Karen Monahan, Rep. Keith Ellison’s (D-Minn.) ex-girlfriend, accused the the congressman of a type of emotional abuse she defined as “narcissist abuse” in an interview with The New York Times.
“Narcissist abuse is very difficult to understand,” Monahan said in the interview. “It’s the gaslighting, it’s the habitual lying, it’s the making it seem like it was my fault for even asking why something happened.”
Monahan said it degraded her physically, “My hair was falling out, I was anemic — narcissist abuse is horrid.”
{mosads} The Times noted that “narcissist abuse” was not an official psychiatric designation, but a term describing self-centered people in relationships.
Keith Ellison’s office declined to comment when contacted by The Hill. The Times reported Ellison has denied abusing Monahan, and that he declined to speak to the newspaper for its story.
The Times report comes after Monahan had earlier this month claimed abuse allegations against the congressman, including that Ellison had dragged her off a bed after asking her to take out the trash.
Monahan also claimed she had a video of the incident, though she has not released any of the alleged footage.
Ellison, who is also vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, has denied that allegation.
“Karen and I were in a relationship which ended in 2016, and I still care deeply for her well-being,” Ellison said in a statement to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune at the time the allegations first surfaced.
“This video does not exist because I never behaved in this way, and any characterization otherwise is false.”
In her interview with the Times, Monahan repeated her claims against Ellison, saying he had grown angry when she did not respond to his request she take out the trash.
“He kept trying to pull me and pull me and pull me off” the bed, she told The Times. “And I just laid dead. Because I was scared.”
During the time when the alleged confrontation happened, Monahan and Ellison had already ended their relationship, though she was living in his home as she looked for a new place.
She did not provide the alleged video of the incident to The Times and she has not shown it to any other news outlet.
According to The Times, Monahan also called the police shortly after she made allegations against Ellison, claiming that her computer had been hacked and “that email conversations between her and Ellison have been randomly deleted off of her laptop,” according to the police report.