This is really kind of a sad story, involving more of the fallout from former congresswoman and famous “throuple” participant Katie Hill. As you may recall, her congressional office was thrown into turmoil when reports emerged of her being involved in sexual relationships with a female campaign staffer and, allegedly, a male congressional staffer. The latter would have been a violation of House ethics rules and an investigation into the matter was announced. Shortly thereafter, Hill resigned.

The affair with her estranged husband and the campaign staffer, Morgan Desjardins, was eventually confirmed by Hill but she always denied having been romantically involved with Graham Kelly, her legislative director. For his part, Kelly also continues to insist that their relationship was strictly professional and that he’s actually the real victim in all of this. In a recent interview, he explains how he was left behind in the media circus, effectively being thrown under the bus and forgotten. Now his career is in ruins and he says he’s frequently contemplated taking his own life. (NY Post)

He’s been slandered as Hill’s lover, his promising political career is over, and he frequently thinks of suicide, he told The Post in his first in-depth interview since the sex scandal exploded in October.

“There were countless times I was standing on the metro station where I was like, ‘Hey, what if I jumped in front of the train right now,” Kelly confessed.

“My apartment is on the third floor and I walk on the balcony and I just like stare out off the deck [and think] maybe I should jump. I have those thoughts all the damn time.”

Listening to Kelly tell his side of the story, I find myself having a considerable amount of sympathy for him. And his explanation of how things happened is actually quite plausible. He knew that Hill was in an intimate relationship with Desjardins, but says that the “other man” she was involved with was Playboy reporter Alex Thomas, who Hill began a relationship with last summer. It’s Kelly’s belief that Hill’s estranged husband was positive she was seeing another man (in addition to the female staffer) and simply assumed it was him because he was constantly in the office and traveling with Hill.

If that’s the case, Kelly truly may be the collateral damage from this story. He describes how he was stuck hanging out in the congressional office that Hill vacated, “spinning around in my chair” and browsing social media. The Clerk of the House had taken over the office after Hill’s departure, and while Kelly was still technically an employee of the office, he had no duties. He also claims that nobody from Hill’s team offered him any legal help or even advice on what to say or do.

Kelly spent most of his time doing job searches but says that none of his former political contacts were returning his calls or answering his emails or texts. He felt like “a ghost” and was completely on his own. After a while, it became too much to bear and he resigned, moving back home to South Carolina to wait out the pandemic. He remains unemployed to this day.

Nearly every element of this story has the ring of truth. The fact that Hill was dating the Playboy reporter was later confirmed. And the one aspect of the story as told by both Hill and Kelly that they’ve never wavered from is that the two of them were never in a relationship. If so, it sounds like Hill really did leave her dedicated staffer twisting in the wind, allowing his career to go up in flames as she headed for the exits. Whether you believe Kelly’s version of events or not, we should all hope that he gets some help soon. It sounds like he’s in a very dark place.