Rep. Rashida Tlaib is under review by the House Ethics Committee for potential campaign finance violations.
The Michigan Democrat may soon be facing an ethics probe into payments received after she was no longer a candidate following the 2018 election, Politico reported.
The Office of Congressional Ethics is reviewing claims and recommending an investigation of Tlaib’s alleged reimbursements to herself of $17,500 dated November 16 and December 1, well after the election was over.
According to the Federal Election Commission, a “candidate may receive a salary from his or her campaign” committee” but that must end with the election.
“Salary payments may continue until the date when the candidate is no longer considered a candidate for office or until the date of the general election or general election runoff, the FEC rules state.
Tlaib’s spokesperson claimed the two payments made after the 2018 election were not in violation of campaign finance law.
“Representative Tlaib has cooperated completely with the Committee to resolve the referral, which involves the same claims over her publicly disclosed salary during the campaign that conservative groups pressed back in March,” Denzel McCampbell said in a written statement to Politico.
Tlaib’s campaign committee began paying the candidate an average of $4,000 per month beginning May 2018, reaching a total of $28,000 in payments by the general election on Nov. 6, according to an earlier report this year in the Washington Free Beacon.
After the election was over, Tlaib gave herself a $2,000 check on Nov. 16 and $15,500 on Dec. 1.
“On its face, it looks like the $2,000 payment on November 16 might be for the candidate’s salary for the first two weeks of November,” an election law and government ethics lawyer told the Free Beacon, adding that “Tlaib stopped being a candidate halfway through this period, but it appears that she kept collecting her full salary as if she was still a candidate throughout the full first two weeks of November.”
The non-partisan Office of Congressional Ethics had recommended the review, which does not necessarily mean there was a violation of House rules. The House Ethics Committee has 45 days to decide whether or not to move forward with a full investigation.
Tlaib, who had also collected $225,180 from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations in 2016 and 2017, according to tax forms, celebrated her swearing into office in January by declaring: “We’re going to impeach the mother****r!”
Last week, the freshman Democrat member of “The Squad” lead a group of anti-Trump, pro-impeachment demonstrators gathered on the East Lawn of the Capitol, in a chant of the controversial phrase.
Rashida Tlaib leads ‘impeach the motherf*****’ chant on Capitol Hill https://t.co/Vgmcbr5n5k
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) September 27, 2019
Tlaib’s campaign also launched the sale of “Impeach the MF” t-shirts, highlighting the infamous declaration.
Tlaib also made headlines last week after confronting a conservative witness and accusing her of lying as well as being involved in a “conspiracy” during a House hearing. During testimony on vaping and e-cigarettes, the Michigan lawmaker questioned whether the witness was engaged in a conspiracy after she winked at a member of the panel.
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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