Trump-endorsed Republican in Louisiana accused of rape in 2007 | Republicans

A Louisiana Republican congressional candidate backed by Donald Trump faced a 2007 rape charge that was reported to local law enforcement on the same day of the alleged assault — but never revealed to the public or, reportedly, the president’s team as he became one of the rising stars of the state’s Republican Party.

That sparked concerns within the White House that Blake Miguez “was not fully vetted or disclosed about discoverable materials from his past” before securing Trump’s support, the Atlantic reported Wednesday, citing two anonymous sources familiar with the endorsement process.

Miguez’s campaign told the Atlantic that she denied allegations from a woman who described him at the time as a “live-in ex-boyfriend.” The allegations did not result in any formal criminal charges after the accuser said she declined to press charges against Miguez — then a law student — because she did not want to get him in trouble, according to what investigators wrote in a police report obtained by the Guardian through a public records request.

Additionally, Miguez’s campaign responded to the Guardian’s list of questions about the police report by providing a Feb. 24 email from the accuser’s father to the state senator’s office that included the phrase: “Everything my daughter reported about you were lies and she is a liar and has a drug problem.” »

The email does not specify precisely how the author knows his daughter lied, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Miguez’s campaign said in a statement: “The woman’s father has given permission to share this email with you. »

The report documenting the allegations against Miguez has been circulating in political circles for months as the 44-year-old Louisiana state senator considered a run for Congress.

Repeated attempts to contact the accuser were unsuccessful.

There is no indication that she ever recanted the allegations against Miguez.

In late June, the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office received a public records request, which produced the police report containing the 2007 rape allegation. That was six days after Miguez announced plans to unseat Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a fellow Republican. The request came from an email address linked to a man whose name matched that of a national Republican researcher.

News of the report circulated in government circles, eventually reaching media outlets across the political spectrum.

Miguez abandoned his ambitions to challenge Cassidy on February 3 and instead registered to run for a seat representing Louisiana’s Fifth Congressional District.

That position is being vacated by Julia Letlow, another Trump-backed Republican, as she mounts her own challenge against Cassidy.

On February 27, conservative Washington DC journalist Matthew Foldi was the first to go public with the allegations against Miguez. Foldi focused largely on how the accuser’s own father sided with Miguez and pledged his “100 percent support” in the Feb. 24 email, which was allegedly sent just after he was approached by an Associated Press reporter.

The email – which explained that the author had refused to read a copy of the police report when the reporter offered one – stated that neither the father nor others close to the accuser would “speak with these people.” He assured Miguez: “You have my vote” and: “We are here for you”.

Much of Foldi’s story also focused on attacking the accuser’s credibility, recounting her history of arrests. This information appears to echo a public records request filed by a Baton Rouge private investigation firm in September. The files concern criminal misdemeanors and crimes attributed to the accuser, including illegal possession of drugs, according to documents obtained by the Guardian. Most cases were dismissed; As of Wednesday, two were pending in local criminal court.

Foldi further suggested that Miguez’s “political opponents” were trying to damage his congressional campaign, especially after he secured the coveted endorsement from Trump.

Foldi also referenced a number of publicly available court documents that show Miguez’s accuser was allegedly assaulted by former romantic partners and filed protective orders against them — and how all of those cases were either dropped or dismissed.

These cases were all reported in the years following the allegations against Miguez.

The Guardian is not identifying Miguez’s accuser, adhering to an editorial policy prohibiting naming alleged victims of violent crimes without their permission.

Miguez secured the coveted endorsement of Trump and the Club for Growth, an anti-tax group funded by conservative billionaires aligned with the president, in mid-February, ahead of the party’s May 16 primary for the Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives he is targeting.

Trump spokespeople did not immediately tell the Guardian whether the president maintained his support for Miguez.

Asked the same question, a spokesperson for the Club for Growth said: “We are aware of the false accusations made 20 years ago and do not find them credible due to the accuser’s long record of misrepresentations and criminal history, including similar allegations dismissed against five other individuals.” »

The spokesperson did not say whether Miguez disclosed the 2007 police report to the club before it approved it.

On August 27, 2007, Miguez’s accuser told the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office that the man she described as her ex-resident had raped her at the end of a night of drinking.

As she alleged, she and Miguez returned home to their apartment in the Erath community and argued about the fact that she had spoken to another man while they were gone. She said she eventually got into bed and Miguez raped her.

The report alleged the woman ran to a nearby convenience store, asked a friend to pick her up and called police to report Miguez.

Police said they then “arrested” Miguez for questioning and took him to the sheriff’s office, but they did not say whether he made any statements there at that time.

The investigators’ report goes on to note that the accuser made it clear that she “didn’t want Blake to get in trouble, but she wanted him to understand that he shouldn’t disrespect her the way he did.”

The accuser went to the hospital that evening with her friend and a deputy to undergo a rape kit. At the hospital, the accuser reiterated that she did not want to press charges, investigators reported. She ultimately “refused any medical treatment provided at the hospital,” the report states, without further details.

Miguez then spent more than 8 years in the Louisiana House of Representatives before winning election to the State Senate in 2023.

The champion sniper authored a state Senate bill that lowered the age for carrying a concealed weapon in Louisiana from 21 to 18. The Legislature passed it and the governor, staunch Trump ally Jeff Landry, signed it.

He also made headlines for his work on a politically charged Louisiana Senate committee that investigated criminal justice reforms in New Orleans, a Democratic stronghold in an otherwise largely Republican-dominated state.

As Louisiana news outlet nola.com reported, Miguez initially aimed to unseat Cassidy from the U.S. Senate, presenting himself as a supporter of Trump’s Maga movement, whose more centrist outgoing president has sometimes broken with the agenda.

But when Letlow announced her candidacy for Cassidy’s seat with Trump’s support in hand, Miguez left the U.S. Senate race and signed up to run for the office she was leaving behind.

Trump then quickly endorsed Miguez, saying in a Feb. 4 social media post that the Louisiana politician was a “Maga warrior.”

“HE WON’T LET YOU TOUCH!” » also said the president’s message of approval.

The Club for Growth had endorsed Miguez the day before, calling him in part a “conservative fighter” and “the perfect candidate” for the 5th Congressional District.

Miguez still lives in Erath, whose boundaries lie outside the fifth arrondissement.

Candidates are not required to reside in a congressional district to represent it as long as they live in the same state. Miguez’s campaign says he has owned a home in the Fifth District for about 26 years. The campaign also said Miguez operated a business in Baton Rouge, which is in the district, for more than a decade.

One of Miguez’s Republican colleagues in the Louisiana State Senate recently introduced a non-legislative resolution proposing to ask Congress to require candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives to live in the districts they wish to represent.