New accusations raised against Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego allege sexual relationships with at least two House staffers.
The New York Post issued an exclusive report on Thursday detailing allegations from three anonymous sources that, while still a congressman, Gallego entered romantic relationships with two aides working for two of his Democratic colleagues representing Texas.
The sources described the relationships as consensual. Congressional rules explicitly prohibit a member from having relationships with their own staffers, but not other members’ staffers.
Gallego served in the House for a decade, from 2015 to 2025. He was 35 years old when he first joined Congress.
An investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee conducted earlier this year cleared Gallego of sexual misconduct. The scope of that ethics probe was based on information included in the complaint filed by a Republican congresswoman representing Florida, Anna Paulina Luna.
Luna alleged in social media postings and media interviews that multiple women had come to her or others with claims of sexual misconduct committed by Gallego.
Gallego called the allegations “right-wing conspiracies.”
Luna responded with an indication that she had received text evidence of Gallego’s alleged misconduct. The Senate Ethics Committee said that their review of what was provided to them didn’t yield any evidence that Gallego had violated federal law, Senate rules, or standards of conduct.
https://x.com/RepLuna/status/2071644344377827597
That was the problem with the ethics probe prompted by Luna’s complaint, one New York Post source alleged: the committee’s investigation didn’t review those alleged staffer relationships because the filed complaint didn’t include information about them.
“Ethics looked in the wrong place,” said a source as quoted by the New York Post.
That same or another source also told the outlet that the ethics probe should be relaunched with an expanded focus on those alleged relationships with staffers.
“If the Ethics Committee comes back and says, ‘We are opening an investigation,’ question one [for Gallego] is: ‘Did you ever have relationships with any staff member during your time in Congress?’” said a source as quoted by the New York Post. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more that he has to list, and he can’t lie about that because, you know, it’s a sworn [statement].”
Gallego finalized his divorce with his former wife, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, in April 2017. Gallego initiated divorce proceedings with the mayor about a week before Christmas 2016 when she was in her final weeks of pregnancy with their first and only child. The former Gallegos had been married for seven years.
The New York Post’s sources alleged that Gallego’s relationships with the two staffers occurred while he was unmarried.
Gallego remarried to Sydney Barron Gallego in 2021.
Gallego declined to deny the allegations during a press gaggle on Thursday in the Capitol “minutes” after the article was published.
“I’m not going to engage in gossip,” said Gallego repeatedly.
Gallego has made it known that he is actively considering a presidential run in 2028.
Scrutiny into Gallego’s conduct arose following the numerous misconduct accusations into his decade-long professed best friend, Eric Swalwell, who resigned from Congress and suspended his campaign for California governor earlier this year following successive allegations of sexual misconduct, sexual assault, and rape.
Gallego initially defended Swalwell against some of the earliest allegations, though as more accusations continued to emerge Gallego denounced and encouraged the California Democrat to resign.
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