Nevada congressman admits extra-marital affair with Harry Reid’s ex-intern after she spills beans on podcast

Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford admitted Friday to an on-again-off-again relationship with a woman he met while she was serving as an intern in then-Senator Harry Reid’s office more than a decade ago.

Horsford, the state’s first black State Senate Majority Leader, confessed to the affair after his ex-girlfriend, Gabriela Linder, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she was behind the “Mistress for Congress” podcast, posing behind the pseudonym “Love Jones.”

Linder told the newspaper that she and the now 47-year-old Democrat met in 2009 while she was a 21-year-old college student working in Reid’s Nevada office. Their affair continued “intermittently” until September.

“If this was a story in 2018 (when Horsford successfully recaptured the seat after having lost it in 2014), he wouldn’t have run,” she told the Review-Journal. “He obtained this position under false pretenses that he was a family man and man of God. He should take a step back, atone, and if people are satisfied, then he can come back into politics.”

Horsford, who has been married since 2000 and has three children, talked about leaving his wife, but never followed through, Linder claims.

“He knew how in love with him I was, and he knew what he could do and get away with,” she told the Review-Journal. “He knows I would support him. He never told me to keep quiet. He didn’t have to. He knew I was loyal to a fault.”

Linder claimed on her podcast that Horsford “looked out for her over the years, from anything from a job recommendation to financial support.”

Horsford admitted the affair.

“It is true that I had a previous relationship outside of my marriage, over the course of several years," he said in a statement to the Review-Journal. "I’m deeply sorry to all of those who have been impacted by this very poor decision, most importantly my wife and family. Out of concern for my family during this challenging time, I ask that our privacy is respected.”

An aide said Saturday that Horsford has no plans to resign from his office.

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