The race for California's 17th congressional district is turning into a mucky battle, with Silicon Valley megadonors backing Ethan Agarwal against incumbent Ro Khanna.
Agarwal’s campaign has been relentless in attacking Khanna over his stock trades, but now Agarwal himself faces an onslaught of questionable legal baggage. Anonymous leaks are unearthing a series of unsavory incidents from his past, including a $683,000 personal judgment for non-payment on a copyright settlement with Universal Music Group, and a landlord lawsuit over a lease abandoned during the pandemic.
Perhaps most damning is a 2019 federal lawsuit alleging that Agarwal’s IP address was used to download adult content. In a peculiar move, Agarwal admitted the incident himself, tweeting: “I think transparency and authenticity is important among political candidates.”
The situation has grown so heated that even his benefactors are getting involved. Investor Chamath Palihapitiya weighed in with a tweet suggesting that opposition research had begun on Agarwal.
