Trump-endorsed Republican in Louisiana accused of rape in 2007 | Republicans

A Louisiana Republican congressional candidate supported by Donald Trump was the subject of a rape accusation in 2007, which was reported to local law enforcement the same day as the alleged assault; but as he became one of the rising stars in the state’s Republican party, it was never revealed publicly or reportedly to the president’s team.

This raised concerns in the White House that Blake Miguez “either had not been fully vetted or had not been forthcoming about discoverable documents from his past” before receiving Trump’s Atlantic endorsement. reported Two unnamed sources familiar with the approval process were quoted Wednesday.

Miguez’s campaign told the Atlantic that he denied the allegations from a woman who described him at the time as a “live-in ex-boyfriend.” The allegations did not result in any formal charges after the accuser said she declined to press charges against Miguez, who was then in law school, because she did not want to get him in trouble, investigators wrote in a police report obtained by the Guardian through a public records request.

Additionally, Miguez’s campaign responded to the Guardian’s list of questions about the police report by presenting a Feb. 24 email sent by the accuser’s father to the state senator. This email included the following sentence: “Everything my daughter said about you was a lie and she is a liar and has a drug problem.”

The email does not explain exactly how the author knew his daughter was lying, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, in a statement from Miguez’s campaign, it was said: “The woman’s father gave permission for this email to be shared with you.”

The report documenting the allegation against Miguez has been circulating in political circles for months as the 44-year-old Louisiana state senator has his sights set on appearing in Congress.

Repeated attempts to contact the accuser were unsuccessful.

There is no indication that he has retracted the allegations against Miguez.

In late June, the sheriff’s office in the Iberia community received a public records request that uncovered the police report containing the alleged 2007 rape. This was six days after Miguez announced his intention to unseat Louisiana’s senior U.S. senator, Bill Cassidy (another Republican). The request came from an email address linked to a man whose name matched that of a national Republican researcher.

Word of the report spread within government circles and eventually reached news media outlets across the political spectrum.

Miguez abandoned his ambition to challenge Cassidy on February 3 and instead registered to run for a seat representing Louisiana’s fifth congressional district.

That post is being vacated by Julia Letlow, another Trump-backed Republican who has launched her own challenge against Cassidy.

On February 27, conservative Washington D.C. journalist Matthew Foldi spoke for the first time announce Allegation against Miguez. Foldi focused largely on how the accuser’s own father sided with Miguez, reportedly promising him “100% support” in a Feb. 24 email he sent immediately after being approached by an Associated Press journalist.

Explaining how the author refused to read a copy of the police report submitted by the journalist, the email stated that neither her father nor other close relatives of the accuser “will talk to these people.” He assured Miguez: “My vote is for you” and “We are there for you.”

Much of Foldi’s story also focused on attacking the accuser’s credibility by recounting his criminal history. That information appears to mirror material in a public records request filed by a Baton Rouge private investigation firm in September. According to documents obtained by the Guardian, the records relate to misdemeanor and felony charges attributed to the accuser, including possession of illegal drugs. Most cases were dismissed; As of Wednesday, two people were being detained in the local criminal court.

Foldi also suggested that Miguez’s “political rivals” were trying to harm his congressional campaign, especially after he received the coveted endorsement from Trump.

Foldi also cited a number of publicly available court records that show Miguez’s accuser was assaulted. We covered their previous romantic partners and how they filed for protective orders against them and how all those cases were dropped or denied.

All of these incidents were reported several years after Miguez made the allegations against him.

The Guardian is not identifying Miguez’s accuser, adhering to a newsroom policy against naming alleged victims of violent crime without their permission.

Miguez won coveted endorsements from Trump and the Club for Growth, an anti-tax group funded by billionaire conservatives aligned with the president, in mid-February, ahead of the May 16 party primary for the safe Republican U.S. House seat he is targeting.

Trump spokesmen did not immediately comment to the Guardian on whether the president stood by his support for Miguez.

Asked the same question, a Club for Growth spokesman said: “We are aware of false accusations made 20 years ago and do not find them credible due to the accuser’s long history of making false allegations and his criminal history, including similar allegations against five other people, which have been dismissed.”

The spokesman did not say whether Miguez disclosed the 2007 police report to the club before approving it.

It was Aug. 27, 2007, when Miguez’s accuser told the Iberia County sheriff’s office that the man she identified as the person she was living with had raped her at the end of a night of drinking.

As she claimed, both she and Miguez went to her home in the Erath neighborhood and discussed that she was talking to another man while they were out. She said she eventually went to bed and Miguez raped her.

The woman allegedly ran to a nearby convenience store, convinced a friend to pick her up and called deputies to report Miguez, the report said.

Deputies later reported that they “detained” Miguez and took him to the sheriff’s office for questioning, but they did not say at the time whether he made any statements there.

The investigators’ report went on to state that the accuser “made it clear that she didn’t want Blake to get in trouble, but wanted him to understand not to disrespect her the way he did.”

The accuser went to the hospital that same night, accompanied by her friend and a deputy, to undergo a rape kit. While in the hospital, the accuser reiterated that he did not want to press charges, investigators reported. Ultimately, “he refused all medical treatment at the hospital,” the report said, without going into detail.

Miguez spent more than 8 years in the Louisiana House of Representatives before winning election to the state senate in 2023.

The champion sniper authored a state Senate bill that would lower the age for carrying a concealed weapon in Louisiana from 21 to 18. The legislature passed the legislation, and the governor, staunch Trump ally Jeff Landry, signed it into law.

He also made headlines for his work. a politically charged Louisiana senate committee An investigation into criminal justice reforms in New Orleans, a Democratic stronghold in a state otherwise largely dominated by Republicans.

As the Louisiana news outlet noted nola.comMiguez initially aimed to unseat Cassidy from the US Senate, presenting himself as an advocate of Trump’s Maga movement; This movement has broken in some cases with incumbents whose agenda is more centrist.

But when Letlow announced he was running for Cassidy’s seat with Trump’s endorsement in hand, Miguez dropped out of the U.S. Senate race and registered to run for the post he left behind.

Trump later quickly endorsed Miguez in a statement on February 4: social media post That the Louisiana politico was a “Maga warrior.”

“HE WON’T LEAVE YOU!” It was also said in the president’s confirmation message.

There was a Growth Club approved The day before, Miguez had called him, in part, a “conservative warrior” and the “perfect candidate” for the fifth congressional district.

Miguez still lives in Erath, which lies outside the fifth district.

Candidates do not have to reside in a congressional district to represent as long as they live in the same state. Miguez’s campaign says he has maintained a home in the fifth district for nearly 26 years. The campaign also noted that Miguez had operated a business in Baton Rouge within the district for more than a decade.

One of Miguez’s Republican colleagues in the Louisiana state Senate recently introduced a non-legislative resolution proposing that Congress require candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives to live in the districts they wish to represent.