Former California Democratic Rep. Katie Hill said Tuesday that Rep. Matt Gaetz should resign and “be held responsible” if the recent allegations made against him are true.
“If there is even a fraction of truth to these reports, he should resign immediately,” Hill wrote in a Vanity Fair article published Tuesday. Florida Republican Rep. Gaetz is subject to a federal sex trafficking investigation but has denied any wrongdoing and claimed he’s entangled in a $25 million extortion plot. (RELATED: Meghan McCain Says She’s Not Shocked By Matt Gaetz Allegations: ‘Any Moron Can Get Elected To Congress’)
Hill wrote that despite their political differences, Gaetz befriended her during the middle of her divorce. They both served on the Armed Services Committee and often chatted about life experiences. Hill also said she was the victim of the same crime that Gaetz has been accused of committing: the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
“People across the world were seeing images of my naked body, many of which I hadn’t known were taken and none of which I had consented to share,” Hill wrote. “I was the victim of nonconsensual pornography, also known as intimate-image abuse or revenge porn. But the photos showed that I’d had a relationship with someone who had worked on my campaign. A relationship that was inappropriate, though not illegal, and that I never should have engaged in and never would have outside the context of an unusually close-knit campaign and a crumbling marriage.”
But Hill explicitly stated that Gaetz ought to resign if the allegations are true and “be held responsible.”
“Let me state it as clear as possible: If, despite his denials, Matt Gaetz did have sex with a minor, if he did provide girls and young women with drugs and money and gifts in exchange for sex, if he did ask these girls and young women to recruit other women for the same purpose, and if he did show his colleagues images of nude women without their consent, he needs to be held responsible,” the former congresswoman wrote.
Hill said she usually does not weigh in on these types of situations out of fear that critics, such as Ben Shapiro, will call her a sexual predator, or that trolls will share naked pictures of her without her consent. She also noted that her mom never liked her friendship with Gaetz.
“When he defended me, she raised her eyebrows and told me I’d better not sleep with him (I did not, for the record),” Hill wrote.
Gaetz did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.