Indiana GOP Leaders Demand AG Resignation Amid Groping Claims

In this May 10, 2018 photo, Curtis Hill, Indiana's Attorney General, warms up the crowd at the Trump and Pence rally in Elkhart, Ind. Indiana's Democratic Party chairman is urging Hill to resign after he was investi... In this May 10, 2018 photo, Curtis Hill, Indiana's Attorney General, warms up the crowd at the Trump and Pence rally in Elkhart, Ind. Indiana's Democratic Party chairman is urging Hill to resign after he was investigated because four women accused him of inappropriate touching. Chairman John Zody said the allegations against Hill are "beyond troubling and wildly inappropriate." Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer says the GOP has "zero tolerance for sexual harassment," but stopped short of calling for Hill's resignation. Hill's office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday, July 2, 2018. (Robert Scheer/The Indianapolis Star via AP) MORE LESS
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and the two GOP Statehouse leaders have called for Republican Attorney General Curtis Hill to resign amid what they say are credible claims that Hill drunkenly groped four women, including a lawmaker, at an Indianapolis bar.

“Four women had the courage to step forward to report sexual harassment by the Indiana attorney general,” the Republican governor said in a statement Thursday night. “The findings of the recent legislative report are disturbing and, at a minimum, show a violation of the state’s zero tolerance sexual harassment policy.”

He said he agrees with GOP Senate leader David Long and Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma that Hill should resign and supports “a thorough investigation by the state’s inspector general.”

Long and Bosma issued a joint statement Thursday evening, saying: “We believe that the women who came forward with accounts of inappropriate behavior by Attorney General Curtis Hill in the early hours of March 15, 2018, are telling the truth regardless of the attorney general’s denial of these allegations.”

A spokeswoman for Hill did not respond to a message seeking comment Thursday evening.

Two other Indiana Republicans — Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Secretary of State Connie Lawson — later called on Hill to step down , with Crouch saying in a statement late Thursday that “sexual harassment should never be tolerated.”

Lawson said in her statement that “Indiana deserves a safe work environment, which extends beyond the workplace. … Our state leaders are held to a higher standard and must behave in such a manner.”

The call from high-level Republicans for Hill to resign comes after Democrats ratcheted up political pressure in an election year where female voters could make a big difference at the polls. Over the past week, Democrats have harshly criticized what they characterize as a lackluster Republican response to the allegations against Hill. A Statehouse rally calling for Hill’s resignation was being planned for Saturday.

Hill has denied the groping allegations, which were lodged by the lawmaker and three legislative aides, and on Tuesday said he had no plans to step down. The accusations against him were included in a confidential legislative memo that was leaked this week to news outlets, including The Associated Press.

Earlier Thursday, many Republicans either declined, or were reluctant, to comment on Hill. On Tuesday, Bosma and Long had said they had “no further public comment on the matter” but announced that they were launching an investigation into the leak of a memo outlining the allegations against Hill.

The document, which includes details from interviews with six women, offers a picture of Hill carousing during a party at a bar in the early morning hours of March 15, shortly after this year’s legislative session came to a close.

The lawmaker said Hill was “very intoxicated” when he slid his hands down her back, put them under her clothes and grabbed her buttocks, according to the memo. She told him to “back off” and walked away, but Hill again approached her, reached under her clothing and grabbed her again, according to the memo.

Democrats say that meets the legal threshold for a sexual battery charge.

Hill also gave a staffer a two-minute back rub, which made her uncomfortable, the memo states. Another staffer said Hill put his arm around her and slid his hand down her back. When she tried to remove his hand, she said he groped her buttocks, the memo states. He put his arm around a third staffer’s waist and “hugged” her close, according to the document.

Hill has called the inquiry by legislative leaders into his conduct a “prejudicial investigation that is deeply troubling.”

“At no time was my behavior inappropriate nor did I touch anyone in an inappropriate manner,” Hill said in a statement.

Democratic Rep. Ed DeLaney said that if Hill doesn’t resign, the Legislature should impeach him.

“I think there is an adequate basis and the law provides for that,” said DeLaney, a lawyer from Indianapolis. “I think he has no choice but to resign. But that doesn’t mean he will take that choice.”

Another matter that remains unclear is the future of the investigation by GOP leaders into the leak of the memo.

Both Bosma and Long previously called it an “egregious breach of confidentiality” and vowed that they were “investigating the source of this breach of employee confidentiality and will react accordingly if the source is discovered.”

Hill, a staunch social conservative who is married, has been viewed as a rising star in the Republican Party. The former Elkhart County prosecutor, who is also an Elvis imitator, has visited the White House several times since President Donald Trump took office. In May, he warmed up the crowd at a rally Trump held in Hill’s native Elkhart.

But Hill, who has cultivated a tough-on-crime reputation, also has a complicated relationship with fellow Indiana Republicans, particularly Holcomb, and this week found himself with few allies. In the past he vehemently criticized several policy initiatives Holcomb championed, including expanded needle exchanges to reduce the spread of infectious disease among drug users and a law legalizing the use of a cannabis-derived medicine that can reduce seizures but won’t get you high.

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