The ex-girlfriend of Kentucky Republican gubernatorial candidate James Comer wants him to take a lie detector test over her claims that he was physically abusive and took her to an abortion clinic.
On Monday, the Louisville Courier-Journal published allegations from Marilyn Thomas, Comer’s ex-girlfriend from their time together at Western Kentucky University more than 20 year ago, based in part on a four-page letter she sent the paper in which she described how their relationship had been “toxic, abusive and caused me a lot of suffering.” According to the paper, Thomas claimed Comer was physically and emotionally abused. The paper also recounted Thomas’ claim that Comer assisted her in obtaining an abortion while they were dating
Comer has repeatedly denied the claims, and now Thomas is calling on him to take a lie detector test.
“Ask Jamie if he would consent to sitting in a room with me and taking a polygraph,” Thomas told the Courier-Journal late Wednesday via electronic message.
Comer’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to Thomas’s demand.
Comer, through his attorney, has vowed to sue the Kentucky newspaper for printing the allegations.The Courier-Journal did not release the full text of the letter but in its initial write-up it did quote Thomas’s college roommate.
“I know she ended up getting pregnant in like October of 1991 and had an abortion in the beginning of November, and I remember him seeing her to the dorm and just dropping her off after they got back from the abortion,” Wendy Curley, who was Thomas’s roommate, told the Courier-Journal.
The allegations spilled over into a GOP gubernatorial debate on Wednesday morning. Comer was forced to deny those allegations and specifically denied a claim from Thomas’ mother that he once called Thomas at home early in the morning about 25 years ago and threatened her.
