Three Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are facing complaints filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) from the nonprofit government watchdog Americans for Public Trust submitted on Wednesday.
The complaints have been lodged against Reps. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, and Lucy McBath of Georgia, and call for an investigation into the representatives’ conduct that may have violated both House rules and federal law.
“All three of these members have engaged in disturbing activities that appear to use to be violations of federal law and House rules. This is especially alarming given all three sit on the prestigious House Judiciary Committee, which has direct oversight responsibilities over the U.S. Department of Justice, and by extension, the nation’s law enforcement,” said Americans for Public Trust attorney Adam Laxalt in a statement. “We’re calling on the Federal Election Commission and the Office of Congressional Ethics to immediately investigate these suspicious activities.”
The allegations accuse the three congresswomen of myriad ethical and legal violations related to their use of campaign funds. The charges against Dean fault the representative for allegedly using campaign funds from her failed run for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor on her election to Congress in 2018.
The complaints against McBath accuse the congresswoman of improperly receiving money from the gun-control group “Everytown for Gun Safety” while she was a candidate. At one point, McBath appeared on CNN as a both the spokesperson for the gun group and a candidate for high office at the same time. Americans for Public Trust said it found discrepancies in the congresswoman’s FEC filings.
In Jayapal’s case, the watchdog group says she violated House rules that “explicitly forbid official actions to be used for partisan political campaign purposes.” Jayapal, the group says, linked to C-SPAN’s coverage of an April hearing on the “Medicare for All Act of 2019” that Jayapal had introduced in fundraising posts on social media.
“Jayapal violated House rules by linking to and directing supporters to watch the hearing which was broadcast by C-SPAN,” the group said.
