The Silicon Valley congressional race is getting ugly

The superior isn’t until June, but the CA-17 race betwixt five-term incumbent Ro Khanna and tech laminitis Ethan Agarwal is already getting nasty. Agarwal entered the race successful March, backed by a roster of salient tech billionaires mostly successful effect to Khanna’s public support for a proposed California ballot measure that would enforce a one-time 5% taxation connected residents worthy much than $1 billion.

Agarwal, for his part, has been going aft Khanna by chiefly citing his banal trades portion successful office.

Now newsrooms covering the contention person been receiving anonymous packages of integer tribunal documents detailing Agarwal’s ineligible past. The record includes a $683,000 idiosyncratic judgement against him aft helium stopped making payments connected a $2 cardinal copyright colony with Universal Music Group, which had accused his institution Aaptiv — a workout app that paired audio coaching with licensed euphony — of utilizing its recordings without permission; a astir $2 cardinal landlord suit tied to Aaptiv’s One World Trade Center office, filed successful 2023 implicit a lease Aaptiv walked distant from during COVID; and a 2019 national suit alleging big contented was downloaded from Agarwal’s IP address. The past was brought by Malibu Media (a institution that filed thousands of astir identical suits against IP addresses crossed the state and was wide criticized arsenic a ineligible shakedown operation).

The landlord lawsuit was aboriginal dropped; the Malibu Media lawsuit settled without immoderate tribunal uncovering of liability. The UMG judgement is the astir substantive point successful the file. Agarwal personally guaranteed the $2 cardinal colony earlier stopping payments 3 months from the decorativeness line; the 2 sides aboriginal brokered different settlement.

Agarwal got up of astatine slightest 1 communicative himself. After the New York Post connected Friday ran the headline “Silicon Valley tech campaigner was sued for downloading tons of porn,” Agarwal shared it connected societal media, writing: “I deliberation transparency and authenticity is important among governmental candidates. We’re people. We’re not perfect. Yes, this is embarrassing. But present you cognize my worst thing.”

Investor Chamath Palihapitiya, 1 of his salient backers, weighed successful soon after, tweeting to Agarwal: “The absorption probe has started connected you due to the fact that you whitethorn triumph and Ro is starting to get worried.”