The top aide of Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., cut his boss’s re-election campaign a $1,000 check in 2012, according to FEC disclosures, and it turns out there’s a federal law he may have violated by doing so.
18 U.S.C. § 603 states: “It shall be unlawful for an officer or employee of the United States…to make any contribution…to any Senator or Representative in…Congress, if the person receiving such contribution is the employer or employing authority of the person making the contribution.” In other words, a Hill staffer can’t contribute to his boss’s re-election campaign. The House employee handbook states that this prohibition “is absolute.”
Oliver Schwab’s donation appears to be part of the investigation the House ethics committee announced today into Schweikert and Schwab. Neither Schwab nor Schweikert’s office returned multiple requests for comment for this story.
According to official statements of disbursements, Schwab was serving as Schweikert’s chief of staff at the time of his donation. It’s possible Schwab didn’t break the rules. It is possible, for instance, that Schwab was taking a brief leave of absence from the congressional office to work on the campaign at the time. He runs a small consulting firm, Chartwell LLC, out of his Alexandria condo and he has done consulting work for his boss since 2011.
Either way Schwab and Schweikert will be making their case to congressional investigators. The House Ethics Committee launched a full scale probe Thursday into the aide and the congressman over allegations that they misspent official funds.
The investigation stems from a complaint filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics and comes after our 2017 investigative report into Schwab and Schweikert’s office.
Former staffers of Schweikert accuse Schwab of using the job to enrich himself. They call him the “Aaron Schock of staffers.” Public disclosures certainly show a lot of money flowing his way. He spent lavishly on work trips, was personally reimbursed tens of thousands of dollars for outside office supplies, and billed the taxpayer for prestigious seminars at Ivy League universities.
But Schwab’s side-business could ultimately land him in the most trouble. That consulting firm he’s been running since 2011 has only ever had one client—his own boss.
According to FEC records, all three of the congressman’s campaign organs—the Friends of David Schweikert PAC, the Team Dave PAC, and the Schweikert Victory Committee—made payments to the chief of staff. “Anytime you see Chartwell,” the aide told me last November, “that’s Oliver Schwab.”
Per federal law, though, senior staffers cannot exceed an annual cap of $26,955 on outside earned income. On top of his annual salary of $168,411, the maximum allowed under House rules, Schwab over the years raked in $164,887 from Schweikert’s various campaign committees. Of that, $137,709 was billed as consulting fees.
Schwab, after our original report, made nine payments totaling $50,372 to the Friends of David Schweikert campaign for “repayment of erroneous reimbursement.”
Now an eight person bipartisan panel, including six members of Congress, will look into allegations of wrongdoing. Reps. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., and Ted Deutch, D-Fla., will chair a special subcommittee to investigate the matter. They said in a statement:
While Schweikert and Schwab wouldn’t talk to the Washington Examiner, the congressman insisted that the issue was due to sloppy book keeping.
“This is purely clerical,” Schweikert told Politico. “We buy coffee, it’s on [Schwab’s] credit card and we reimburse him. And when they did the reimbursements, they marked it as income instead of reimbursements. So know we have to unwind all of those.”
