{"id":347008,"date":"2026-07-21T07:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347008\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T07:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:28:40","slug":"florida-rep-fabian-basabe-faces-calls-to-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347008\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Rep. Fabian Basabe faces calls to resign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a> Democratic<\/a> leaders called for the resignation of a Republican<\/a> lawmaker whom a civil jury found liable for sexually harassing male staffers.<\/p>\n

A jury in Tallahassee said Florida Rep. Fabian Basabe<\/a>, who once called himself a \u201cgay Republican<\/a>\u201d but was elected while presenting himself as a conservative family man<\/a>, should pay $450,000 in damages to two young, straight former staffers \u2014 legislative aide Nicolas Frevola and intern Jacob Cutbirth \u2014 who accused him of sexual harassment and other misconduct.<\/p>\n

Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, said the verdict should mark the end of the Republican\u2019s political career.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepresentative Basabe\u2019s behavior is disgusting, and I am disturbed that the Republican leadership in the House engaged in a cover-up to shield Representative Basabe from the consequences of his actions. Representative Basabe has no business holding public office for another day, he must resign immediately,\u201d Fried said.<\/p>\n

Related: Former staffer accuses Florida Republican Fabian Basabe of sexually battering man at his Miami home<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFloridians are fed up with the rampant corruption in Tallahassee. Yesterday, a jury was able to deliver justice to those who were harmed by Basabe\u2019s reckless behavior. This fall, voters will make their voices clear when they vote out Representative Basabe and his complicit Republican colleagues at the ballot box.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basabe, who represented himself in the civil trial, has long denied the allegations and dismissed them as politically motivated. After the jury ordered him to pay damages, he told Florida Politics that he regretted defending himself and was considering his response to the verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose to defend myself because I am still na\u00efve enough to believe that truth matters, that an ordinary citizen can stand in court, defend himself, and be judged on the facts. I believed representing myself was the right thing to do because I am innocent and because, before this civil trial, these allegations had already been the subject of four investigations and ethics proceedings that concluded without substantiating the misconduct alleged against me,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, representing myself was a mistake. I underestimated how different civil litigation is from what most people believe. It operates under different standards, different procedures, and different rules. That is the lesson I take from today. This is a difficult time for me and my family, but their confidence in who I am has not changed. Neither has my determination. For now, I have no further comment on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Florida State Rep. Fabian Basabe Accused of Sexually Harassing Male Aides<\/a><\/p>\n

The allegations have dogged Basabe since they were raised in a civil lawsuit filed in 2023<\/a>. The Florida House of Representatives conducted two internal investigations into the accusations but found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing by the lawmaker.<\/p>\n

Cindy Myers, an attorney for Cutbirth and Frevola, said the jury verdict vindicated the men after they came forward with their allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury found Mr. Basabe guilty of defaming Nick, of battering Nick by slapping him across the face on January 3rd at The Southern Group, of slapping him on his rear and whispering in his ear \u2018I want all of that butt\u2019 while they were standing in the back of a classroom full of elementary school children, and sexually harassing him on multiple occasions,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury also found Mr. Basabe guilty of groping and trying to kiss Mr. Cutbirth the night that Mr. Cutbirth, after promising Mr. Frevola that he\u2019d get Mr. Basabe safely back to his hotel room, did exactly that, drove him to his hotel. And the jury found Mr. Basabe guilty of telling Mr. Cutbirth to flirt with him more when Mr. Basabe was in the office, to act like \u2018eye candy\u2019 in front of members of the Miami Chamber of Commerce visiting Mr. Basabe\u2019s office, of asking him how big his genitals were, of encouraging him to break off his engagement with his wife to have sex with Mr. Basabe and other men for sport, and more inappropriate sexually harassing statements.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Democratic leaders called for the resignation of a Republican lawmaker whom a civil jury found liable for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16438,28,9085,30,9129,29,1083,17366],"class_list":["post-347008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-fabian-basabe","tag-florida","tag-florida-democratic-party","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-house","tag-florida-news","tag-resignation","tag-sexual-harassment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}