Former Congressman Busted In Zimbabwe For Filming Porn

He’s leveraging his DC contacts. He’s making multi-million dollar hotel deals. He’s dabbling as an auteur specializing in guerilla pornography. That last item is what got him busted in Zimbabwe:

Less than a year after disgraced former Rep. Mel Reynolds ran a failed bid for Congress under the slogan of “redemption,” the convicted sex offender is again facing allegations of sexual misconduct, this time in Zimbabwe, according to immigration officials and state media reports.

The state-owned newspaper The Herald reported that Reynolds was found with pornography when he was arrested in the southern African country on Monday. Possession of pornography is illegal in Zimbabwe.

There was no official confirmation of the pornography allegations. Francis Mabika, an assistant regional immigration officer, said Reynolds had been picked up for living in Zimbabwe without a valid visa.

The allegations are yet another mark on the sullied reputation of the former Rhodes scholar and one-time rising star in the Democratic Party, who was tried and jailed in the U.S. almost 20 years ago for having sex with an underage campaign worker and soliciting child pornography.

Dylan Scott at TPM culls additional information from The Herald, a state-controlled Zimbabwe newspaper:

He shot more than 100 pornographic videos and snapped 2,000 pornographic pictures while in the company of up to 10 “beautiful women” — “famous models” even — at a time, according to the report, while four personal aides kept watch.

He also amassed more than $24,000 in bills at two different hotels and remained in Zimbabwe after his visa expired, the Herald said.

The Herald, which is owned by the Zimbabwe government, has been described by Freedom House, an international watchdog group, as a newspaper “whose propagandistic coverage favors [President Robert] Mugabe.”

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.