Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff behaved in an “inappropriate” and “misogynistic” manner at work, former colleagues allege in a new report.
The Daily Mail — which first exposed Emhoff’s affair with his nanny and allegations that he drunkenly assaulted an ex-girlfriend — reported Tuesday that Emhoff singled out attractive female employees for special treatment and penalized those who would not flirt back, in addition to shouting expletives at a coworker.
The report also highlighted a 2019 lawsuit which states that Emhoff’s former partners at the law firm Venable engaged in sex discrimination, and that Emhoff hired a legal secretary who was allegedly unqualified but “young, attractive and friendly with the powerful men in the office.”
Emhoff joined Venable in 2006 when he merged his company with another legal firm. He became Venable’s “Managing Director, West Coast” in August 2015, overseeing the firm’s offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He left Venable for DLA Piper in 2017, according to the Daily Mail, and took a leave of absence in 2020 due to his wife’s political career.
The lawsuit, which did not name Emhoff as a defendant, describes how other members at Venable viewed Emhoff’s secretary as a “trophy secretary.”
Her name was Katya Calderone, according to The Daily Mail, and she worked as a part-time model, joining Venable in 2014. The publication reported that Calderone has been pictured “partying at the Playboy Mansion, in GQ Magazine at Coachella Festival, socializing with Hollywood actors, and trying out for Bravo reality TV show Millionaire Matchmaker.”
The lawsuit describes how defendant Alex Weingarten, a partner at Venable, verbally berated his own secretary and finally “drove her from his desk after deciding that he deserved a young, attractive secretary like his partner Douglas Emhoff had.”
One woman who worked under Emhoff at Venable told the Daily Mail that he showed favoritism to “young, pretty girls” at their firm.
“If there was an event, like the Justice Ball, he would favor certain people. Usually it was young, pretty girls. And he would prefer for them to ride with him. He would get a limo.”
“I just don’t think his behavior was appropriate for the position he was in,” she told the Daily Mail.
(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
A top former Venable staffer told the publication that “plenty of people” where aware of Emhoff’s inappropriate behavior.
A third former Venable employee, who worked as a lawyer for the firm, said it was a well-established fact that Emhoff was “very flirty” and that “if you weren’t flirty back or didn’t respond positively then you were on his s**t list.”
If a woman didn’t flirt back with Emhoff, “you wouldn’t get to work on the cases you wanted to work on,” that third employee told the publication.
“There were deadlines that, if you were one of his favorite people, wouldn’t apply. But if you weren’t, they would,” she added.
Another former Venable employee, a senior staffer, told the publication that Emhoff “bragged” about yelling at a female partner, “Get the f*** out of my office,” and later allegedly told his colleagues that he “put her in her place.”
“What’s worse was he bragged about it to the management at Venable and they were aghast,” the former staffer said. “He’s an a**hole. He told them how he ‘put her in her place.’ A misogynist, that’s who does that.”
The White House and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Wire. Last week, an unnamed Emhoff spokesman told Semafor that the report alleging he hit his ex-girlfriend is “untrue,” and that “any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.”
