A complaint regarding the use of public resources for partisan political purposes has been lodged by an ethics watchdog against 10 Democratic lawmakers.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust has accused these lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, Sean Casten, Greg Casar, Maxwell Alejandro Frost, Ted Lieu, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Ritchie Torres, of repeatedly utilizing official resources for their own political advantage. Additionally, although not explicitly mentioned in the complaint, exhibits demonstrating the alleged misuse of official resources by Democratic Rep. Ayanna Presley were included.
“The law at issue is simple,” the release said, noting that government resources cannot be used for “campaign or political purposes.”
The statement indicated that “official House photographs and video, government buildings, a Member’s official website and social media accounts, and any content produced by government employees” are deemed inaccessible.
“The rules additionally reiterate that campaign social media accounts cannot contain any official content or resources and cannot re-post official social media posts,” the release said.
Nevertheless, FACT has stated that the Democrats frequently utilize official resources or content on social media, with a particular focus on X, previously referred to as Twitter.
In order to emphasize this assertion, the complaint provided 91 pages of illustrative examples.
One instance demonstrated Pelosi incorporating House video on a campaign website. Another displayed Omar utilizing C-Span footage on her Instagram account, while a different example showcased Pressley delivering a speech on the House floor in a post on X.
“These violations are rampant and obvious, and clearly the OCE’s failure to act has encouraged continued violations. This failure has also incentivized these Members to use House proceedings for political campaigning rather than doing what is in the best interest of the country,” Kendra Arnold, Executive Director of FACT, said in the release.
“Likewise, it is also clear why these Members are doing this, it’s for a political advantage and one that is paid for by the taxpayers. The OCE has both the authority and a clear responsibility to ensure each ethics violation is dealt with swiftly. Not doing so both permits clear violations to continue and erodes the public’s trust in the OCE itself,” she said.
“Currently, numerous Members are using official House resources for political purposes and are doing so both repeatedly and publicly,” FACT wrote in a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics.
“The law quite clearly forbids this, yet a handful of Members continue to do so. The most obvious violations are Members using official government resources to campaign on their political social media accounts or using official government platforms to campaign,” the letter said.
“The failure to address this egregious practice has permitted these Members to continue committing violations to this day with impunity. Though to some it may seem like a simple thing on the surface, the Members choosing to break this law do it for a reason — it advantages them politically,” the letter of complaint said.
Legislators are accused of violating regulations without facing any consequences, as stated in the complaint.
“Not acting upon obvious violations not only permits them to continue but it erodes the public’s trust,” the complaint said.
“In fact, these Members’ campaign social media accounts demonstrate that they consistently use official resources for political purposes and have used numerous different types of taxpayer-funded resources for their political campaigns,” the complaint said.
“For instance, the examples previously provided to the OCE and the attached examples include every type of official resource identified above: use of official House photographs, official House floor and committee proceeding videos, official House work product and press releases, government buildings, and re-posts of official House social media accounts for political purposes,” the letter said.