A campaign finance watchdog filed a complaint against Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, alleging the former congressman used money from his congressional campaign to promote his confirmation to join the Trump administration.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night on the complaint filed by the Campaign Legal Center to the Federal Election Commission that alleges Price’s campaign fund paid $40,000 to America Rising, a GOP consulting firm, on Jan. 26.
The complaint said that around that time, America Rising released videos and research promoting Price’s confirmation and that of other Cabinet nominees before the Senate.
Some of these materials specifically pushed senators to vote for Price’s confirmation, the Campaign Legal Center said.
Price is a Republican who represented Georgia’s 6th Congressional District for 12 years before President Trump nominated him to lead HHS.
Campaign finance laws prohibit members of Congress from using their campaign money for personal use.
Democrats criticized Price during his confirmation hearing for trading more than $300,000 in shares of healthcare-related stocks in the last four years he was in Congress, the Wall Street Journal previously reported.
This trading came at the same time that Price, who chaired the House Budget Committee, was handling healthcare legislation from his perch on the Ways and Means Committee’s health panel, which oversees Medicare.
