Via Piñon Post:
During a Friday press conference, embattled Democrat New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who has been ducking the media for weeks, faced tough questions regarding her $62,500 payoff from her campaign fund to an ex-staffer, James Hallinan, who accused Lujan Grisham of pouring water over his crotch and then grabbing it at Democrat state Rep. Deborah Armstrong’s house.
When posted with questions regarding the inappropriate behavior, which she appears to have admitted to by the hush money payments, she said, “I was focused on the pandemic, and I’ll stand by that decision [to settle] every minute of every day.”
When asked if Hallinan’s claims had ever been independently investigated, Grisham said she had “not seen anywhere in the country where there’s an independent investigation over an employment claim.”
The New York Attorney General and the State Assembly are currently investigating sexual assault allegations against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Lujan Grisham opined on the accusations against Cuomo, saying, “I’m, frankly, in that group of elected leaders, that you believe the individual, you give real credit and credibility there, if you don’t, we are revictimizing brave men and women who come forward.”
The Governor’s former senior advisor Dominic Gabello, who was accused of pressuring Hallinan to stay quiet, resigned from his $143,769 position in the administration in the heat of the revelations that the disgraced Governor paid off her accuser.
But the Hallinan incident is by no means the first time Lujan Grisham has been accused of similar behavior. According to a video made by a man named Eddie Dehart, Lujan Grisham allegedly grabbed his genitals during a birthday party in 2005.
According to Dehart, attendees of the party were playing pool when Lujan Grisham was alleged to have groped him in front of his then-girlfriend, saying, “you have a man here” after touching his genitals through his clothes.
Lujan Grisham kicked off her campaign announcement last week, and it has already hit a rocky start. Anti-MLG protesters drowned out her speech, and in anger, the Governor called the New Mexicans fed up with her governorship “QAnon lizard people.”
Since the insult, New Mexicans have co-opted the jab and now own the title “lizard people,” to Lujan Grisham’s chagrin. Now, the Governor is playing defense, trying to claim victimhood by saying she took the “high road.”
The Governor is also battling an ethics complaint against her regarding the use of over $6,000 in campaign dollars to pay her daughter, a cosmetologist, for hair and makeup, a direct violation of state statute. The Secretary of State’s office has until Sunday, June 13 to respond to the complaint.