We know the terrible details of how congressional staffer Regina Santos-Aviles, 35, died. She poured gasoline on herself and then flicked the flame on a lighter – a mad decision she instantly regretted. “Please send help. It hurts so bad,” she screamed at the 911 dispatcher. “Oh my God, I don’t want to die.” She tried to smother the flames by rolling on the ground of her backyard in Texas and crawling to a faucet to extinguish them with water.

But it was too late. A medical examiner found that the only part of her body not scorched by flames were the soles of her feet. 

Thanks to a police report we know these terrible details of her death last year.

But we don’t know precisely why she was driven to such extreme action – and how much of a role in her death her boss Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales played. He has denied an affair but recently leaked texts reveal that he asked her to “send me a sexy pic,” and asked her “favorite position” before mentioning multiple sexual acts. Santos-Aviles replied “this is too far, Tony.” 

It’s not that Congress doesn’t know if he exploited her – it’s that it won’t tell the American public. The Office of Congressional Conduct has completed a report into the matter but House rules bar it from handing its report to the House Ethics Committee so close to March 3 primaries in Texas in which Gonzales faces a serious challenge. 

So while one branch of the government releases virtually every email Jeffrey Epstein ever sent – no matter the collateral damage to innocent people tangentially mentioned – another branch is knowingly keeping........

© The Spectator