Brothel owner and Nevada state legislature Republican candidate Dennis Hof is under investigation for sexual assault, authorities said Wednesday.
Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong confirmed Wednesday that an unidentified woman in a hospital accused Hof of raping her during the weekend, reported CBS News. The state Department of Public Safety (DPS) took over the investigation.
Hof has never been investigated by DPS before now, he told The Daily Caller News Foundation via email Thursday.
Hof owns legal brothels in Carson City, Nevada, reported The Reno Gazette-Journal. The sheriff’s office has not disclosed whether the woman worked at a brothel that Hof owns, according to CBS News.
Hof’s campaign said Wednesday that the candidate is “cooperating fully” in the investigation.
“While he has his suspicions, at this time Mr. Hof does not know exactly what the allegations are, who made them or when the alleged incident supposedly took place,” continued the campaign statement. “Nevertheless he completely and totally denies that any such incident occurred and believes the allegations are groundless and politically motivated.”
Hof has previously been accused of sexual assault in incidents allegedly taking place in 2005, 2009 and 2011.
Hof beat three-term incumbent James Oscarson by seven percentage points for the Republican nomination to a seat in Nevada’s state legislature on June 12 in the primaries.
He rode the “Trump train” to his primary win, which was also made possible by a surprising amount of evangelical support, Hof told The Hill. But he will also have to convince voters in Nevada’s District 36, which includes suburbs of Las Vegas, to trust him despite rape and sexual assault accusations.
Hof denies the allegations from three ex-prostitutes who say the incidents took place from 2005 to 2011. Prosecutors have never carried cases against Hof forward because of statutes of limitations or lack of witnesses.
He will face Democratic opponent Lesia Romanov in the Nov. 6 general election. (RELATED: Anonymous White House Op-Ed Writer Used An Intermediary To Submit To New York Times)
Hof, a former libertarian, claims President Donald Trump as an inspiration and wrote an autobiography entitled “The Art of the Pimp.”
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