Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More. A candidate in a high-stakes legislative contest in Virginia had sex with her husband in live videos posted on a pornographic website and asked viewers to pay them money in return for carrying out specific sex acts.
The campaign for Gibson, a Democrat running for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in a district just outside Richmond, issued a statement Monday in which it denounced the sharing of the videos as a violation of the law and her privacy. Gibson called the exposure of the videos "the worst gutter politics.
The revelation marked an explosive turn in a contest that will carry significant weight in determining the balance of power in the Virginia General Assembly. The race has attracted large amounts of spending and interest for an off-year legislative race. Democrats control the Senate by a four-vote margin, and Republicans control the House of Delegates by the same margin, with four seats currently vacant. The parties are waging intense legislative battles as GOP rising national political star Gov.
Glenn Youngkin looks to bolster his conservative agenda with full control of state government. Gibson said that exposing the videos is "an illegal invasion of my privacy designed to humiliate me and my family. Watkins, said that disseminating the videos is a violation of Virginia's revenge porn law, which makes it a crime to "maliciously" disseminate or sell nude or sexual images of another person with the intent to "coerce, harass, or intimidate.
Watkins cited a Virginia Court of Appeals ruling that found it was unlawful for a man to secretly record his girlfriend during a consensual sexual encounter even if he did not show the video to other people. The court found that consent to being seen is not the same as consent to being recorded.
