Newly discovered selfie shows Rep. Tony Gonzales with Regina Santos-Aviles
· Yahoo NewsA newly discovered photo recovered from Regina Ann Santos-Aviles' phone shows her embracing U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales in an outdoor selfie - an image her husband's attorney says was saved to her device less than a week before she took her own life in September.
The undated photo shows the married congressman with his left arm around Santos-Aviles. Both of them are smiling at the camera in an outdoor setting.
Advertisement
Advertisement
It is unclear when the picture was taken or by whom.
Gonzales has said the last time he spoke to Santos-Aviles was in June 2024.
At the time of her death, she was director of the congressman's regional district office in Uvalde. On Wednesday, Gonzales acknowledged he had an affair with her in 2004 but said he bore no responsibility for her suicide. U.S. House rules forbid members from engaging in sexual relationships with staff members.
Controversy over the liaison has engulfed Gonzales' bid for a fourth term representing Texas' 23d Congressional District.
The House Ethics Committee announced on Tuesday that it was launching an investigation into allegations of "sexual misconduct" by Gonzales, and on Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders called on him to abandon his re-election campaign.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Also on Thursday, Robert "Bobby" Barrera, a San Antonio attorney for Santos-Aviles' husband, provided the image of Santos-Aviles and Gonzales to the San Antonio Express-News.
Barrera, who represents Adrian Aviles, said a digital forensics firm he hired to retrieve data from Santos-Aviles' phone determined the image was saved or downloaded to the device at 9:07 p.m. on Sept. 8, 2025, as a text message attachment.
She set herself on fire in the backyard of her home in Uvalde on Sept. 13. She died the next day at age 35. She and Aviles had been separated for several months and were sharing parenting responsibilities for their eight-year-old son.
Barrera said that at least two members of Congress contacted him earlier this week seeking text messages and other potentially embarrassing material related to the affair. Barrera and Aviles previously provided explicit texts to the Express-News and other news outlets, including one in which Gonzales asked Santos-Aviles to send him "a sexy pic" and to describe her favorite sexual positions.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Barrera said the members of Congress, who he declined to identify, wanted additional material not yet published. He said it would be up to Aviles whether to turn over anything.
"They want all the evidence that I have," Barrera told the Express-News. "They said, ‘What you send is going to the White House.' It was meant to be passed around to members of Congress to get them motivated."
Barrera said the lawmakers were particularly interested in a "damaging" photograph Gonzales is said to have sent to Santos-Aviles. Barrera said it was in the course of searching for that image that he found the picture of Gonzales with his arm around Santos-Aviles. He said he did not know if it was the photo they were looking for.
There are more than 56,000 photos on Santos-Aviles' phone, he said.
This article originally published at Newly discovered selfie shows Rep. Tony Gonzales with Regina Santos-Aviles.