Tennessee Democrats filing complaint against U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais

photo U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarLais
Arkansas-Tennessee Live Blog

NASHVILLE - Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester said today the party is filing its own separate medical ethics complaint against U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., to ensure state health officials have the physician's own sworn testimony that he had sex with patients.

"We ... are doing what we do to protect Democrats and Tennesseans," Forrester said shortly before heading to the state Department of Health to file the complaint.

He said, "I want to be sure that this agency has, in Scott DesJarlais' words, the fact that he had sex" with at least two patients and gave one of them prescription drugs.

During the Jasper lawmaker's fall campaign, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a similar complaint against DesJarlais based on his actions a dozen years ago. That complaint was based on reports from the Times Free Press and other news outlets.

But it did not contain a transcript of DesJarlais' 2001 divorce trial in which he acknowledged at least two affairs with patients. That was released a week after the Nov. 6 election following a motion by the Democratic Party to obtain the transcript.

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