IL State Rep. Accused Of 'Revenge Porn' Resigns
(CBS) -- Illinois Rep. Nick Sauer has resigned following an ex-girlfriend's revenge porn complaint.
The republican, who sat on an anti-sexual harassment task force, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon acknowledging the allegations from his ex-girlfriend, Kate Kelly.
Politico first reported Kelly filed a cowith the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, accusing the lawmaker of creating a fake Instagram account and sending nude photos of her to other men.
In a letter to the Clerk of the House, Sauer acknowledged the allegation.
"My ability to fulfill my obligations as a state representative and public servant will be affected by the distraction of addressing these allegations," Sauer said in the statement. "After speaking with my family, I feel it is best to step away from my public responsibilities."
Sauer was a first term republican lawmaker from Lake Barrington, and was a member of the House Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Task Force.
CBS 2's Jim Williams went to Sauer's district office in Libertyville Wednesday, but no one was there.
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin commented on the allegations in a statement issued by his office on Wednesday.
"The allegations that have come forth against Representative Nick Sauer are troubling. He will be resigning from office today. We should allow the proper authorities to conduct their investigations," Durkin said in a statement.
Sauer's former district includes parts of Barrington, Libertyville, Mundelein, Vernon Hills, Lake Zurich, and Buffalo Grove.
He had been running for a second term before the allegations surfaced, and faced democrat Mary Edly-Allen, and independent candidate Jay Murphy in November.
Wednesday morning, his campaign website was no longer available.
Sauer allegedly used a fake Instagram account to send the photos to other men, lure them men into thinking they were chatting with Kelly, and get them to "engage in graphic conversations of a sexual nature."
Kelly also reportedly filed a Chicago Police Department report against Sauer.
State Sen. Melinda Bush, a Democrat from Grayslake, who co-chairs the Senate Sexual Discrimination and Harassment Awareness and Prevention Task Force, released a statement calling on Sauer to resign.
"The allegations against Rep. Sauer, which I believe are true, goes beyond harassment and crosses the line between predatory and criminal. We passed the so-called 'revenge porn' law in 2015 to make these kinds of non-consensual releases of private sexual images a felony offense in Illinois," she stated.
IL State Rep Jeanne Ives tweeted about Sauer's resignation, stating he did the "right thing" by resigning.
Kelly told Politico the two began a long-distance relationship in 2016 after meeting on Tinder. She moved to Chicago from California in June 2017 to be closer to Sauer, but they broke up nine months later when she found out he was dating other women.
Months later, she discovered the Instagram account Sauer allegedly created. According to Kelly, a man she didn't know contacted her on July 12 to inform her he had been chatting with someone pretending to be Kelly for four months.
According to Politico, Kelly said when she confronted Sauer about the Instagram account, he admitted to catfishing men with her naked photos since close to the time they started dating.
MORE: IL State Rep. Nick Sauer Accused of 'Revenge Porn' By Ex-Girlfriend
