Barton threatened to report woman to Capitol Police if she shared sexually explicit photos of him: report

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) threatened to a report a woman to Capitol Police if she went public with sexually explicit photos, videos and messages he sent her, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The report comes after a nude photo of Barton surfaced on social media this week. 

The woman, who remains anonymous, told The Post that she was in contact with Barton over the course of five years, starting in 2011 when she posted on his Facebook page. She said the couple had two sexual encounters during that period of time.

{mosads}She shared a recorded phone call from 2015 with The Post during which Barton brought up the Capitol Police and told her not to use what he had sent her “in a way that would negatively affect my career.”

“I will be completely straight with you. I am ready if I have to, I don’t want to, but I should take all this crap to the Capitol Hill Police and have them launch an investigation,” Barton said during the call. “And if I do that, that hurts me potentially big time.”

“Why would you even say that to me?. . . The Capitol Hill police?” the woman reportedly said. “And what would you tell them, sir?”

“I would tell them that I had a three-year undercover relationship with you over the Internet that was heavily sexual and that I had met you twice while married and had sex with you on two different occasions and that I exchanged inappropriate photographs and videos with you that I wouldn’t like to be seen made public, that you still apparently had all of those and were in position to use them in a way that would negatively affect my career. That’s the truth,” the congressman reportedly replied.

Barton told The Post that the woman had threatened to share the images and messages when he ended the relationship.

He said that the Capitol Police had offered to launch an investigation earlier Wednesday and that he had accepted the offer.

The woman told The Post she didn’t plan to use the materials against Barton.

She said their relationship began after she commented on his Facebook about politics and that Barton soon began flirting with her and sending her sexually explicit messages.

She said she flew to Washington in 2012 and the two had sex during that visit. She visited him again in Texas in 2014 and the two had sex had a second time then.

Both times, he reimbursed her for her travel, she told The Post.

Barton was married to his second wife when he first began the relationship with the woman. His wife filed for divorce in April 2014 and it was finalized in February of the next year.

Barton’s spokeswoman didn’t return a request for comment from The Post about when the Bartons’ separation began.

Barton apologized earlier Wednesday after a nude photo of him circulated on social media earlier in the week.