Virginia Democrat Susanna Gibson denounced the release of videos showing her and her husband performing sexual acts live on a streaming site, calling it an “invasion of privacy.”
Videos verified by the Washington Post showed that Gibson and her husband performed sex acts for a live audience on Chaturbate, a pornographic website, while asking viewers for “tips,” stating she was “raising money for a good cause.”
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The videos from the couple had been archived on Recurbate, a publicly available site, in September 2022 after she entered the House race. It is unclear when the livestreams occurred, and the videos are no longer available for viewing as of Saturday.
Gibson, who is running in one of Virginia’s seven highly contested House races, said in a statement the leaks of the online activity were “the worst gutter politics” and “an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family.”
“It won’t intimidate me, and it won’t silence me,” she said. “My political opponents and their Republican allies have proven they’re willing to commit a sex crime to attack me and my family because there’s no line they won’t cross to silence women when they speak up.”
Daniel P. Watkins, lawyer for Gibson, said the release of the videos is a violation of Virginia’s revenge pornography law, making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to distribute nude or sexual images “maliciously” with the “intent to coerce, harass, or intimidate.”
“A criminal act has occurred here, and that’s the dissemination of revenge porn by a Republican operative,” Watkins told the Associated Press.
Gibson is facing Republican David Owen for the House seat in the state’s 57th District, outside Richmond and primarily in Henrico County. It is one of seven toss-up seats in the 100-member House.
All 140 seats in Virginia’s House and Senate are up for reelection this cycle on Nov. 7. Republicans control the House by a slim margin of 49 to 46, while Democrats control the Senate 22 to 18. The outcome of the 2023 race could affect how successfully Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) can push his conservative agenda, which has been thwarted by state Senate Democrats on many occasions.
Gibson has outraised Owen, $377,000 to $340,000, but Gibson spent $300,000 battling her Democratic opponent during the primary. She had just $77,000 on hand as of the fundraising period concluding June 30, per campaign finance records. Owen had $166,000 cash on hand at the end of that same period.
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The Democratic candidate spoke at a rally headlined by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) on Saturday, saying alerting the media to the videos is dirty politics with the goal to silence “women when they speak up.” A Republican operative pointed the Washington Post to the videos but denied that he was in league with Owen or any other prominent Republican group.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Gibson’s campaign for comment.
