California Congressional candidate Carl DeMaio (R) denied allegations Wednesday that he had sexually harassed and intimidated a former campaign staffer. DeMaio, in the process, admitted that he was questioned by police about the sexual harassment claims made against him.
At a press conference on Wednesday DeMaio, who is running for California’s 52nd Congressional District, was pressed on accusations about the sexual harassment. DeMaio said it was “absolutely untrue” and a “complete lie” according to Politico.
At the press conference the Los Angeles Times’ Tony Perry asked about the harassment claims directed against DeMaio. The candidate, running in one of the most contested congressional races in the country, quickly pivoted to the fact that his campaign office had been broken into.
DeMaio, according to a transcript of the press conference obtained by TPM, said “individual who is the prime suspect to the break-in in our campaign office would manufacture such an outrageous lie.”
He added that “all the evidence that was collected by the police department clearly indicated this individual was the prime suspect and it’s unfortunate but we will continue to allow the District Attorney to proceed with her case and weighing the case to prosecute for the break-in of our office.”
Perry then pressed DeMaio on whether he was interviewed by “sex crime detectives.” DeMaio nodded yes. “We were interviewed by the detectives.”
DeMaio said he and his campaign had fully cooperated with the police. DeMaio stressed that the case was closed.
DeMaio did, however, say that law enforcement had questioned him about the claims but denied there was a foundation for the accusations. Instead, DeMaio said that the accuser made up the story in response to being named as a “prime suspect” in a break-in of DeMaio’s campaign office that happened last spring.
“All the evidence that was collected by the police department clearly indicated this individual was the prime suspect, and, it’s unfortunate, but we will continue to allow the district attorney to proceed with her case and weighing the case to prosecute for the break-in of our office,” DeMaio said according to Politico.
Politico was able to reach the former staffer who made the accusation, Todd Bosnich, who was previously DeMaio’s policy director. Bosnich denied DeMaio’s claim that he broke into DeMaio’s campaign office.
Politico obtained a recording of an interview Bosnich did with a San Diego radio station in which he detailed DeMaio’s alleged sexual harassment. Bosnich said in the interview that when he complained about DeMaio’s advances to the campaign manager, the campaign manager said Bosnich shouldn’t have told DeMaio he is gay. Bosnich also said in the interview that he eventually went to DeMaio and said he should either drop out of the race or stop harassing Bosnich. The interview never aired.
DeMaio’s campaign manger, the next day, according to Bosnich, told him that the candidate didn’t trust Bosnich anymore. The campaign manager also offered Bosnich $50,000 if he signed a nondisclosure agreement, according to Bosnich’s recounting. Bosnich said he declined.
DeMaio spokesman Dave McCulloch told Politico that Bosnich’s allegations were untrue and that he had been fired because he had plagiarized part of a report on pensions (the National Journal first flagged the allegations of plagiarism) while on the campaign. McCulloch told Politico that Bosnich “only made those false allegations after the San Diego Police Department started investigating him as the suspect for the campaign office break-in.”
DeMaio is running to replace Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA). A new SurveyUSA poll found DeMaio leading Peters 48 percent to 45 percent.
