“Throuple” Former Democrat Congresswoman Katie Hill Suing Media Companies Over Sex Scandal, Nude Photos

A former Democrat member of Congress who was forced to resign in disgrace after grooming members of her Congressional staff for a “throuple” relationship is suing two media organizations for publishing scandalous details of her private life, claiming they violated her privacy for publishing nude photos taken by her ex-husband and revealing she roped a congressional staffer into their marriage.

Former California Congresswoman Katie Hill is seeking “unspecified damages for emotional distress and violation of state law for distribution of intimate personal material without Hill’s consent.” Hill is suing RedState and the Daily Mail, two outlets that published news of the scandal and naked photos of Hill using drugs. Hill resigned from Congress after the scandal, having since sought to paint herself as a victim who was targeted by sexists.

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley, who reported on Hill’s lawsuits, describes her attempts to sue media companies that reported on a sex scandal as “concerning.” Hill is also suing her ex-husband, Kenneth Heslep, who is responsible for sharing her nude photos. Hill recently obtained a restraining order against Heslep, and their tumultuous marriage led the husband to expose Hill’s unconventional relationship.

Turley describes Hill as “seeking a radical extension of liability” in her attempts to sue media organizations, with the Democrat alleging that their publication of the photos was colored with malice. Media organizations publish private and intimate photos of public figures all the time, and First Amendment law broadly understands such content to be lawful and constitutional.

Hill’s own former staffers have pushed back against her attempt to reinvent herself as a victim, objecting to a plan to make a feminist movie about Hill’s sex scandal on her former congressional Twitter account.

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