Staff Reports
[Updated 9:30 a.m. with statement from Flores and Braynon.]
Apparently exposing new depths of Florida political espionage, an anonymous internet website appeared Tuesday morning claiming to show secretly-taped videos and secretly-shot photographs supporting allegations of a rendezvous between Republican state Sen. Anitere Flores and Democratic state Sen. Oscar Braynon II.
The pair of Miami-Dade lawmakers issued a statement Tuesday morning acknowledging a relationship they regret and asking for privacy.
“As this 2018 session of the Florida Legislature gets underway, we do not want gossip and rumors to distract from the important business of the people,” Braynon and Flores stated in a joint-statement issued shortly after news reports of the website.
“That’s why we are issuing this brief statement to acknowledge that our longtime friendship evolved to a level that we deeply regret. We have sought the forgiveness of our families, and also seek the forgiveness of our constituents and God. We ask everyone else to respect and provide our families the privacy that they deserve as we move past this to focus on the important work ahead,” they wrote.
The website — floresbraynonaffair.com — and its contents claim that the videos, photographs, surveillance and other research presented by the unidentified author(s) offer evidence of an extramarital affair between the two married lawmakers from Miami-Dade County.
One Florida Politics reporter had the website texted to him early Tuesday with the message, “Senators Flores (R) & Braynon (D) Caught Caucusing!”
The website features grainy, black-and-white video shot through a pinhole lens purported to be of a hallway in The Tennyson, a condominium building in Tallahassee. Accompanying text states that Braynon and Flores had rented rooms there last April, across the hall from one another, and alleges that the surveillance suggested Flores spent several nights in Braynon’s unit.
As first reported in Sunburn Tuesday morning, there is no clear showing of who is behind the surveillance, conducted last spring, or the website. The website is marked “private” on ICANN WHOIS, a registry of owners of domain names.
The first video shows a woman leaving one room and then going across the hall and entering another room. A second video shows a woman leaving that second room, going across the hall and re-entering the first room. The accompanying text claims the woman was Flores, going from her room to Braynon’s the night of April 21, and returning to her own room the next morning.
Neither video captures a face.
The website also includes photographs and video of a woman purported to be Flores entering and leaving a car in the parking garage of The Tennyson, and of a man purported to be Braynon also in the parking garage, and in the hallway.
In none of the shots are there any clear images of faces.
Sunburn reported Tuesday morning that rumors had circulated of an alleged affair between Flores and Braynon, especially in recent weeks.
Sunburn also reported a source who alerted Florida Politics to the existence of the website. That person suggested it is the work of former Sen. Frank Artiles, who privately had threatened to expose the two lawmakers referenced in the domain name.
Artiles, a Cuban-American Republican also from Miami-Dade County, made national news after he accosted Sen. Perry Thurston, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, and Sen. Audrey Gibson, a Jacksonville Democrat, calling her a “b****h” and a “girl” in a dispute over legislation at a private club in Tallahassee Monday night.
Artiles also used a slang variation of the ‘N-word,’ referring to white Republicans who supported Joe Negron as Senate President. Thurston and Gibson are black. Artiles apologized on the Senate floor, but eventually resigned this April rather than face a hearing that could have resulted in his expulsion.
Others suggest this is the first of what could be many clandestine efforts by former Sen. Jack Latvala, a Clearwater Republican and former Senate Appropriations Chairman, to exact revenge on his former colleagues.
Latvala also resigned this month after two damning reports on his alleged serial sexual harassment, including an allegation he offered a favorable vote on legislation pushed by a female lobbyist if she agreed to have sex with him.
10 comments
Domino
January 9, 2018 at 10:03 am
Gossip and rumors? You both just acknowledged an inappropriate relationship validating the hotel video. Can you say pillow talk/sunshine laws?
Resign or be expelled.
CMF
January 9, 2018 at 10:14 am
And they act like this is a “private” matter. You hear some people say, “well, this is really not our business.” WRONG!! These two are public officials and their conduct in Tallahassee IS the public’s business. They pass judgment on all of the ideas proffered by the public as policy suggestions. Their judgment and character are OUR business.
