The wife of a United States Senator is accused of facilitating a hostile workplace environment that eventually led to a gay man taking his own life. 

An administrative law judge found credible evidence the children of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) bullied their mother’s personal assistant with homophobic slurs. 

Brandon O’Brien, 35, died by suicide in May after working for Nancy Bass Wyden for two years. 

In a wrongful death lawsuit filed in New York, O’Brien’s widowed husband, Thomas Maltezos alleges Bass Wyden spread false rumors that left O’Brien distraught and unable to find work, while doing little to stop the harassment. 

“(Brandon) made every space better with his quiet grace and unwavering loyalty,” Maltezos wrote in a GoFundMe campaign that raised $7,500 to cover O’Brien’s funeral expenses. 

Court documents detail how two of Bass Wyden’s children — then ages 11 and 15 — allegedly referred to O’Brien in text messages as “zesty,” an insult used by Gen Zers. 

The lawsuit claims the family’s 15-year-old son regularly called O’Brien "faggot" in his mother’s presence, becoming so enraged that Bass Wyden had to mace him with O’Brien inadvertently sprayed as well. 

Sen. Wyden is not listed in the lawsuit. His staff referred inquiries to the media relations department at Strand Books, the iconic New York bookstore owned by his wife’s family.

“It’s very painful to see your wife and kids misrepresented in the way they have been,” Sen. Wyden told Portland, Ore. CBS affiliate KOIN.

In a statement, Bass Wyden called the lawsuit baseless with deliberate falsehoods and distortions that included “upsetting and out of context claims involving our children.” 

The businesswoman, who is Wyden’s second wife, alleged O’Brien stole from her real estate company and engaged in a “calculated effort to groom and bait the children, then twist isolated interactions in a manipulative attempt to extort me,” Bass Wyden said.