Late update: Sauer announced his resignation Wednesday afternoon.
An Illinois state lawmaker is expected to resign after allegations surfaced that he posted his ex-girlfriend’s nude photos to a fake Instagram account to trick men into having sexually graphic conversations with him, according to several reports.
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin issued a statement on Wednesday, calling the accusations “troubling” and saying the lawmaker in question, Rep. Nick Sauer (R), would be resigning.
Politico was first to report on Wednesday that Sauer’s ex-girlfriend, Kate Kelly, had filed a complaint with the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, accusing Sauer of using nude images she had sent the lawmaker when they were dating to “catfish other men.”
“Nick would use this account to direct message men with my photos to engage in graphic conversations of a sexual nature,” she said in the complaint, according to Politico. “The men believed they were communicating with me and Nick shared private details of my life.”
Kelly said she and Sauer, who was running for reelection and is a member of the state House Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Task Force, started a long-distance relationship in 2016 and she moved to Chicago from California in June 2017 to continue the relationship. The two broke up in March after she found out he had been dating other women, according to Politico. In July, Kelly said she found the Instagram account after a man contacted her on her personal Instagram to inform her he had been communicating with someone pretending to be Kelly for four months. Sauer reportedly confessed to Kelly that he had been using her photos to run the fake account for two years to “catfish” at least eight men.
Kelly has filed a report with the Chicago Police Department. Sauer has not been charged with any crimes, according to Politico.
Sauer did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.
Read Politico’s full report here.
