This June 2018 photo provided by the Katie Hill Campaign shows Katie Hill on her ranch in Agua Dulce, Calif. Hill running as a Democrat wants to advance her party’s plans to take control of the House by replacing Rep. Steve Knight, who’s seeking a third term in what’s become a lonely GOP outpost , the last Republican-held House seat in strongly Democratic Los Angeles County. (Ben Steinberger/Katie Hill Campaign via AP)

A story in Metro Weekly covering a resolution introduced by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) condemning Sec. Ben Carson’s comments about transgendered people, which identified Hill as a “lesbian” seemingly prompted Hill’s estranged husband to out her on an entirely different issue.

Out lesbian?!? Then why has she been sleeping with her (male) finance director for the past year at least?I couldn’t… Posted by Kenny Heslep on Monday, October 7, 2019

Kenny Heslep was married to Hill for nearly a decade and filed for divorce in July. He wrote:

Out lesbian?!? Then why has she been sleeping with her (male) finance director for the past year at least? I couldn’t dispute this if she was still holding to being bisexual. But but being with her husband (me) for almost 15 years and then leaving me for another MAN, not woman, whom she is still seeing, is not her being a lesbian. Bisexual yes, as I will back up her claims to this. But not lesbian alone. Maybe you simply reported incorrectly, in which case you should correct it to bisexual. As she made this a major part of her platform while campaigning.

Feel free to contact me for more information. I’m sure you can find me with minimal effort.

Graham Kelly, a man, was Hill’s finance director from May 2017 until November 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. The position was apparently vacant until a female finance director started in July 2019.

Hill is the second member of “The Squad” going through a divorce in the midst of an alleged affair. Hill’s reported relationship with her former campaign staffer is more problematic than that of Rep. Ilhan Omar, though, because Kelly is now Hill’s Legislative Director. Congressional pay records show that Kelly was paid just over $20,000 for the 2nd quarter of 2019.

Engaging in a sexual relationship with a subordinate is strictly against House Ethics rules. The Code of Conduct that members of Congress must abide by states:

18. (a) A Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner may not engage in a sexual relationship with any employee of the House who works under the supervision of the Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner, or who is an employee of a committee on which the Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner serves. This paragraph does not apply with respect to any relationship between two people who are married to each other.

Hill’s office did not respond to a request for comment before press time.

UPDATE: Text messages between Jeff Bomberger, former videographer to Hill’s campaign, and Kenny Heslep in which Bomberger admits that Katie Hill told him about the affair with Kelly have been published by RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar.