Now she’s a victim.
#realKatieHill
Democrat Katherine Lauren ‘Katie’ Hill resigned from Congress in 2019 after reports alleging she had sexual relations with two of her employees became public, along with a couple of nude photos.
The former congresswoman is now spinning her licentious and arguably predatory behavior into a new career as a victim.
Why? Because she is a woman and the world picked on her.
She sued deep-pocketed Daily Mail and two other conservative outlets for publishing and distributing her nudes, claiming in effect that it forced her to quit Congress because society views a promiscuous woman who has sex with her public employees more harshly than a man.
The case turned on something called free speech, and since her photos were part of the story, the ex-congresswoman lost and was ordered to pay the attorneys fees of the defendants, which totaled about $220,000.
After losing the lawsuit, Hill tweeted: “A judge just ordered me to PAY the Daily Mail more than $100k for the privilege of them publishing nude photos of me obtained from an abuser.”
Actually, it wasn’t for the privilege of publishing nudes but because she did not have the privilege of filing a frivolous lawsuit.
Hill’s meteoric rise started in 2018, when she, a Democrat, was elected at age 31, to represent a district north of Los Angeles, a normally Republican district.
California’s 25th district was a long-time Republican district but Katie Hill won election as a Democrat and quickly began serving and being serviced too.
Hill soon gained national attention, heralded as the face of millennial change, one of the brave, proud progressives who helped return the House of Representatives to Democrat control. She was a protégé of House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
In her first year in office, Hill distinguished herself by rising to the No. 2 post on the House Oversight Committee.
After being elected, Hill, and her husband, Kenny Heslep, grew unhappy with each other. Prior to her election, Heslep was happy and so proud of his wife that he and Hill posted naked photos of her on Reddit forums – ‘WouldYouF**kMyWife’ and “Wife-sharing”.
One picture, captioned, “Do you like our goat?” shows Hill lying on a sun lounger, with a baby goat in the background.
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Hill with her goat.
Kenny and Katie formed a menage a trois with Hill’s female campaign employee Morgan Desjardins. But after she was elected, Hill broke up with Heslep and Desjardins and moved out of the house they shared.
In a text to Desjardins, Hill wrote, “I want to be alone. I don’t want to be accountable to anyone else. I want to be entirely focused on this work that I think is so important.”
“I am still in love with her,” Desjardins wrote to Heslep: “It rips my heart out every time I have to see her or have someone say something nice about her”. Desjardins also texted Heslep, “I’m still a mess over you fuckers. I didn’t realize how much being the dirty little secret bothered me.”
Desjardins, however, took some rare personal responsibility in a victims’ culture: “It was a dark time and you treated me really poorly but I also stayed which I also have to own,” she wrote.
In a text to her husband about the breakup, Hill said she would “continue to pay the bills and the mortgage. I hope you know that my intent was never to leave you high and dry. I simply was trying to separate things since I was moving out.”
Heslep wasn’t buying it. She did not want to be alone, he said he discovered she was having an affair with her male Congressional staffer, legislative director, Graham Kelly and he decided to take his wife down by going to the media with the story and with pictures to prove some of it.
The conservative website RedState.org. reported on October 18, 2018 that Hill was allegedly having a sexual relationship with Kelly, which, if true, was an ethics violation. Congress imposed a ban on members engaging in sexual relationships with staffers.
Hill denied the relationship with Kelly but admitted to her threesome affair with campaign aide Desjardins, for which there was no ban since campaign aides are paid from donations, not taxpayer money.
It would have been hard for Hill to deny the affair with Desjardins since Hill’s husband had pictures.
Katherine Hill brushes the hair of her employee and lover, Morgan Desjardins. Hill later sued the Daily Mail for publishing this photo.
Following the Red State publication, the Ethics Committee announced it was going to investigate.
Katie Hill with her lover, Morgan Desjardins, and husband Kenny Heslep.
