Silicon Valley House Candidate, Fending Off Criticism, Says He ‘downloaded Some Porn’

SACRAMENTO, California — A startup engineer challenging Rep. Ro Khanna for his Silicon Valley House seat acknowledged Friday on social media that he "downloaded some porn," as he moved to fend off criticism about his record.

In the lengthy X post, Democratic House candidate Ethan Agarwal said that, “a while back,” he “downloaded some porn, got accused of IP infringement by the production company and it was settled.” The admission came at the tail end of the post, in which Agarwal accused Khanna, a fellow Democrat, of dragging him “through the mud” and dispatching allies to coax him into dropping out of the race.

“My goal with this post was to be like, look, this is how political campaigns are run. I am a human being. I've done things that I regret, I've done things that are mistakes,” Agarwal told POLITICO on Friday. “But I'm laying it out there. I'm being very open.”

Agarwal’s post marked the latest episode in a bruising primary where he is seeking to unseat Khanna, who has represented the district since 2017. Tech heavyweights including Democratic megadonor Ron Conway, DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang and Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan have backed Agarwal since he entered the race earlier this month, citing his opposition to a proposed California wealth tax that Khanna supports.

Agarwal’s post came in response to a recent San Jose Spotlight report detailing allegations of legal and financial troubles. Agarwal accused Khanna, a potential 2028 presidential contender, of “leaking opposition research” and of sending three people to ask him to drop out of the race — at least one of whom, Agarwal says, threatened him with political retribution. He declined to provide names when asked.

Sarah Drory, a spokesperson for Khanna, denied the allegations.

“Ethan is now lying because he is embarrassed by the disqualifying revelation that he was sued for illegally downloading a lot of porn,” Drory said in a statement to POLITICO.

Court records show that Agarwal was sued in 2019 for alleged copyright infringement in the U.S. District Court of Southern New York by Malibu Media, LLC, an adult film production firm that has sued numerous defendants nationwide on similar claims. The lawsuit was settled and dismissed in 2020.

Agarwal declined to share further details about the case, saying that it has “nothing to do with the 17th district” where he is challenging Khanna.