Anonymous “former staff” of former Democratic Rep. Katie Hill allegedly hacked the former congresswoman’s official Twitter account Tuesday, reacting to the news that a new Hollywood biopic about their former boss was in the works.
Hill, who resigned in 2019 after allegations surfaced that she had inappropriate sexual relationships with subordinate staffers in her office and on her campaign, claimed the old account was “hacked.”
Thanks to all who let me know my government official twitter account was hacked. Control of my account was immediately handed back to the House Clerk when I resigned, including password changes and access restrictions. God knows who hacked it from there. Reported to @twitter.
— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) October 7, 2020
In a long Twitter thread, Hill’s former staff recounted Hill’s actions as a “perpetrator,” alleging that “she took advantage of her subordinates,” and said they are concerned she has not yet “sufficiently acted to end her own patterns of inappropriate and abusive behavior.”
They called their story one of “workplace abuse and harassment,” sending a message to Hollywood executives that “Katie Hill is not a hero for women.”
In October 2019, RedState first reported photos and text messages showing Hill and estranged husband Kenny Heslep in an intimate “throuple” relationship with a female campaign staffer. The initial media response was radio silence. No pundits or fellow Democratic colleagues called for her resignation or a House ethics investigation, and as Hill’s “former staff” notes, she “was never investigated by the House Ethics Committee, nor has she been held accountable by anyone other than herself.”
It was four days before Hill responded to the allegations, and it wasn’t a response, but a Politico report that she denied the allegations to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
She eventually admitted to and apologized for the “throuple” relationship with her campaign staffer, but denied another allegation that she was having an extramarital affair with a staffer in her D.C. office. She resigned from Congress on Oct. 27.
Hill announced Tuesday that actress Elisabeth Moss would be starring as the former California representative in a movie adaptation of Hill’s memoir “She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality.” Hill said she will serve as a producer on the film, which will be produced by Blumhouse Television for a streaming service.
The forthcoming movie is another extension of corporate media’s role in spinning Hill’s narrative, from one of alleged sexual predator to victim of revenge porn and anti-LGBT bias.
I previously documented the media’s spin machine in action at The Federalist:
Just weeks after Hill’s resignation, she appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” where a chyron on the screen read “Katie Hill’s Experience With Right-Wing Media Smears.” She published a New York Times op-ed titled, “It’s Not Over After All.” In a Daily Beast interview titled, “Katie Hill Wanted Out of Her Marriage. It Ruined Her Life,” Molly Jong-Fast wrote that the “media-savvy 31-year-old congresswoman” was “villainized by the right,” and “derailed in a weirdly tragic, almost Shakespearean way.”
More recent examples include Elle magazine’s headline, “Katie Hill’s Next Chapter Starts Now,” and a story gushing over Hill’s new super PAC, called HER Time. LA Mag also got in on the PAC news with a story headlined, “Katie Hill Is on a Mission to Get Young Women Elected to Office.” The New York Times announced Hill’s forthcoming memoir, “She Will Rise,” focusing on “what Hill wants women to take away from her book is that they can own their mistakes and get back up.”
Hollywood and corporate media are clearly excited to sell a sympathetic version of Hill’s story, but her “former staff,” if the anonymous hackers are who they claim to be, are determined not to let their story be sidelined in the process.
