Meanwhile in Bevinstan...

I was wondering when the other shoe was going to drop on former Kentucky GOP House Speaker Jeff Hoover, who resigned over covering up a sexual harassment settlement claim with a staffer last month.  Now we find out that the story behind Hoover's resignation was -- surprise! -- a lot worse than originally reported.

A Kentucky House Republican employee alleges in a lawsuit that she was retaliated against for reporting an "inappropriate sexual relationship" between then-House Speaker Jeff Hoover and a woman in his office and that GOP leaders used money from "prominent campaign donors" to secretly settle the woman's sexual harassment claim.

Communications Director Daisy Olivo says in her whistleblower lawsuit filed Monday in Franklin Circuit Court that she had her duties taken away after disclosing the details of the relationship to the Legislative Research Commission's general counsel and human resources director, and that she has faced ongoing retaliation.

Olivo's lawsuit contradicts Hoover and investigators retained by House leadership about the nature of the relationship and how the settlement was paid. 

The woman who accused Hoover of sexual harassment shared a timeline with Olivo of her "physical, sexual encounters" with Hoover, as well as three years' worth of text messages with him, according to the lawsuit. 

Claims made in a lawsuit represent only one side of the case. 

Hoover, a Jamestown Republican, admitted making mistakes but denied any sexual relations or harassment when he resigned as speaker.

His apology and resignation came four days after Courier Journal broke news that Hoover had entered into a secret settlement with a woman who worked on his staff.

I mean Hoover's already lost his job and any shot he had at higher state office, but if the claims in this lawsuit are true, Hoover's in a lot of legal trouble too.  Kentucky's had its share of Republicans and corruption, Gov. Ernie Fletcher and state Ag commissioner Ritchie Farmer to name a few, and Bevin's being so holier-than-thou over the Hoover scandal that he must have something to hide that we'll later find out about.

But this is awful even for Kentucky standards.  If Hoover used donor cash to settle this lawsuit, he's going to jail for a while as I can't imagine that Andy Beshear would be lenient on him as AG, not to mention the retaliation by Hoover to fire the woman who blew the whistle on his actions.

We'll see what happens, but the Hoover story is going to be with us well into 2018.