Tennessee state Rep. Scotty Campbell claims he was pressured to resign last year

Tennessee state Rep. Scotty Campbell (R) alleged in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday that he was forced by House Republican leader Jeremy Faison to resign last April after a sexual harassment complaint was supposedly filed against him in order to protect Faison from a similar allegation.

"Once it became apparent that the media was aware of the subcommittee's conclusions regarding Mr. Campbell, he was forced to resign upon threat of being expelled — that day! — and losing his health insurance, etc., by Rep. Jeremy Faison, who is believed to have been conspiring with certain yet-to-be-determined others to keep the media from finding out that a complaint had also been filed against him," Campbell's attorney Tony Duncan wrote in the filing.

Campbell is seeking the internal records of the investigation into his complaint so that he can clear his name.

He said that he only flirted with the intern he is accused of harassing after hours and that their contact was consensual.

He also said that when he tried to show exonerating text messages to the director of legislative administration, Connie Ridley, on the day he was accused, she refused to look at them.

A Davidson County chancellor later revealed that there had been a sexual harassment complaint against Faison, but officials later denied that claim and said there had been no such complaint filed.