the administration was trying to bury the findings. “I think it’s clear that I don’t understand timing,” Natale said. “And I was just very happy to be done with the report and to get it out.”

Bowser also said that her office has had to balance conducting the investigation and making as many details public as possible, without invading any victims’ privacy in the process.

“My first goal is to make sure that I send the clear message to our employees that if there’s something wrong in your workplace, whether it’s sexual harassment or any complaint, we want you to come forward and I want to send a clear message that your allegations will be taken seriously and investigated. And the findings, to the extent that they are shareable, I think that we should share them. Keeping in mind, I don’t want anything that I do to have a chilling effect on the investigation that continues or on anybody else coming forward,” she said.

But some of Bowser and Natale’s comments provoked a response from Deborah Katz and Kayla Morin, the attorneys representing the woman who accused Falcicchio of sexual harassment. In a statement, they said they had been “blindsided” by how and when the investigation’s findings were made public.

“Contrary to the public narrative, we were not notified in advance that the report would be released publicly Saturday night. We were also not informed that the public release would include identifying information about our client and detailed information about her allegations,” they said. “While we agree that transparency is necessary for accountability, transparency should not come at the expense of the complainant. The release of our client’s detailed information in such a public fashion — and without the chance to prepare her in advance — blindsided us, and we are concerned that this approach could chill complainants from coming forward to report sexual harassment in the future.”

The mayor said additional reviews of what happened would likely be conducted, including by the D.C. Inspector General, and that after the second investigation is completed her office would produce an after-action report detailing any changes to policies and practices on investigating sexual harassment and workplace conduct issues. Natale also said that financial settlements could be paid out to the victims of Falcicchio’s harassment, though that process has not yet started.

This post has been updated with a statement from Deborah Katz and Kayla Morin.