SANTA CLARITA (CNS) - Rep. Katie Hill, D-Santa Clarita, today called allegations she had a relationship with a staff member “absolutely false,” after a conservative website published multiple articles about her.
“The fact is I am going through a divorce from an abusive husband who seems determined to try to humiliate me,” Hill said in a statement released to the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. “I am disgusted that my opponents would seek to exploit such a private matter for political gain. This coordinated effort to try to destroy me and people close to me is despicable and will not succeed.
“I, like many women who have faced attacks like this before, am stronger than those who want me to be afraid.”
Hill said in the statement that she had contacted U.S. Capitol Police after intimate photos of her and another person were published by the conservative website RedState, images she said were “published by Republican operatives on the internet without my consent.”
RedState has published a series of articles over the last week that allege Hill was involved in relationships with a campaign staffer and, separately, a congressional staff member. Text messages purportedly between Hill, the campaign aide and her husband were published by site on Tuesday.
Hill called the articles a “smear campaign.”
Kat Walker, a gun control activist and Hill supporter, told The New York Times Hill was “a victim of revenge porn, which is a form of domestic violence and psychological abuse.”
The House voted in 2018 to prohibit sexual relationships between lawmakers and their employees.
Hill defeated then-Rep. Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, in November to represent the 25th Congressional District, which includes Santa Clarita Valley, and portions of the northern San Fernando Valley, Antelope Valley and eastern Ventura County.
Hill is California's first bisexual member of Congress.
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