Woman recants allegation that Democratic House candidate made sexual advances toward her
A woman who previously accused a top House Democratic candidate of making inappropriate sexual advances toward her has recanted her allegations.
Melissa Fazli, a California Democrat who ran an unsuccessful primary bid for state assembly earlier this year, withdrew her allegations Monday in a new statement released with the campaign of Democrat Gil Cisneros, the man whom she accused of inappropriate conduct earlier this year.
The statement comes after the two met Sunday night at the behest of a mutual friend, and months after a GOP super PAC began running ads to amplify the claim.
"I misunderstood the conversations that I had with Gil Cisneros at the Democratic convention and after. I don't believe that Gil sexually harassed me," she said.
"I believe Mr. Cisneros has a good heart and is truly sorry for the handling of my accusations."
In May, one month before the state's primary election, Fazli released a public letter accusing Cisneros of drunkenly propositioning her to bring him back to her room one night during the state Democratic Party convention and of propositioning her to trade a donation for sex.
Cisneros's campaign adamantly denied the allegations at the time, releasing a statement that noted that Fazli had endorsed Cisneros's primary opponent and arguing that "multiple eye witnesses, including an award winning journalist, corroborate that Gil Cisneros was sober, lucid, and not where Mrs. Fazli claims he was at the time."
The Congressional Leadership Fund, the top House GOP super PAC, has made the attacks the centerpiece of their messaging against Cisneros and has released ads that describe the allegations without specifically naming Fazli.
Fazli stood by the allegations throughout the year, tweeting on Sept. 19 that the CLF ads "are accurate" but noted that they use "dramatic licensing" when the ad says Cisneros was "demanding sex in exchange for campaign cash."
But Fazli, who spoke to NBC News on Monday, said she became critical of the CLF ads when those in her community told her they believed the ads suggested that she had been assaulted by Cisneros.
"It all insinuates it was a lot more than it was, and they did it without my permission," she said.
So in her Monday statement, Fazli condemned CLF for running the ads.
"The Congressional Leadership Fund lied. Rather than standing with victims and survivors of harassment and assault, they are weaponizing my story for their own political gain. I denounce their ads. Emotions, anxiety, and stress have multiplied 100-fold for women like myself during this MeToo movement," she said.
CLF communications director Courtney Alexander pushed back in a statement to NBC News.
"Is this another example of a rich and powerful man using his power to intimidate a victim of sexual harassment? It's disappointing that only because Gil Cisneros is losing an election he decided to take sexual harassment allegations against him seriously," she said.
"Cisneros has been publicly accused of disturbing accounts of sexual harassment for the past six months and instead of taking those accusations seriously, his surrogates called them absurd. Unlike Gil Cisneros, we believe all sexual harassment allegations should be taken seriously."
Fazli denied any quid-pro-quo related to the decision to withdraw her allegations, as did Mirvette Judeh, the Democratic activist and mutual friend who helped to broker the meeting. Fazli added that both she and Cisneros apologized to each other during the meeting for causing pain to them and their families, and they ultimately agreed that there had been a misunderstanding.
And in a statement responding to CLF, the Cisneros campaign said it "believes in the MeToo movement and that allegations of misconduct should be heard and believed until disproven otherwise. In this case, that standard has been more than met" after Fazli withdrew her allegations.
Last month, Monmouth University released a poll showing Republican Young Kim ahead of Cisneros by a margin of anywhere from 4 to 10 points depending on its turnout modeling.