House Republicans gave Basabe’s campaign $18K before his sexual harassment trial
Florida House Republicans’ campaign fundraising committee donated $18,000 to Miami Beach lawmaker Fabián Basabe’s reelection campaign in the two weeks before the civil jury trial that found him liable for sexual harassment and defamation.
That recent spending is part of the almost $150,000 the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee has donated to his campaign over the past year, state campaign finance records show — all contributions made well after two former House staffers’ allegations that Basabe had sexually harassed them became public in 2023.
House Republicans’ longstanding support of Basabe is now facing an added layer of scrutiny after Tallahassee jurors found him liable for $450,000 in damages for sexual harassment and defamation this week.
The jury’s verdict against Basabe is in stark contrast with two investigatory reports previously commissioned by the House that came back with “inconclusive” findings. In one of the reports, the investigator wrote, “I do not find any evidence, direct or circumstantial, to substantiate the allegations.”
Attorneys for the two former staffers say the gap between Wednesday’s verdict and the reports’ findings is further evidence that the House Republicans’ reports were meant to keep witnesses silent, rather than determine the truth.
“I don’t think it was a mishandling. I think it was a deliberate intent to cover up the evidence,” the plaintiffs’ attorney Cynthia Myers told the Miami Herald this week.
The former legislative aide and student intern in Basabe’s office are also suing the Florida House of Representatives for fraud, discrimination and retaliation in a separate Leon County civil court case that ties Basabe’s alleged actions to a larger culture of abuse and silence within Florida’s government.
That lawsuit also accuses Florida House Republicans of releasing those reports — created by the law firms Allen Norton & Blue and GrayRobinson — for partisan gain. Basabe narrowly flipped the Miami Beach seat from its former Democratic representation in 2022, helping Republicans solidify their supermajority in the state House.
“This fact was undoubtedly the reason why the HOUSE released its fraudulent, false report to the public: because the HOUSE wanted to circle its wagons around Basabe to protect him in a seat which historically had been Democratic,” reads the complaint in a parallel case.
The House Republican committee’s donations to Basabe make up more than 60% of his total campaign contributions this election cycle. He also received about $15,000 from the Republican Party of Florida between March and May of this year.
He has no Republican primary challenger, making him Republicans’ only option if they want to keep the seat in November. Democrats have been calling for his resignation since Wednesday’s verdict.
“Representative Basabe has no business holding public office for another day, he must resign immediately,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried wrote in a statement.
Basabe said in 2024 that if any of the “false allegations” were proven true “at any point in the future” he would “resign on the spot.” He did not respond to questions from the Herald about whether he planned to resign after this week’s verdict.
An attorney for the Florida House, Rob Sniffen, directed the Herald to a spokesperson for the House, who did not respond to questions about the verdict against Basabe or what it means for the House’s investigatory processes.
Neither the Republican Party of Florida nor the Florida Republican House Campaign Committee responded to questions about their recent donations to Basabe’s campaign.
Attorneys for the House wrote in a 2024 motion aiming to dismiss the plaintiffs’ lawsuit against the House that the reports’ inconclusive findings were “statements of pure opinion.”
“Plaintiffs disagree with the ultimate conclusion reached by both investigation reports,” their court filing reads. “However, Plaintiffs’ disagreement with the investigators’ conclusions, alone, is insufficient to establish either that the investigations were biased or that the investigators’ conclusions — statements of opinions based on the evidence presented — were false.”
Other Republicans tied to the case
The chaotic sexual harassment and defamation trial this week — frequently derailed by the former reality TV star and socialite’s legal blunders in representing himself — was against Basabe alone.
But there’s a wider net of Republican lawmakers who could also feel the consequences of the jury’s verdict about the allegations that Basabe slapped one of the staffers twice, touched a former intern’s thigh and tried to kiss him without his consent, and made unwelcome sexual comments.
A trial has not yet been scheduled in those staffers’ case against the Florida House. That lawsuit accuses Florida gubernatorial candidate and then-Speaker of the House Paul Renner of orchestrating the “cover-up” of Basabe’s actions.
“Renner lured Plaintiffs into believing that the processes of these investigations would be fair and impartial, and they were neither,” the lawsuit claims. Renner, who is not a party in the lawsuit, declined to comment.
Tampa-area Rep. Josie Tomkow is also frequently referenced in the lawsuit against the House. The former staffers’ attorneys tried to force her to testify in this week’s trial against Basabe, and plaintiffs have pointed to her noncooperation as evidence of the alleged House cover-up of Basabe’s actions and silencing of potential witnesses.
Tomkow told investigators she was in the room when Basabe allegedly slapped the former staffer at a party after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ inauguration, according to the 2023 notes of the first report commissioned by the House and written by Allen Norton & Blue that were obtained by the plaintiffs.
She heard a noise, looked up and saw Basabe’s hand near the former staffer’s face, according to the plaintiffs’ summary of those notes.
Later, when the plaintiffs tried to compel Tomkow to testify to that recollection, she did not participate. Tomkow has argued that she didn’t testify because she doesn’t remember the events that happened more than three years ago, not because she is trying to hide anything.
She told the court she should not be compelled to testify, in part, because she could “provide no useful testimony.” She said she talked to the plaintiffs’ attorney last week “in a show of good faith” and told them “she does not recall the relevant events of the case and could offer no testimony about them.”
The plaintiffs’ effort to get her on the witness stand continued up until this week. Instead, she sent her attorney, Scott Seagle, to court Monday; he told the court she had not been properly served and that “Miss Tomkow has no recollection of any of the events.”
Miami Herald staff reporter Aaron Leibowitz contributed to this report.
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