“. . . as we move past this . . .”??? I’m sure THEY want to put their mistakes immediately in the past, with no public consequence, just as Artilles, Clemens, and Latvala wanted to do when they issued their “apologies.” Agree 100% with Domino – resign or be expelled. If Joe Negron and political correctness watchdog/hypocrite Benacquisto don’t take action on this, they too should be expelled.
Jon
January 9, 2018 at 10:16 am
Explains the text from Rachel Perrin Rogers to Latvala when Rogers referred to Anitere as Sen. FlWhores
Jon
January 9, 2018 at 10:48 am
A stretch, but…
1.35—Legislative conduct
Every Senator shall conduct himself or herself to justify the confidence
placed in him or her by the people and, by personal example and
admonition to colleagues, shall maintain the integrity and responsibility
of his or her office.
.43—Violations; investigations, penalties
(1) Any person may file a sworn complaint with the Rules Chair, or
the President when the complaint is against the Rules Chair, alleging a
violation by a Senator of the Rules regulating legislative conduct and
ethics. The complaint shall be based on personal knowledge, shall state
detailed facts, shall specify the actions of the named Senator which form
the basis for the complaint, shall attach all documentation on which the
complaint is based, and shall identify the specific Rule alleged by the
complainant to have been violated by the Senator.
(a) Upon a determination by the Rules Chair, or the President
when the complaint is against the Rules Chair, that the
complaint fails to state facts supporting a finding of probable
cause, the complaint shall be dismissed.
(b) Upon a determination by the Rules Chair, or the President
when the complaint is against the Rules Chair, that the
complaint states facts supporting a finding of probable cause,
the complaint shall be referred to a special master. The
special master shall conduct an investigation, shall give
reasonable notice to the Senator who is alleged to have
violated the Rules and shall grant the Senator an
opportunity to be heard unless the investigation fails to
reveal facts supporting a finding of probable cause. A special
master’s report and recommendation is advisory only and
shall be presented to the Rules Chair, or the President when
the complaint is against the Rules Chair, as soon as
practicable after the close of the investigation. If the special
master’s report and recommendation conclude that the facts
do not support a finding of probable cause, the complaint
shall be dismissed by the Rules Chair, or the President when
the complaint is against the Rules Chair. If the complaint is
not dismissed, the Rules Committee shall consider the
special master’s report and recommendation, shall grant the
Senator an opportunity to be heard, and shall develop its own
recommendation. If the complaint is against the Rules Chair,
the chair is excused and the vice chair shall conduct the
deliberation. If the Rules Committee votes to dismiss the
complaint, the Rules Chair or vice chair shall dismiss the
complaint. Otherwise, the special master’s report and
recommendation and the recommendation of the Rules
Committee shall be presented to the President. The
President shall present the committee’s recommendation,
along with the special master’s report and recommendation,
to the Senate for final action.
(2) Separately from any prosecutions or penalties otherwise provided
by law, a Senator determined to have violated the requirements of the
Rules regulating legislative conduct and ethics may be censured,
reprimanded, or expelled. Such determination and disciplinary action
shall be taken by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the Senate, on recommendation
of the Rules Committee.
Tom S.
January 9, 2018 at 10:50 am
In bed together, politically and otherwise.
Guess that explains the RINO voting record.
Kevin L.
January 9, 2018 at 12:05 pm
Sleep with the enemy much? Goes for both!
Steve
January 10, 2018 at 10:18 am
How the hell is this private when they are using tax payer money?!!
MindJa Ohwn Biz
January 11, 2018 at 5:37 am
Who gives a shit.. All u people are just jealous of them because you’re not getting any pussy or cock. I happen to know them and u people are disgusting animals compared to the two. They’re stand up politicians and they had a friendship where feelings naturally developed. Is that against the law? Get the fuck over it man. What they do is their business. Bc of bottom feeders like you careers are lost and families destroyed.
Who's the bottom feeder?
January 11, 2018 at 5:06 pm
Careers and families are destroyed by individuals who make a conscious decision to have extramarital affairs with their coworkers.
Fred
January 15, 2018 at 3:32 am
“They’re stand up politicians…”
if these two CLOWNS are stand up politicians I can’t imagine how the NOT so stand up politicians behave like.
Comments are closed.