KY Rep. Grossberg files lawsuit to try to stop misconduct investigation
.png "Louisville Democratic Rep. Daniel Grossberg on the first day of the 2025 legislative session in Frankfort.")
Facing a formal ethics hearing for allegations of misconduct, Kentucky Rep. Daniel Grossberg is asking a Kentucky court for emergency relief, calling the investigation against him “retaliatory and discriminatory.”
The 23-page complaint and supporting documents, filed Friday afternoon in Franklin Circuit Court, asks for immediate relief for Grossberg, who claims he has experienced harassment, discrimination and a violation of his constitutional rights, both by members of an ethics commission investigating his behavior and fellow lawmakers.
The complaint accuses former House Minority Whip Rachel Roberts and former House Minority Leader Cherlynn Stevenson — both fellow Democrats — of harassment and discrimination. Roberts and Stevenson are not named as defendants in the suit.
Grossberg is asking the court to force the ethics commission to dismiss the case against him and to prevent the commission from taking any further action in their investigation.
Grossberg has been the subject of scrutiny in the media and by the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission for the better part of a year, most notably involving his interactions with women, but he has maintained his innocence.
The Louisville lawmaker was on the receiving end of party-wide calls for his resignation in the fall, including from Gov. Andy Beshear, after the Herald-Leader reported on his alleged sexually inappropriate behavior with women, including behavior that earned him a lifetime ban from a Louisville strip club.
Beshear reiterated his call for Grossberg to step down Friday night at the Kentucky Democratic Party’s annual convention in Owensboro.
“He is not a victim. He should resign,” the governor said. “Daniel Grossberg needs to work on himself and not work in Frankfort.”
Grossberg’s complaint, filed in Franklin Circuit Court late Friday afternoon, alleges the ethics commission and a handful of former and current Democratic lawmakers violated his constitutional rights, as well as harassed and discriminated against him because of his Jewish faith and “for the fact that he is neurodiverse,” according to the complaint.
In his complaint, Grossberg’s attorney asserted that his client was “targeted for his faith as soon as he was elected to the legislature as the House’s first actively practicing Jewish member. ... This faith-based discrimination culminated in attacks on him because of his defense of Israel as hostility between Israel and Palestine escalated.”
Grossberg is represented in the case by Louisville attorney Thomas Clay.
The two-term lawmaker was offered — and refused — a deal last week from the ethics commission, which found “probable cause may exist to believe” Grossberg violated the state’s ethics code twice, including once when he invited a “volunteer issue advocate” to his office, drank alcohol and asked personal probing questions.
Had Grossberg signed the offer, the commission would have dismissed other complaints against him. The order would have required him to receive a public reprimand, pay a $4,000 fine, enroll in mental health treatment and waive his right to bring civil action against the commission.
Instead, an executive session ethics hearing was scheduled for June 17, though it was not immediately clear Friday if Grossberg’s request for immediate relief would alter the hearing.
If the hearing does happen, several of the complainants and others who alleged Grossberg behaved inappropriately have been subpoenaed to appear in Frankfort and provide testimony.
From there, the commission will decide whether additional probable cause exists that shows Grossberg further violated the law or the state’s ethics code.
Grossberg alleges in his filing that the ethics commission has violated his due process, not telling him what charges it plans to pursue against him or what evidence it has.
He’s asking for a temporary injunction so he can challenge the ethics commission’s jurisdiction, according to the court documents.
“The sad facts surrounding this entire investigation appear to be motivated by an antisemitic sentiment by a handful of powerful individuals,” the filing states.
Grossberg has reiterated his innocence in local media outlets this week, calling the investigation into his conduct “retaliation.”
“The whole process thus far has been weaponized against me,” Grossberg told WHAS11, a Louisville news station.
Grossberg said in the court filing that Stevenson “had words with” him after he made a speech on the House floor introducing a resolution condemning Hamas’ attack on Israel.
He claims Stevenson and Roberts went on to file “false claims” against him and then “had several young people who worked with Stevenson and Roberts file additional allegations of harassment, all of which appear to have been abandoned by the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission in its latest offer of an agreed resolution.
“The young people making the complaints all work for his current political opponent, making it clear that the goal of the discrimination was to force him to resign his seat.”
He says he was referred to as “creepy” and “weird,” because of his neurodiversity.
And he claims the attacks increased when Grossberg brought Roberts and Stevenson “evidence of their male assistant’s alleged inappropriate texts to young Capitol interns and pages.”
“The claims made in the media and before the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission are pretextual allegations to cover up clear discrimination against Rep. Grossberg for his faith and his neurodiversity,” the filing states. “It can be noted that the most recent version of the Proposed Agreed Order drafted by KLEC and rejected by Representative Grossberg affirms that the sexual harassment charges against him were baseless and are not included in the order as potential ethics violations.”
Herald-Leader reporting on Grossberg last year included an instance of alleged sexual harassment in Grossberg’s office, as well as an incident where he inappropriately groped a dancer at a Louisville strip club, earning him a lifetime ban from the business.
Herald-Leader staff writer Karla Ward contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 13, 2025 at 5:08 PM.
