Katie Hill blasts 'coordinated campaign' against her, says she will fight for victims of revenge porn

Katie Hill.
(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) released a video on Monday condemning the "coordinated campaign" she says forced her into resigning from Congress.

Hill announced on Sunday that she is stepping down, just a few days after she admitted she had an "inappropriate" relationship with a campaign staffer last year. She denied a new accusation that she is having a sexual relationship with her legislative director, and agreed to cooperate with a House Ethics Committee investigation.

Nude photos of Hill were recently published on a conservative website, and in the video, she blasted the leak. "I will fight to ensure that no one else has to live through what I just experienced," she said. "Some people call this electronic assault, digital exploitation. Others call it revenge porn. As a victim of it, I call it one of the worst things we can do to our sisters and our daughters."

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Hill is in the midst of a divorce, and she believes there is a "coordinated campaign" being carried out against her by "the right-wing media and Republican opponents." They are enabling her husband by giving him a platform, she continued, something that is "disgusting and unforgivable, and they will be held accountable." Hill doesn't want her experience to "scare off other young women or girls from running for office," she said, adding, "I never thought my imperfections would be weaponized and used to try to destroy me and the community I have loved for my entire life. For that, I am so incredibly sorry." Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

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.