Creep in the heart of Texas
POL SENT LEWD PICS, VIDS TO EX
TEXAS CONGRESSMAN Joe Barton apologized Wednesday after a photo of his privates along with raunchy text circulated on social media.
The 68-year-old Republican lawmaker sent the graphic photo in a text to a woman he was trying to seduce.
“I want u soo bad,” the message read in part, according to a screen grab posted by an anonymous Twitter account.
Barton fired off a statement insisting that he was single at the time the photo was sent.
“While separated from my second wife, prior to the divorce, I had sexual relationships with other mature adult women,” he said. “Each was consensual. Those relationships have ended. I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days.”
A Barton spokeswoman said he didn’t release the image and is unaware who is responsible for posting it to Twitter.
Barton, the longest-serving member of Congress from Texas at 32 years, announced his reelection bid earlier this month.
In a phone interview with The Texas Tribune, Barton said he was weighing his political future.
“You’re as aware of what was posted as I am,” he said. “I am talking to a number of people, all of whom I have faith in and am deciding how to respond.”
The Barton spokeswoman said Wednesday that he had no plans to resign.
The woman who received Barton’s lewd picture told The Washington Post she didn’t share it on social media .
She also claims the congressman once warned her on a 2015 phone call that he would report her to the Capitol Police if she talked about their liaison.The woman said she met Barton in 2011 and the two began sharing sexually explicit materials and had two in-the-flesh sexual encounters.
When the woman realized Barton was corresponding with other women, she contacted some of them, she told The Post.
That prompted Barton to reach out with his warning.
“I want your word that this ends,” Barton said on the recording, according to The Post.
He told the woman he would tell Capitol Police everything about their sexual encounters and that “I exchanged inappropriate photographs and videos with you that I wouldn’t like to be seen made public ... [and you] were in position to use them in a way that would negatively affect my career,” The Post said.
In a statement Wednesday to The Post, Barton said Capitol Police opened an inquiry into the newspaper’s report on the 2015 recording that may be “a potential crime against me,” he said.
The scandal erupted amid a flurry of sexual-harassment allegations on Capitol Hill.
The House Ethics Committee launched a probe of Michigan Rep. John Conyers on Tuesday in the wake of a report that he paid a $27,000 settlement to a woman who claimed she was fired for rebuffing his sexual advances. Conyers admitted that he reached the settlement but insisted that the allegations are false.