Kamala Harris' husband accused of harassment, misogyny by former colleagues: report
Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, retaliated against women who didn't respond to his flirting and hired an assistant widely considered unqualified for the job based on her looks, according to allegations in a 2019 lawsuit against his former law firm.
Emhoff and Harris met through a mutual friend in California and have been married since 2014. Emhoff already had two children from his previous marriage, which he admitted ended mainly due to an affair with his children’s teacher.
Some media outlets reported that the teacher became pregnant and had an abortion, while others said she had a miscarriage.
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Emhoff’s past is facing additional scrutiny from the media following a The Daily Mail piece alleging that Harris’ husband would single out “young, pretty girls” at Venable’s law firm in Los Angeles. Emhoff ran the office from 2006 to 2017, and former colleagues allege that his behavior at work was “inappropriate” and “misogynistic.”
One anonymous staffer told the outlet that Emhoff boasted about shouting “‘get the f–k out of my office” to a female partner, later telling his male colleagues that he had “put her in her place.” A woman who used to work at the firm claimed that Emhoff’s alleged antics were known by many in the office and that he had a reputation for being “very flirty” with female colleagues.
Women who did not respond positively to the flirting were reportedly placed on his “s–t list” and subjected to retaliation, according to the Mail.
“There were deadlines that, if you were one of his favorite people, wouldn’t apply. But if you weren’t, they would,” a former female staffer said.
In August 2019, former legal secretary Marjan Rabbi filed a lawsuit against the firm, alleging sex discrimination and abuse at the hands of two partners at the firm. While Emhoff is not a defendant in the suit, it claims that he hired an assistant named “Katya” because she was “young, attractive and friendly with the powerful men in the office.”
The Mail reported that the “Katya” referenced in the suit might have been Katya Calderone, who was hired the same year that Harris and Emhoff married.
Harris’ campaign and the Venable law firm did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
The latest allegations against Harris’ husband come on the heels of another report accusing Emhoff of slapping a former girlfriend in the face at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival in France. Emhoff had allegedly been drinking at the time, and he slapped her because he thought she had been flirting with another man.
Three anonymous friends of the woman recounted the alleged incident to the Mail last month. One of the unnamed sources claimed that Emhoff turned his ex-girlfriend around by the shoulder and “slapped her so hard she spun around.”
According to another anonymous source, the woman had offered 100 euros to a member of the valet team at the gala in France. The woman had reportedly placed her hand on the team member’s shoulder, an action Emhoff perceived as flirting. One of the ex-girlfriend’s friends reported that the woman slapped Emhoff back, and that both of them had been drinking at the time of the incident.
“I don’t know if it was an aggressive slap or a punch, but it was something that I know she would never forget and something that would end a relationship immediately,” a third friend said.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
