Rep. Tony Cardenas is being sued in California state court for allegedly drugging and fondling a teenage girl in 2007. | Kris Connor/Getty Images Cardenas sets up legal defense fund for groping lawsuit

California Democratic Rep. Tony Cardenas — who has been accused of allegedly molesting a teenage girl in 2007 — has set up a legal defense fund to cover lawyers’ bills stemming from the case, according to newly filed documents.

Cardenas will now be allowed to receive contributions of up to $5,000 annually from donors to defray legal costs, although registered lobbyists and foreign agents cannot contribute to the fund. Cardenas will have to file quarterly reports to disclose the donors.


“The congressman has established a defense fund in accordance with House rules,” said Brian Svoboda of the law firm Perkins Coie, who is advising Cardenas on the fund. Svoboda noted the House Ethics Committee has reviewed and approved the move, as is required prior to the creation of such defense funds.

Cardenas is being sued in California state court for allegedly drugging and fondling a teenage girl in 2007, when the Democratic lawmaker was serving on the Los Angeles City Council.

In court documents, Cardenas’ accuser — who is now in her 20s — said he invited her to a golf outing. The woman was a rising young golf star at the time. After receiving a drink of iced water from Cardenas that "tasted distinctly different from both tap and filtered water,” the then-teenage girl collapsed. Cardenas took her to the hospital, but during the trip, allegedly reached under her clothes and fondled her breasts and genitals, according to court documents.

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The girl didn’t object to Cardenas’ actions because she “did not want to offend Mr. Cardenas because she trusted him and he was a very powerful man in the community and in her family's lives," her lawsuit alleges.

The alleged victim’s father worked for Cardenas both on the Los Angeles City Council and Capitol Hill.

Cardenas has vehemently denied the allegations, with his lawyers rejecting them as “categorically untrue.”

While House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — who has taken a hard line with any Democrat accused of sexual harassment — has called on the Ethics Committee to investigate Cardenas, it is unclear whether the secretive panel will do so.

Under House rules, the allegations against Cardenas may have occurred too long before he was elected to Congress for the Ethics Committee to take it up, although the panel would have jurisdiction if it “determines that the alleged violation is directly related to an alleged violation which occurred in a more recent Congress,” according to the House Ethics manual. Since the accuser’s father worked for Cardenas as a staffer, that may give the Ethics Committee a way into the case, although it is unclear if Ethics is reviewing the matter at this time.

