U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn called the COVID-19 emergency a “hoax,” and his chief of staff referred to people concerned about the pandemic as “liberal sissies” who were “overreacting,” according to a new court filing in the ongoing lawsuit in Washington, D.C. federal district court brought by an ex-aide against the congressman’s office.

Brandon Pope, who served as Lamborn’s military adviser until December 2020, sued the eight-term Republican representing Colorado’s 5th Congressional District in May. Pope claimed he was fired in retaliation for raising concerns about workplace conditions allowing COVID-19 to spread in Lamborn’s offices.

Lamborn refused to implement “reasonable and responsible COVID-19 protocols,” the lawsuit alleges.

A document filed Friday in the lawsuit contains a sworn statement by Joshua Hosler, a former district director for Lamborn who says he was Pope’s direct supervisor. The statement, dated May 14, calls Pope “generally an excellent employee” who Hosler believes Lamborn and his chief of staff, Dale Anderson, fired Pope because of his opposition to “The Office’s careless approach to the pandemic and his requests that The Office implement COVID-19 safety protocols.”

Hosler’s statement supports accusations made by Pope about how Lamborn’s office handled pandemic safety protocols, previously reported by Colorado Politics.

Rep. Doug Lamborn sued for alleged negligent COVID office approach, requiring staff run family errands

Pope requested Lamborn’s office put protocols in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19, including limiting the number of employees working in the office, allowing those with health concerns or immunocompromised to work from home, and setting up partitions to separate staff members.

The statement says after Pope began raising concerns, Anderson told Hosler in private conversations he viewed Pope as “abrasive,” “belligerent” and having an “attitude problem” toward supervisors. Anderson later told Hosler he planned to fire Pope, according to the statement.

“Because Mr. Pope had been a great employee, I believe that Representative Lamborn and Chief of Staff Anderson terminated Mr. Pope because he opposed The Office’s reckless approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and The Office’s refusal to implement commonsense safety precautions,” Hosler said in the filing.

The filing also claims that after several employees in Lamborn’s Washington, D.C. office tested positive for COVID-19 and Lamborn temporarily closed the office, having all employees work from home, Anderson instructed employees in a conference call not to tell anyone — including families, roommates and friends — that they had come in contact with people who had tested positive or were potentially carrying the virus.

Anderson also told staff not to tell “anything to anyone” about the outbreak in the D.C. office, Hosler claimed.

He says in his statement Pope objected to those instructions, and Anderson ignored him.

Hosler quit in January, he says in the filing.

“The office will be responding in a timely manner and looks forward to being fully exonerated,” said Cassandra Sebastian, communications director for Lamborn.