The Texas lobbyist has been accused of giving drugs to a legislative aide, criminal investigations and being banned in some lawmakers’ offices.
Texas Department of Public Safety has launched a criminal investigation into the allegations, which were earlier Reported on saturday By Austin American-Statesman.
The agency received a complaint from an undisclosed Texas Capitol employee, who said he felt he had been given a date rape drug by a lobbyist earlier this month while at an Austin site.
The founders of Hilco Partners, one of the state’s most powerful lobbying firms, confirmed to the newspaper that the person being investigated is an employee. An internal investigation is also underway, Hilco Partners said.
“We take this stuff super-seriously,” one of its founders, Bill Miller, told the newspaper. “As soon as we got wind of that we had an employee who was a person of interest, we acted immediately.”
Miller did not identify the employee. The newspaper reported that the DPS spokesperson also refused to identify the lobbyist and could not say when and where the alleged incident took place.
The US-Statesman has not been charged Reported monday
.
The American-Statesman reported that Texas House Speaker Dad Phelan called for a “change of culture” because of the accusation, making it easier to report to the Capitol when it comes to settling allegations of sexual misconduct.
Felon (R-Beaumont) said on Monday, “Victims should not decide between their careers and coming forward.” “This causes individuals to constantly change to make it easier to come forward and report harassment.”
Representative for Felon and Gov. Greg Abbott Texas Tribune confirmed That their offices were made aware of the criminal investigation last weekend. Several House members announced on social media that they were banning the firm’s employees from their offices, the outlet reported.
While the accused Hilco employee has not yet been identified, at least one Texas lawmaker is banning “all lobbyists” from his office following an allegation of “hatred”.
“While we do not know who the woman is, I respectfully urge that we do not need to know who she is as a Capitol community to know who we are,” State Rep. Shelby Slavson. Tweeted on sunday.
A new Republican legislator, Slavson, also called on allies to wear pink ribbons on the House floor on Tuesday in support of the victims.
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