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HOH’s One-Minute Recess: Legislative Aide’s Late-Night Altercation

A legislative aide to Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi (D-Puerto Rico) is in hot water after an argument with a Puerto Rican student visiting Washington.

Blogging under the name Yuyu, the woman describes what happened. Pierluisi has confirmed that an incident took place but says the details reported so far are “not completely accurate.”

His office has not provided an alternate account, so here’s what the student says.

The incident began at a party filled with “Puerto Rican intelligentsia … drinking and dancing [and] reggaeton.”

At 2 a.m. the young woman, Pierluisi aide Eduardo Hilera and eight others decided to head to the clubs (as the kids say). Somehow in the hustle and bustle of getting out the door and into cabs and cars, the student says she ended up grabbing a ride with Hilera and two other guys.

Hilera asked the student about herself: where she’s from, what she’s studying, why she uses such big words. Wait, what?

“Well, I don’t like women who speak like that,” she says Hilera told her. “I have more respect for people who speak simpler.” 

The student says Hilera then asked how she feels about Puerto Rico having a delegate in House and how she feels about Pierluisi specifically.

The woman says she told him that a delegate without a vote doesn’t really have a voice in Congress.

“You’re either drunk or you’re a real b—-,” she says that Hilera responded.

He went on.

“Don’t you know who I am?” she quotes him as saying. “I am Eduardo Hilera. … I work for Pierluisi. Now you really sh– yourself, b—-.”

The woman says Hilera then stopped the car, called her a “slut” and told her to get out.

In an interview with Radio Isla on Friday, Pierluisi confirmed his staffer was involved in an altercation with a young woman. He had not spoken to Hilera about the incident at the time of the interview.
 
Pierluisi’s office released a statement Monday about the incident.

“Based on the information we have received, the details narrated on this blog with respect to an alleged argument that took place after office hours between a young lady and an employee of our office are not completely accurate,” spokeswoman Carla L. Escoto Soto says. “However, it should be made clear that Congressman Pierluisi rejects any insult against any person and he expects that all his employees act accordingly.”

Hilera’s areas of legislative expertise include women’s issues, children and family issues, and firearms.

(Special shout-out to Congressional Quarterly’s Eugene Mulero, who translated the blog item and radio interview from Spanish.)

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