Curt Clawson, a candidate for Congress in FL-19, has come under fire for renting his home to a convicted pedophile who was convicted in 2004 of raping and sodomizing a pre-teen girl. 

Clawson, who has been criticized for donating to Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and benefiting from federal bailouts, is in a competitive battle with Lizbeth Benacquisto, the Florida Senate majority leader who has been endorsed by Sarah Palin. Also battling for the nomination are two other candidates–Michael Dreikorn and Paige Kreegel. The three opponents released a joint statement before holding what many said was an unprecedented joint press conference demanding answers:

Now more than ever, we stand together to put politics aside to address some very serious questions that have been raised in this race. As candidates for the United States Congress–but more importantly as parents and members of this community–there is no greater priority than protecting our children from the violent predators who target them. Recent news reports have brought into question Curt Clawson’s relationship with a violent child rapist in Utah. He has dismissed these news reports as politically driven, and that just couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Miami Herald reports that according to Fox 4 in Florida, Glen Borst was convicted in 2004 of “repeatedly raping and sodomizing” a girl under the age of 13. 

According to NBC, “Borst later registered his address on a sex offender registry as the Saratoga Springs, Utah, property owned by Clawson”:

Utah property records indicate in 2013, Clawson transferred his ownership to a limited liability corporation called “Rewired CEO Utah LLC,” which lists Clawson as its agent. Rewired CEO Utah LLC sold the property last month.

We have also uncovered a 2006 document showing Clawson granted Borst a “special power of attorney,” giving Borst power to sign off on all documents related to Clawson’s purchase of the property. Borst was still on probation for his felony conviction at the time.

That contradicts two aspects of Clawson’s initial story when his ties to Borst were revealed. Clawson had claimed that Borst’s ex-wife had granted him the power of attorney and that Clawson “had no contact with him for decades”:

Clawson’s campaign said Clawson knew Borst as a child but had no contact with him for decades. That changed in 2006, when campaign officials said Clawson purchased the Utah address as an investment rental property. Borst’s ex-wife was the realtor, and the campaign said Borst took power of attorney to handle the deal.

Borst had even “liked” Clawson on his Facebook page before taking down his page. In addition, “the Utah sex offender registry listed Borst as ‘non-compliant’ for failing to register his current address.”

“If it’s our responsibility for a parolee to make sure they’re responsive to the conditions of their parole, and we can’t track them or don’t know where they’re living, that obviously raises a concern,” Steve Gehrke, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Corrections told NBC.

The primary is April 22nd, and the special general election is June 24th.

Photo Credit: Twitter

Breitbart News contributor Kevin Scholla contributed to this article.