WASHINGTON – Suggesting he's a victim of revenge porn from a jilted lover, Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas said he plans to go silent about the release of a nude photo of him online because police are investigating the disclosure as a possible crime against him. Authorities have not confirmed an investigation.
Barton says police are investigating disclosure of lewd photo
November 24, 2017 at 1:38AM
Barton has acknowledged sharing intimate material with a lover and accused her of threatening to make it public when he ended the relationship. The unidentified woman told the Washington Post that she did not put it online and said the congressman sought to intimidate her by threatening to go to authorities if she exposed his conduct.
The Post published details of a secretly recorded conversation between Barton and his lover from 2015 in which he threatened to "take all this crap to the Capitol Hill Police and have them launch an investigation" if she did not agree to keep "inappropriate photographs and video" that he had exchanged with her from becoming public.
In a statement after the report, Barton said the "Capitol Police reached out to me and offered to launch an investigation and I have accepted. Because of the pending investigation, we will have no further comment."
Associated Press
