Anonymous “Former Staff” Accuse Former Rep. Katie Hill of Abuse After Hill Announces Biopic

Late Tuesday night, the official congressional Twitter account of Katie Hill posted a lengthy thread accusing the former California Congresswoman of abusing her staff members. Hill no longer has access to that account and from her personal account, she said that her staff shouldn’t either. She says when she left office last year, control of the account was given back to the House Clerk.

“God knows who hacked it from there,” Hill wrote.

The thread came in response to news that Elizabeth Moss would be playing Hill in a streaming adaptation of her book, She Will Rise, being produced by Blumhouse TV.

If you remember, Hill resigned over allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. She had admitted to having a consensual relationship with a campaign staffer before her election, which is technically not prohibited but is still inappropriate, as Hill herself admitted. She was also in the midst of a Congressional ethics investigation into an alleged relationship with another staffer, which she denied.

The reason for her resignation was not the investigation, she said, but a smear campaign launched by her ex-husband, who also appeared to have originated the allegations of misconduct in a Facebook post. Rightwing tabloids published nude pictures of Hill, which she said were supplied by her ex.

In her final speech from the House floor, Hill said, “I am leaving because I no longer want to be used as a bargaining chip. I’m leaving because I didn’t want to be peddled by papers and blogs and websites, used by shameless operatives for the dirtiest gutter politics that I’ve ever seen and the right-wing media to drive clicks and expand their audience by distributing intimate photos of me, taken without my knowledge, let alone my consent, for the sexual entertainment of millions.”

“I am leaving because of a misogynistic culture that gleefully consumed my naked pictures, capitalized on my sexual assault, and enabled my abusive ex to continue that abuse, this time with the entire country watching,” she said at the time.

The thread posted to Hill’s congressional account reads, “Katie’s former staff here. Disappointed in so many folks – including Elizabeth Moss, @Blumhouse, & @michaelseitzman – regarding today’s announcement.”

The poster doesn’t deny that Hill was the victim of abuse. Instead, they emphasize the fact that a person “can be both a victim and perpetrator” of abuse.

“This is an incredibly sensitive situation. We appreciate the instinct to defend our former boss, an LGBTQ+ woman who faced abuse from her husband,” the thread reads. “What happened to Katie Hill shouldn’t happen to anyone. But, this moment requires more nuance, as Katie Hill’s story – our story – is also one of workplace abuse and harassment.”

Unfortunately, many of the replies online lack any sort of nuance. There’s a whole lot of gloating and tasteless jokes in response to the thread, with no apparent empathy being shown for victims of abuse.

From her personal account, Hill writes, “Regardless of their author, the content of the hacked tweets is something I have talked about at length in my book, in podcasts and in countless interviews regarding my decision to resign, as well as the constant work and reflection I’ve done since then. I look forward to continuing to have conversations around these issues and using my platform to support women in any way possible.”

I have not read Hill’s book but if the tweets did, in fact, come from former staffers and they don’t feel Hill has made amends with them or been sufficiently held accountable, but rather put her attempt at atonement into a book from which she profited, I can see why they’d be upset.

(image: Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

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