Exclusive | Family of Tony Gonzalez aide who lit herself on fire speaks out about claims they were having an affair

WASHINGTON — The aide for Rep.Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) who died after setting herself on fire was not having an affair with the married congressman, her family said Tuesday.“I don’t think it has any merit,” Nora Gonzales, the mother of Regina Santos-Aviles, told The Post.The Daily Mail reported on Monday that Santos-Aviles had separated from her husband and was having an affair with Gonzales before her death at her Uvalde, Texas, home on Sept.

13.Nora Gonzales said she believes the report was “completely false.”Nora found her daughter badly burned after Santos-Aviles doused herself in gasoline before igniting in the backyard of her home, according to cops and surveillance footage.Santos-Aviles begged her for water and was later rushed to a nearby hospital, where she died.Nora told The Post she is unsure why her daughter doused herself in gasoline.Surveillance footage reportedly indicated that no one else was home at the time.The Post also reached out to Santos-Aviles’ husband, but he declined to comment.Tony Gonzales has also been silent since allegations of an affair between him and Aviles emerged.Multiple sources had told the Daily Mail that the mother of one and the lawmaker had been linked romantically before her grim death.

The congressman is married with six children.Rep.Gonzales’ spokesman repeatedly refused to deny the affair claims when pressed by the outlet and instead issued a statement accusing “political bottom feeders” of trying to distort the circumstances surrounding her death....