Former Congressional staffers indicted for distributing nude photos of House member
A grand jury has indicted two former House staffers for allegedly circulating private, nude images and videos of a member of Congress and the member's spouse, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Juan McCullum, 35, has been indicted on two counts of cyberstalking, and Dorene Browne-Louis, 45, on two counts of obstruction of justice. The indictment says McCullum worked for the House member, who was not identified, from April 2015 until June 2016, and in March 2016 offered to take the member's iPhone to get fixed. The iPhone contained the private images and videos, and the Department of Justice says after he left the job, McCullum opened a "Facebook social media account, using a fictitious name, to distribute and post the private images and videos" and "encouraged others" to pass them around the member's district.
McCullum allegedly sent texts to Browne-Louis letting her know what he had done, and she purportedly deleted those messages and made "false, incomplete, and misleading statements" to police and a grand jury. She appeared in court Thursday and pleaded not guilty. McCullum's first court appearance has not yet been set.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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