The gubernatorial campaign of Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham paid $62,500 toward a settlement with a former campaign spokesman who accused her of sexual misconduct in 2019.
Lujan Grisham’s campaign settled with former staffer James Hallinan, the Albuquerque Journal reported Monday, pointing to campaign finance documents filed by the campaign on Monday that reveal the payments.
The biannual campaign finance report shows five payments worth $12,500 in “legal expenses,” paid to Atlanta firm Buckley Beale LLP, which reportedly represented Hallinan. Lujan Grisham’s campaign has made one payment each month beginning in November 2020.
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Hallinan accused Lujan Grisham of pouring a bottle of water on his crotch and then grabbing his crotch through his clothes during a staff meeting in 2018, all of which he said happened in front of other campaign staffers.
“A governor @GovMLG is not above the law for her sexual and physical abuse of employees including (me!!!) I’ll talk more when I return to the country,” Hallinan wrote in a December 2019 tweet. He had reportedly left the campaign about a year before he made the allegation.
The governor’s press secretary disputed Hallinan’s claims, saying that his time working with the campaign was “marked by frequent inappropriate and unprofessional behavior” and that Hallinan “was not offered a job in her administration.”
Campaign spokesman Jared Leopold told the Albuquerque Journal on Monday that the five payments are part of a settlement resolving “numerous dubious and disputed potential claims made by Mr. Hallinan arising from his employment in 2018 with the campaign organization and his subsequent search for employment.”
Leopold also said that Lujan Grisham and the campaign “strenuously deny that there is any merit or truth to Mr. Hallinan’s claims,” adding, “They reached a settlement in order to avoid the continuing distraction and significant expense of possible litigation and allow them to concentrate on working for the people of New Mexico during this pandemic.”
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The Washington Examiner tried contacting Lujan Grisham’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