Hill sent a letter to her constituents, blaming her husband, and others, and apologizing for the threesome, noting because she was in a position of authority over Desjardins, it was inappropriate.
“I am saddened that the deeply personal matter of my divorce has been brought into public view and the vindictive claims of my ex have now involved the lives and reputations of unrelated parties.”
Hill also blamed Republicans, “I am disgusted that my opponents would seek to exploit such a private matter for political gain.”
She added she was “fully and proactively” cooperating with the Ethics Committee investigation into her suspected affair with her male staffer Kelly. This may have been her downfall, for she initially denied, at least to the media, that she was having an affair with her male staffer.
Hill resigned from Congress on November 3, 2019, about two weeks into the scandal that was sure to pass had she stuck it out, provided she hadn’t lied under oath to Congress.
The House Ethics Committee investigation looking into her alleged sexual relationship with staffer Kelly ended with her resignation.
Former US Rep, Hill [center] denied having an affair with staffer Graham Kelly [l] but admitted to an affair with campaign aide Morgan Desjardins [r].
Among the nudes is one of Hill smoking a bong and sporting a tattoo of an Iron Cross on her pubic area.
In December 2020, arguing it was a violation of California’s revenge-porn law by distributing or publishing her nudes, Hill sued the Daily Mail, her husband, Red State and others.
The result was not good for Hill.
Judge Yolanda Orozco of Los Angeles County Superior Court ordered Hill to pay $105,000 to the parent company of the Daily Mail, $84,000 to the attorneys for Jennifer Van Laar, managing editor of Red State, and $30,000 to lawyers representing radio producer Joseph Messina.
Krista Lee Baughman, an attorney representing Van Laar and Messina, told the Los Angeles Times, “those who file speech-chilling lawsuits must pay the price”.
So Hill went from randy Congresswoman to female victim.
She wrote a book about being a victim, called “She Will Rise” though arguably Hill experienced her meteoric fall through her own actions.
She also claimed it would not have happened if she were a man.
She wrote, “It’s hard to identify exactly how much of a role the sexism separately from other factors played into my resignation but what I know is that an abusive relationship is a factor of sexism. The photos that were taken and posted without my consent is a factor of sexism.
“The shaming is a factor of sexism and the way that women are held to a higher standard. We have someone in the White House who has over 25 people who have accused him of sexual misconduct but it’s almost something that we have come to expect or normalize for men and not for women.”
Yes, it’s men, it’s society, it’s her husband, it’s the Daily Mail, it’s Donald Trump. It’s everyone but Katie Hill.
But she did not have to resign. If she told the truth and really did not have an affair with Kelly, there was absolutely no reason to resign.
She did not do anything illegal. Unless she was lying under oath about Kelly. Even if she had an affair with Kelly and lied about it to the media, she could have told the truth to the Ethics Committee and the worst that would have happened is she might have lost her committee seat. She would not have been expelled.
No, it just doesn’t wash that men are to blame for her behavior or that she would have been treated better if she were a man and so we must feel sorry for her since she is a victim. No one forced her to have sex with anyone and no one forced her to resign. She could have stuck it out and weathered the storm, maybe like the men she thinks get all the breaks might do.
She also claims that after her randy risings became public, she was thinking about suicide. Instead, she resigned.
Later Hill joined the Black Lives Matter marches in Washington and launched HerTime, a race and gender-biased political action committee that purports to help young women and women of color get elected over White men.
Of course, it is embarrassing. Where does she go from here? Everyone knows about it and everyone who knows her or is going to meet her has seen the pictures. Add to her kooky behavior the fact that she quit way too easily. It’s hard to make a comeback.
But perhaps is she stops blaming others, and stops being a victim. Lay the whole responsibility on herself – she was an adult woman elected to represent the people of her district. And then go out there. Don’t apologize and do something other than whine.
The world only sympathizes with strength and courage.
And frankly, except the perpetual victim crowd, no one is going to sympathize with her.
