A Senate investigation into alleged workplace discrimination and harassment by Democratic Sen. Kathleen Riebe included interviews with multiple people who said they witnessed Riebe making disparaging comments about racial and ethnic minorities and members of the LGBTQ community.

The 19-page investigative report, obtained Friday by The Salt Lake Tribune through an open records request, concludes that Riebe violated Senate policy by making derogatory comments to a Senate staffer based on her race. It also said Riebe admitted that she had explicitly asked not to be assigned LGBTQ interns who “were coming out of the closet.”

Based on the findings, Riebe’s Democratic Senate colleagues on Tuesday voted to expel Riebe from the caucus and called on her to resign her Senate seat. Riebe has refused to resign and accused the staffer and Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla of breaking Senate ethics rules by having the Senate staffer work on Escamilla’s mayoral campaign.

Riebe based her allegation on a social media post she said the staffer had made.

Attorneys at the law firm hired by the Senate — Parsons, Behle & Latimer — investigated Riebe’s allegations about co-mingling Senate and campaign staff duties. They wrote that multiple witnesses said the staffer was not working on Escamilla’s campaign and that there was essentially no campaign to run at the time.

The report concludes that it is “more likely than not” that Riebe engaged in a pattern of hostile conduct against the person who filed the complaint based on race, gender or ethnicity; made statements toward people based on their sexual orientation or other protected characteristics; requested employment decisions be made on the basis of sexual orientation; and violated Senate policy.

A letter summarizing the findings, signed by Senate President J. Stuart Adams, listed corrective actions which were redacted, although an unredacted version obtained by The Tribune states that Riebe would not be assigned Senate staff; would not be assigned a legislative intern; would be moved to a new office to separate her from Senate staff; and would be required to complete additional harassment training.

Riebe is not up for reelection until 2028. First elected to the Senate in 2020, she was the Democratic nominee in a 2023 special election against Republican Celeste Maloy, losing that race. She ran briefly this year for the nomination in Utah’s 1st Congressional District, before dropping out and endorsing former Rep. Ben McAdams.