Tipsheet

No, Katie Hill, You’re Not Resigning Because Of Naked Photos

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  October 31, 2019 5:05 PM

Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) is gone. Well, it’s not official until tomorrow, but she has resigned in disgrace after it was revealed that she was having an improper relationship with a subordinate. That’s unethical and against House rules. There are legal arguments that one cannot offer consent to someone who also signs their paychecks. RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar broke the story that engulfed Hill’s office in controversy:

It is in that spirit that we are sharing information obtained from multiple confidential sources relating to Rep. Hill, who’s currently in divorce proceedings. It is this writer’s view that events that occur within a marriage or affairs that lead to its demise should be kept between the parties involved and are not the business of the general public. When those events or affairs occur within one of the parties’ workplace, though, and that workplace is the United States Congress, the public should know about them as they determine that elected official’s fitness to serve.

Photographs and text messages obtained by RedState show that Rep. Hill was involved in a long-term sexual relationship with a female campaign staffer. The woman, whose name is not being released, was hired by Hill in late 2017 and quickly became involved in a “throuple” relationship with Hill and her estranged husband, Kenny Heslep. 

Heslep and the staffer, according to text messages provided to RedState, believed the polyamorous arrangement to be a long-term, committed relationship. The trio took multiple vacations together, including to Alaska…

[…]

According to a source close to the staffer, the throuple agreed to continue their committed relationship when Hill moved to Washington, D.C. on January 2019, but that Heslep and the staffer quickly noticed a difference in Hill’s demeanor. By late May, Hill broke off her relationships with both Heslep and the staffer, claiming she wanted to focus on “this important work” and that it wasn’t fair to be involved in a relationship. The staffer, as these text messages show, was distraught and trying to figure out how to move on with her life.

[…]

…after Hill left the throuple Heslep was told “by numerous sources” that Hill had been involved in a sexual relationship for a year with her then-finance director, now Legislative Director, Graham Kelly.

Yes, there are texts and photographs that confirm all of this. Yet, it’s not the throuple aspect that’s troubling, though it’s borne some pretty good jokes. It’s the fact that Hill decided to have a relationship with her legislative director. And yes, four days ago the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into this relationship. The walls were closing in and she decided to resign. In her farewell speech, Hill went into a tirade against the double standard that zapped her career (via Politico):


I'm stepping down, but I refuse to let this experience scare off other women who dare to take risks, who dare to step into this light, who dare to be powerful,” Hill, who has denied the allegations, said in the nearly eight-minute speech.

“The way to overcome this setback is for women to keep showing up, to keep running for office, to keep stepping up as leaders, because the more we show up, the less power they have.”

Hill used her last speech as a House member to decry the double standards applied to male and female public officials, to take aim at the conservative outlets that disseminated nude photos of her without her consent and to promise not to shrink from the spotlight as she speaks out against cyber exploitation of women.

[…]

“The mistakes I’ve made and the people I’ve hurt that led to this moment will haunt me for the rest of my life,” Hill said.

“But I have more to say because this is bigger than me,” she added. “I’m leaving now because of a double standard. … I'm leaving because of a misogynistic culture that gleefully consumed my naked pictures, capitalized on my sexuality and enabled my abusive ex to continue that abuse.”

Hill ended by saying she was proud of her last official act, voting to affirm the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump — who has been accused of more than two dozen instances of sexual misconduct, all of which he denies — “on behalf of the women of the United States."

[…]

“A large segment of society that fears and hates powerful women have combined to push a young woman out of power,” Hill said. “Yet a man who brags about his sexual predation, who has had dozens of women come forward to accuse him of sexual assault ... sits in the highest office of the land.”

Yeah, that has nothing to do with what you did, soon-to-be-ex congresswoman. It’s not the photos. It’s not the texts. Your past throuple was the bridge to the larger and more serious ethics violation regarding the relationship you had with Mr. Kelly. Of course, one has to show evidence of this throuple since it’s the odd arrangement that preceded her larger ethics iceberg. As for the double standard, is there one in this case? If Hill were a man, she would have also had to resign. As for the allegations against Trump, there is little evidence that any of those past alleged relationships were unethical under House rules. No taxpayer money was involved either. The lady just got caught and now she’s gone. Period. So, save the tired and predictable lectures against the patriarchy for someone else, congresswoman. Others have combed through that already. But Hill did have one final sendoff from members of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s squad. She took one last photo with left-wing Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). AOC’s squad and Hill. Now, that’s quite the throuple.

See ya and good riddance, lady.