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Rep. Katie Hill announces resignation amid allegations of improper relationships with staffers

Democratic Rep. Katie Hill of California on Sunday announced her resignation from Congress days after she admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with a campaign staffer before coming into office.

"It is with a broken heart that today I announce my resignation from Congress," Hill said in a statement Sunday. "This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but I believe it is the best thing for my constituents, my community, and our country."

News of Hill's resignation comes after the House Committee on Ethics announced Wednesday it was opening an investigation into allegations Hill engaged in an improper relationship with a congressional staffer in possible violation of House rules.

[...] Earlier this month a conservative blog released intimate photos of Hill, alleging she and her husband had a separate relationship with an unnamed female campaign staffer. That report included three photos of the congresswoman, including an explicit photo. CNN has reached out to Hill's husband for comment but has not heard back. Hill offered no evidence linking her husband to the distribution of the photos.

Revenge porn is being used to smear and discredit a sitting congresswoman

Katie Hill, of California’s 25th district, found the naked picture of herself published online while she is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. In an email to supporters, Hill, who was elected as a freshman Democrat in the 2018 midterms, acknowledged a consensual relationship with an aide during her congressional campaign. But she denied another alleged relationship with a different aide, on Capitol Hill, that her ex-husband claims she had.

[...] What Hill admits to – an extramarital affair with a campaign staffer during what she calls “the final tumultuous years” of an “abusive marriage” – isn’t great.

It’s worth pointing out the distinct ethical position of a woman’s abuse of power in this way from a man’s: when Hill engaged in an affair with a campaign aide, she did not do so in the context of millennia of men’s sexual violence against women, and she did not do so with the reasonable ability to threaten force. But acknowledging this does not mean that we must understand such affairs as acceptable.