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posted by Fnord666 on Friday November 24 2017, @09:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the is-everything-bigger-in-Texas? dept.

(Update: The Capitol Police are investigating the release of the photo.)

Texas Congressman Joe Barton has confirmed that an explicit image circulating on social media shows him exposing himself. Barton claims to be a victim of "revenge porn", which was outlawed in Texas in 2015:

Sarah Dodd of Dodd Communications, who is helping Barton respond to the image, confirmed that the image is of him and on Wednesday the Congressman apologized for not using "better judgment" while separated from his wife and in consensual relationships with women. "While separated from my second wife, prior to the divorce, I had sexual relationships with other mature adult women," Barton said in a statement first reported by The Texas Tribune. "Each was consensual. Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down."

[...] Wednesday evening, an unnamed woman came forward to The Washington Post [archive], telling the newspaper that Barton sent her lewd photos, videos and messages when they had two sexual encounters over the course of five years.

In a 2015 phone call, Barton allegedly confronted the woman over her communications with other women, including her decision to share explicit materials he had sent, the Post reported. The woman shared that secretly recorded phone call with the paper and, according to the Post, in that call, he warned her against using the explicit images he had sent her, in a way that would negatively affect his career -- vowing that he would go to the Capitol Hill police over her actions. The woman told the Post she took that phone call as a threat, and she never had any intention to use the materials to retaliate against Barton.

Barton, in a statement released through a spokesman, says it was to stop her from publicly releasing the images as "revenge porn." Revenge porn -- when sexually explicit images are posted online without consent -- was outlawed in Texas in 2015.

Revenge porn is defined by Texas as "visual material" depicting a person's exposed "intimate parts" or engagement in sexual activity, distributed without a person's consent and causing them "harm", and created under circumstances in which the person had a reasonable expectation of privacy. The depicted person's identity must also be revealed for the defendant to be held liable, but the bar for this is low and includes any information provided by a third party in response to the disclosure of the material.

The city of Washington D.C. also has a revenge porn law. In April, a man was convicted of five misdemeanor counts under the Criminalization of Non-Consensual Pornography Act of 2014. The crime rises to a felony if more than five people viewed the image/video.

The image of Rep. Barton was censored by the Twitter user (⚠ Warning ⚠: contains the image), which may cause it to not be considered revenge porn under the Texas law. The user reportedly claims to also have videos of Barton masturbating.

Here is a guide to revenge porn laws in other states.

Related: MPAA Opposes Minnesota "Revenge Porn" Draft Legislation
Facebook to Fight Revenge Porn by Letting Potential Victims Upload Nudes in Advance


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday November 24 2017, @11:15PM (9 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday November 24 2017, @11:15PM (#601176) Journal

    Note: The image doesn't contain congressional penis. It was censored before it was released, not after.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 24 2017, @11:33PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 24 2017, @11:33PM (#601183)

    But don't we all, what with the Republican control of both houses, and the "increase the deficit to give a tax-break to the wealthy" bill, have a little congressional penis in us?

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 24 2017, @11:37PM (1 child)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday November 24 2017, @11:37PM (#601184) Journal

      Too little to be captured in the form of revenge porn?

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @03:11AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @03:11AM (#601234)

        Probably. But it will cost the average middle-class American a Thousand. And then there will be the increased cost of health insurance, so the middle class will be doubly screwed. Did you notice that the blurred out portion could have two penises in it?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday November 25 2017, @03:28AM (4 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday November 25 2017, @03:28AM (#601236) Homepage Journal

      Last I checked in on Trump's tax ideas, "tax breaks for the wealthy" was nowhere to be found in it. It cut taxes on the low end, cut taxes on corporations, and raised taxes on high income bracket individuals. One of us needs to do a lot less Listen-and-Believe-ing.

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      • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday November 25 2017, @08:25AM

        by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Saturday November 25 2017, @08:25AM (#601317) Homepage Journal

        Thank you! We're doing the biggest tax cut in the history of the world and the amazing thing is, I won't benefit personally. I'm one of the richest guys ever, as you know. And believe me, I won't benefit at all. But it's going to be tremendous for our companies. Yours, mine, everybody's. I own over 600 companies, I'm sure you have a lot too. The tax cut is a beautiful thing for them. And if we ever die, it'll be tremendous for our heirs. Because we're killing the death tax, we're going to a ZERO death tax. Great news for folks getting ready to die!

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday November 25 2017, @07:58PM (2 children)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday November 25 2017, @07:58PM (#601475)

        I'm sure the mighty orange had a tax idea like that, I bet he tweeted it - since it seems to fit in 140 characters or less and sounds like something that might have made him feel good to say at some point.

        The actual tax bills that are rolling through, what is in them - surely takes more than 140 characters to paint the whole picture, and what comes after when the deficit grows and grows, will we be mothballing aircraft carrier groups to make up the difference?

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        • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday November 26 2017, @11:47AM (1 child)

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday November 26 2017, @11:47AM (#601691) Homepage Journal

          Heh, it always cracks me up when someone on the left is all "but... muh deficit!". Yes, the only one in recent history in office while water flowed uphill was Clinton but that was just him being along for the dotcom bubble ride. Actual voting records show that neither party gives the tiniest flying fuck about spending money they don't have.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday November 26 2017, @03:29PM

            by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday November 26 2017, @03:29PM (#601740)

            Not sayin' slick willie was magic, or that barry or mr. peanut or any of the others ever did much to "balance the budget," but... throw it under the bus completely and we will end up with runaway inflation, doesn't matter who is doing it - sooner or later the imbalance starts to outweigh the "trickle down stimulus" effects and it starts to hurt, like seriously hurting the value of the dollar to the point that people with lots of them start trading them for other currency, which hurts the value of the dollar further. But, since we're going to be so "great again" we don't need none of that overseas junk here, nohow, right?

            There's a liberal-commie documentary on Netflix now (surprise, right?) called Cuba and the cameraman, or something like that. It's actually seems to paint a kind of balanced picture - certainly shows some of the less-than-pretty side of what happened there in the last ~45 years.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @01:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 25 2017, @01:56AM (#601218)

    Note: The image doesn't contain congressional penis. It was censored before it was released, not after.
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    Ahh, so they're the ones who made him look like a molting Smurf?