Former California Rep. Katie Hill Plays the Victim in Her Own #MeToo Case

Former Rep. Katie Hill, the California Democrat who resigned following her très bizarre multi-layered sex scandal with a younger female staffer, is now presenting herself as the victim of harassment, bullying, and revenge porn in a New York Times op-ed published over the weekend.

It’s not uncommon for predators to play the victim when cornered. But Katie Hill’s specific predatory behavior with a young staffer is exactly what launched the #MeToo movement in California’s Legislature. This is a textbook #MeToo moment, yet feminists, who so loudly screeched charges of “sexual harassment” and “abuse” when male lawmakers preyed on younger female staffers, are silent.

While Katie Hill is using the New York Times op ed to spin her predation into victimhood, there are real victims in her web, along with workplace violations.

Former Rep. Katie Hill’s Victimhood?

Allegations and photos emerged of Rep. Hill and her husband involved in a “throuple” threesome relationship with a young congressional staffer. Hill also had allegedly been involved in a sexual relationship for a year with her finance director.

She resigned after the “throuple” relationship was exposed, along with photos of Hill posing naked with a tattoo of what appears to be a Nazi-era Iron Cross on her bikini line, while smoking a bong and making out with her young female aide.

RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar broke the strange story of Katie Hill’s sexual relationship with her young staffer and former intern, and Hill’s husband, and the legislative director.

Days later, DailyMail.com published the naked photos with the tattoo and bong, and also reported they had obtained a “cache of texts and intimate photographs which revealed Hill and Heslep had posted her naked photos online under a thread called ‘WouldYouF**kMyWife’?”

Kira Davis at RedState reports that now Van Laar is under attack for reporting the truth:

“Van Laar is from the same community as Hill, and she has been mercilessly attacked by Hill’s proxies and libeled by Hill herself. She is a single mother and business owner. Her family has been harassed and threatened. Her children, one of whom is a minor, have had to face online harassment. She has been forced to beef up security around her home. After repeated hack attempts she’s had to completely reconstruct her online privacy protocol, including taking extra measures to protect her financial accounts, which have also been subject to hack attempts. Her business has suffered, and she has been made the subject of a smear campaign in the very community she depends on to support herself and her family.”

Notably, just three days after Katie Hill’s sexual misconduct story with her staff was revealed, she must not have been too worried because she formed a joint fundraising committee with the California Democratic Party: Hill 2020 Victory Fund, Statement Of Organization, Filed 10/21/19.

Hill and her husband Kenny Helsep also had a profile on www.cruiseshipmingle.com, a website used by people going on a cruise to hook up sexually.

Predatory Lawmaker

Rather than empathizing with the victims, in her op ed Katie Hill plays the victim after being the predator.

“I overcame the desperation I felt after stepping down from Congress, and I’m still in the fight.”

Predatory persons are entitled and believe that they are better than others.

“The job was hard — I made some missteps, there were plenty of things I could have done better, and I had so much to learn. But I was figuring it out fast. I was good at this. My future in Congress was limitless, and that mattered not only to me but to the people who believed in me.”

Predators are never wrong:

Hill writes of “wild accusations from my estranged husband about a supposed affair with a congressional staffer (which I have repeatedly denied), since I had resigned my hard-fought seat in Congress. I had barely gotten used to giving such speeches.”

Yet, Hill wrote in a statement sent to supporters in October, and obtained by The Associated Press: “I know that even a consensual relationship with a subordinate is inappropriate, but I still allowed it to happen despite my better judgment.” (which I have repeatedly denied?)

Predators think they should be served, instead of seeking to serve others:

“Once I got to Washington, I was one of two people elected to represent the freshman class at the leadership table, and once I started sitting in meetings multiple times each week with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the other most powerful Democrats in the House, I knew I belonged there, too. I didn’t feel awkward or unsure. I was completely confident. I felt as if my district loved me (and the polling showed it) and I knew I was making a difference to so many people even just by showing them they could have a voice at the highest levels of power.”

They dramatize emotions:

“I read those articles with the acute sense that writers and readers alike must think I am already dead. I’m not, though sometimes I’ve wished to be. More than half of the victims of cyber exploitation (also known as revenge porn) contemplate suicide in the aftermath. Many have attempted it, and some tragically have succeeded.”

They pretend to be whatever it is they need to be in order to gain trust or sympathy:

“After the images came out, as I lay curled up in my bed with my mind in the darkest places it’s ever been, countless texts and voice mails came from donors, friends, volunteers and voters sending love. But they couldn’t drown out the horrible messages and calls from people who found my phone number on the internet.”

They must be in control.

“People have speculated that Speaker Pelosi or the party leadership asked me to resign because of the photos and the allegations about me. That could not be further from the truth. In fact, one of the most difficult moments during my resignation process was my phone call to the Speaker, a woman I admire more than anyone and whom I had come to love. She told me I didn’t have to do this, that the country needed me and that she wished I hadn’t made this decision, but she respected me and what I felt I needed to do. I told her what I told everyone else when I announced my resignation: that it was the right thing to do.”

They lack empathy.

Hill describes contemplating cutting her wrists with a box cutter while taking a bath: 

“…and then I thought about my supporters.” 

They are often charming and personable.

And they play the victim.

With the release of Hill’s naked pictures, she and then her supporters claimed she is the victim of “revenge porn,” the nonconsensual publication of sexual images.

Hill’s final day in Congress she again played the victim as she explains in her New York Times op ed:

“So the next day I put on my battle uniform: a red dress suit that my mom had bought me. I put on my war paint: bright red lipstick. I stepped up to that lectern and told the world that although my time in Congress was over, I wasn’t done — I was just moving to another battlefield. I closed my speech, saying: ‘We will not stand down. We will not be broken. We will not be silenced. We will rise, and we will make tomorrow better than today. … I yield the balance of my time for now, but not forever.’ I meant that not just for myself, but for all of us.”

“I don’t know exactly what’s ahead for me, and I know there’s a lot more pain ahead. But I’m in the fight, and I’m glad it’s not all over after all.”

But there was so much more than just the sexual images to be concerned about. A complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission says the young female staffer, Morgan Desjardins, was paid to be available for personal and private purposes unrelated to the Representative’s congressional campaign. As such, as a candidate in the 2017-2018 election cycle, Rep. Katie Hill misused campaign funds for her personal use, the complaint alleges.

None of this was addressed in her op ed.

Kira Davis wraps up it up succinctly: “Hill can spin all she wants, but she knows what she did and that’s exactly why she’s writing op-eds in The New York Times instead of sitting in Congress right now.”