Gov. Lujan Grisham brings NM more national attention over her groping scandals

On Friday, the news organization National File wrote about a three-year-old video from an alleged sexual assault victim of scandal-ridden Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham named Eddie Dehart. The video was published on October 30, 2018 — before the election and before another similar allegation was uncovered in 2019. Dehart claims Lujan Grisham grabbed his penis while at a party in 2005.

“In 2005, we have a party at my girlfriend’s house. It was an artisan party to showcase some art in Santa Fe and help the artists out to sell their products…During the game, it was Michelle’s shot. And she walked around the pool table and walked by me. When she walked by me she grabbed my crotch,” Dehart said in the video. He said that Lujan Grisham exclaimed to his girlfriend that “you have a man here.”

“Michelle was asked to leave the party,” he said. “I didn’t do nothing to provoke it.” Dehart said that Lujan Grisham’s conduct led to a rift with his girlfriend. “Michelle’s drunkenness and her touchy hands ended up breaking us up in the long run.”

Previously, Gov. Lujan Grisham’s campaign paid over $62,500 to a former staffer, James Hallinan, who has an eerily similar accusation. Hallinan said that Lujan Grisham poured a bottle of water over his crotch and then grabbed his penis through his pants.

After Lujan Grisham’s hush money payments were exposed, the Governor’s senior staffer Dominic Gabello, who allegedly pressured Hallinan to keep quiet at the time of the groping incident, left the administration, although he still consults on her campaign. 

Lujan Grisham claims the payments to Hallinan were made so she could focus on the “pandemic,” adding, “I’ll stand by that decision [to settle] every minute of every day.”

After the Eddie Dehart video was reported by the National File, the Republican Party of New Mexico responded. Chairman Steve Pearce wrote, “This is now the second on-the-record account of Michelle Lujan Grisham grabbing people’s crotches without consent. This disgusting behavior is clearly disqualifying and must be thoroughly investigated. If the accusation is true, which seems likely given the emerging pattern, the governor must resign immediately before she embarrasses New Mexico further.”