- Two people filmed a sex tape on the dias of a Senate hearing room.
- The office for Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland said a staffer linked to the video no longer works for him.
- Here’s what you need to know about the wild incident.
You may have already heard something about the “Senate sex tape.”
In the last few days, the internet was ablaze with discussion about a video that emerged of a Senate employee having sex in a large, empty committee hearing room.
It’s spurred discussions about how this could have happened, whether the leak of the video might have been “revenge porn,” and of course, a flurry of memes.
Here’s what you need to know about the incident.
The video was first unearthed by conservative outlets
Late on Friday, The Spectator published a newsletter entitled “Please stop taking nudes in the halls of Congress.”
While that story did not include a video, it described the existence of a public Twitter account where a Senate staffer posted pornographic content with another man.
It also alluded to an image of a staffer who took a photo in a Senate hearing “naked but for a jock strap, on on [sic] all fours, facing away from the camera.”
That was quickly followed up by a graphic story from the Daily Caller, which published a brief video of two men having sex in a Senate hearing room.
It’s unclear exactly where the video came from, or how it was made public, but the Daily Caller reported that the video was “shared in a private group for gay men in politics.” Business Insider was unable to independently verify the source of the video.
The staffer identified as being in the video worked for Sen. Ben Cardin, a long-serving Maryland Democrat
Media outlets have identified one of the men in the video as Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a young legislative aide to Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland.
Cardin, who’s retiring at the end of next year, has been in the Senate since 2007, following a 30-year stint in the House beginning in 1987.
The lawmaker recently became the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after an indictment forced the previous chair — Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey — to step down.
The staffer no longer works for the Senate, and Capitol Police are ‘looking into’ the hearing room incident
On Saturday, Cardin’s office issued a statement saying that “Maese-Czeropski is no longer employed by the US Senate” and that they would be offering no further comment on the matter.
On LinkedIn, Maese-Czeropski seemingly acknowledged the incident, saying he was being “attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda,” and that he was exploring his legal options.
“While some of my actions in the past have shown poor judgement, I love my job and would never disrespect my workplace,” Maese-Czeropski wrote.
Capitol Police told CNN that they “cannot confirm details regarding the people in the video” but that they “are aware and looking into this.”
It happened in a major Senate hearing room — where Sen. Amy Klobuchar sometimes sits
The video appeared to take place in a cavernous hearing room in the Hart Senate Office Building — a room frequently used by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The room has played host to numerous historic events, most recently the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The act appears to have taken place in the left corner of the dias — the spot currently occupied by Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the third-highest-ranking Democrat on the committee.
It is unclear exactly when the incident took place, or how the staffer gained access to the room.
Separately, Rep. Max Miller accused the same staffer of yelling ‘Free Palestine!’ at him
Rep. Max Miller of Maryland, one of just two Jewish Republicans in the House, has claimed that Maese-Czeropski also yelled “Free Palestine” at him on Capitol Hill last week.
“Out of nowhere, this guy beelines up to me visibly shaking — he’s very upset in my presence because he’s a snowflake,” Miller told the Washington Free Beacon.” And he just comes right back up to me and was like, ‘Free Palestine.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’ … I’m not going to give him a reaction because that’s what he wants.”
Snapshot from the halls of the Hill: a House staffer just passed by GOP Rep. Max Miller —who is Jewish and has been supportive of sending aide to Israel— and said “free Palestine.” Pretty rare and stunning to see staff challenge members to their faces this way.
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) December 13, 2023
In the LinkedIn post, which was no longer available on Monday, Maese-Czeropski also seemingly denied the interaction with Miller.
“I have never seen the congressman and had no opportunity or cause to yell or confront him,” he wrote.