Rep. Katie Hill,
D-Calif., announced her resignation Sunday after a string of reports
shining a negative light on her personal life, including a reported
affair with her legislative director that sparked a
House Ethics Committee investigation.
Hill tweeted
on Sunday evening, “It is with a broken heart that today I announce my
resignation from Congress. This is the hardest thing I have ever had to
do, but I believe it is the best thing for my constituents, my
community, and our country.” She is expected to step down by the end of
this week.
The congresswoman last week had fought back against
reports of an affair with the congressional staffer, as well as reports
she was in a so-called “throuple” relationship with husband Kenny
Heslep and a campaign staffer.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., issued a statement saying, “Congresswoman Katie Hill came to
Congress with a powerful commitment to her community and a bright vision
for the future, and has made a great contribution as a leader of the
Freshman class.”
“She has acknowledged errors in judgment that
made her continued service as a member untenable,” Pelosi wrote. “We
must ensure a climate of integrity and dignity in Congress, and in all
workplaces.”
This past Thursday, the political fallout for Hill escalated as more compromising photos
of the freshman lawmaker surfaced. The Daily Mail published one photo
of what appeared to be Hill undressed and holding a bong, and another of
her kissing the campaign staffer.
The photos emerged shortly
after the conservative website RedState.org posted screenshots of
several text messages between Hill and the staffer detailing the
reported end of their three-person relationship earlier this year and reported on intimate pictures including a nude photo of Hill brushing the staffer’s hair.
According to the texts that were shown, Hill wanted to focus on her work and suggested that “political risk” was a factor.
Fox News has not verified the authenticity of the photos.
Hill,
in the letter announcing her resignation, wrote: “This is what needs to
happen so that the good people who supported me will no longer be
subjected to the pain inflicted by my abusive husband and the brutality
of hateful political operatives who seem to happily provide a platform
to a monster who is driving a smear campaign built around cyber
exploitation.”
She continued, “Having private photos of personal
moments weaponized against me has been an appalling invasion of my
privacy. It’s also illegal, and we are currently pursuing all of our
available legal options.”
Hill, an openly bisexual congresswoman
and the vice chairwoman of the powerful House Oversight Committee,
admitted Wednesday she had an “inappropriate” relationship with the
female campaign staffer.
In
a letter sent to constituents on Wednesday and obtained by Fox News,
Hill acknowledged that in the final years of what she called an “abusive
marriage,” she began a relationship with the unnamed campaign staffer.
Heslep filed for divorce from Hill earlier this year.
“I
am going through a divorce from an abusive husband who seems determined
to try to humiliate me,” Hill said in her statement last week. “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 the
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.”
RedState also reported earlier this
month that Hill had an extramarital affair with Graham Kelly, her
legislative director and former campaign finance director, for at least a
year. Heslep was said to have shared his own screenshot of a text
exchange he had with a friend who had heard about the affair; it was
later deleted from his Facebook account.
The reported affair with a congressional staffer prompted the House Ethics Committee investigation.
According to RedState, the alleged affair was why Heslep filed for divorce. Hill has denied the affair with Kelly.
RedState
also published a series of purported late-night texts in which Heslep
called into question Hill’s drinking. Other texts showed the female
staffer involved in the “throuple” expressing concerns about Hill's
drinking.
“I know that as long as I am in Congress, we’ll live
fearful of what might come next and how much it might hurt,” Hill wrote
in Sunday’s statement. “That’s a feeling I know all too well. It’s the
feeling I decided to leave when I left my marriage, and one I will not
tolerate being forced upon others. I can no longer allow my community,
family, friends, staff, supporters, and especially the children who look
up to me as a role model, to suffer this unprecedented brand of
cruelty.”
She went on to apologize.
“For the mistakes made
along the way and the people who have been hurt, I am so sorry, and I am
learning – I am not a perfect person and never pretended to be. It’s
one of the things that made my race so special,” Hill wrote. “I hope it
showed others that they do belong, that their voice does matter, and
that they do have a place in this country.”
The Republican
challengers for Hill's congressional seat have pounced on the
controversy as they sought to win back one of the many districts the
Democrats took in the 2018 midterm elections.
“Katie Hill did the
right thing by resigning from Congress,” challenger Mike Garcia said in a
statement Sunday. “The past week has been a complete distraction from
the important work that needs to be done, and it’s time for our district
to move forward and unite around a leader.”
In a statement
reacting to Hill’s resignation, Angela Underwood-Jacobs, a Republican
council member in Lancaster, Calif., said Hill “blatantly violated the
trust of voters of the 25th District which is why I was the first of her
opponents to call on her to resign.”
Another GOP candidate, Mark
Cripe, said in a statement that the news of Hill’s resignation “affords
California’s 25th district an opportunity to move forward in a positive
direction, with new representation that better hears and supports all
the families of Antelope, Santa Clarita, and Simi valleys.”
George Papadopoulos,
the former foreign policy adviser for President Trump who served 12
days in federal prison for lying to federal investigators, also weighed
in on Hill's controversy. Papadopoulos, who recently moved to California
with his wife, has stirred speculation that he might challenge Hill for
her seat in 2020.
“I’m smelling blood in the water now that Katie Hill has resigned,” Papadopoulos tweeted
Sunday. “California’s 25th congressional district is wide open for the
taking. Someone has to step up. I love my state too much to see it run
down by candidates like Hill. All talk, no action, and a bunch of sell
outs.”
Fox News’ Mike Arroyo, Ben Florance, Kevin Kirby, Chad Pergram and Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.
