A freshman Democratic lawmaker claimed Tuesday that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) knew about the sexual harassment allegations against him since 2016, before he got elected.
Rep. Ruben Kihuen’s (D-NV) former campaign finance director, who only identified herself as Samantha, accused the Democrat lawmaker last week of inappropriately touching her and pressuring her to have sex with him on the campaign last year despite her rejecting his advances.
Pelosi called on the 37-year-old freshman lawmaker to resign Saturday, following Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Chair Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) in calling for Kihuen to resign.
But Kihuen told ABC News that Pelosi knew about the allegations since last year, and still offered to campaign for him.
“They looked into them. They didn’t find anything, and they continued investing millions of dollars in my campaign,” said Kihuen. “They went out there and campaigned for me.”
Spokespersons for Lujan and Pelosi denied Kihuen’s statements, even though campaign records show the DCCC invested $3 million in Kihuen’s congressional race in 2016.
Kihuen denied that the allegations against him were true and vowed that he would not resign from Congress.
Although Kihuen maintains his innocence, Democrats are already siphoning off financial support for future campaigns.
The DCCC also removed Kihuen from a 2018 fundraising program designed to support incumbent Democrat representatives.