Everything you need to know about the controversial rise and fall of Katie Hill

After she won reelection last year as part of a historic, female-driven wave for House Democrats, the party picked Rep. Katie Hill (Calif.) to be one of its faces of success.

She is young (32), diverse (one of the first openly bisexual members of Congress), politically astute (her first time running for office was for this seat) and from the kind of district that helped the Democrats win back the House last year and that they hope to keep.

But as swift as her rise came her fall. Hill is resigning after less than a year in Congress over allegations she had relationships with staffers. Such relationships violate new House rules passed in the #MeToo era, making her seat potentially more competitive for Republicans. Here’s what happened, from the beginning.

What happened: Hill has acknowledged having a consensual relationship with a campaign staffer but has denied having a relationship with a staffer in her D.C. office. She is resigning after her colleagues launched an ethics investigation into the claims, which were first seen on the conservative website RedState. It’s not immediately clear when she will resign.

Why is she resigning if she is denying some of the accusations? Good question. She denies the more serious claim, that she had a relationship with a congressional staffer. (“Absolutely false,” she said in a statement last week.) It’s more serious because it would break new rules passed last year by the House after the #MeToo movement brought down nine members of Congress. As The Post’s Michelle Ye Hee Lee reports, “It is against the official code of conduct for members to ‘engage in a sexual relationship with any employee’ who works for the member.”

Hill has been somewhat vague about why she is leaving. “I believe it is the best thing for my constituents, my community, and our country” to resign, she said in a statement Sunday. But she has also framed herself as a victim of revenge porn. Sexual photos of her with her campaign staffer were released online, and she has accused her husband, whom she is in the process of divorcing, of behind it. She said in her resignation statement that she is pursuing legal options.

“I am saddened that the deeply personal matter of my divorce has been brought into public view and the vindictive claims of my ex have now involved the lives and reputations of unrelated parties,” she said.