Melissa Fazli, a Democratic candidate for California Assembly District 55, said Thursday that she has suffered from depression and anxiety over the last two weeks because of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's silence in response to her allegation Democratic congressional candidate Gil Cisernos sexually harassed her back in February.
"For the past two weeks I have suffered from depression and anxiety because of the silence from Mr. Cisneros and the DCCC," Fazli said on Facebook Live and Periscope. "I have spoken to numerous amounts of journalists who I have given ample evidence, including people I told at the time the events happened."
Fazli released a press release on May 3 accusing Cisneros of sexual harassment. Carla Marinucci, a senior writer for Politico, reported on May 4 that the DCCC was "preparing a response" to the accusations, but it has yet to release a public statement. Cisneros, a candidate in the state's 39th Congressional District, was added to the DCCC's highly competitive "Red to Blue" program last month. The program chooses Democratic candidates it deems will be competitive in a general election and is ultimately aimed at unseating Republican lawmakers in districts across the country. As of publication, Cisneros was still listed on the website.
Cisneros' campaign manager, Orrin Evans, released a statement vehemently denying Fazli's sexual harassment allegations a day after her press release, calling them "false allegations."
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The Cisneros campaign and DCCC have subsequently been silent, despite Fazli's multiple pleas on Twitter for them to respond.
During her online stream Thursday, Fazli recalled the alleged encounter with Cisneros at the California Democratic Party Convention back in February, which she had laid out in her May 3 press release. Fazli claimed the encounter occurred by an elevator after a party hosted by Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.). She said Cisneros appeared to be intoxicated and after she asked for campaign contributions and they talked about the party, she said Cisneros asked, "Should we go back to your room?"
Fazli alleged the harassment continued when she called to ask for donations again, about a week after the first alleged incident:
He then asked me "well what are you going to do for me?" I went into this whole spiel about my ground game hoping to impress him that I would be a very active candidate. Then he interrupted me and in a different tone and slowly said "no Melissa. I mean what are you going to do for me?"
Now this can be interpreted two ways. Either he wants me to be his spy or he wants me to have sex with him. After the encounter at the elevator in San Diego, I thought he wanted to have sex with me in exchange for a $4400 donation. Either way he wanted pay for play; a [quid] pro quo.
"He shocked me. He totally shocked me," Fazli said.
Fazli later said she went to visit Cisneros' campaign office on April 30 to let him know she was coming forward with her story and wanted to see his response before she sent out the press release, but his "friendly staff" said he was away at a high school event and then was headed to Philadelphia for an America's College Promise event with former First Lady Michelle Obama.
"All I can think is I wish I had Michelle Obama's cell phone number, so I could let her know 'this is not a good guy,'" Fazli said. "It was agony to decide whether or not to come forward, and I was scared. I was [scared], because I didn't know what he could do. But I didn't expect silence. To me, when somebody is silent, it's complicit."
California Democratic voters will determine the party's 39th District candidate in the state's June 5 primary election.