Two of the top House Republicans are facing an ethics complaint after using the indictment of former President Donald Trump to fundraise and rally their base ahead of the next presidential election.
The Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic-aligned activist group, submitted the complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics on Wednesday, accusing Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) of wrongfully using official business for campaign fundraising. The group pointed to instances in which the lawmakers used events to “promise politically motivated investigations and linked such investigations to their solicitation of campaign contributions.”
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“The rhetoric of these Representatives could have signaled to donors that the investigations were contingent on the political contributions solicited — the very linkage between political fundraising and official actions that the House Ethics Rules aim to prevent,” the group wrote.
The group pointed to Jordan’s actions at a fundraising event earlier this month shortly after Trump was indicted on 34 criminal charges by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. At the event, Jordan accused Bragg of using federal funds to indict the former president “for no crime.”
Jordan then thanked supporters for their “hard-earned money,” which the group argued showed a direct link between the Judiciary Committee’s investigation into Bragg and solicitations made to the House Freedom Fund.
The group also cited Green’s remarks at a House Freedom Fund event in which the Tennessee Republican promised donors he would open an impeachment inquiry into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and would be brought before the committee for a deposition.
Green also referred to a video clip of Mayorkas’s past testimony that the lawmaker said he would use against him. Members of the Congressional Integrity Project denounced those comments, arguing it was an example of Green granting “special access to his official conduct.”
“Chairmen of two of the most powerful committees in Congress allegedly pitched their political stunt-filled investigations and hearings to donors — a blatant violation of their ethical obligations,” said CIP Executive Director Kyle Herrig in a statement. “It’s a sad state of affairs when the investigators are the ones who need to be investigated. The Office of Congressional Ethics should act immediately and hold Representatives Jordan and Green for these apparent violations. The American people deserve better.”
Jordan’s office responded to the complaint, calling the Congressional Integrity Project a “clearly biased liberal dark money group.”
“It’s a shame that a ‘nonbiased’ publication like Axios would run such a bogus story,” Kevin Eichinger, a spokesman for Jordan’s campaign, told the Washington Examiner. “It would actually be laughable if this type of thing weren’t done so often to baselessly smear Republicans.”
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Green offered similar sentiments, calling the complaint a tactic by the “far-left Democratic machine meant to distract from the very serious and intentional crisis” at the southern border.
“House Republicans have been united in investigating Secretary Mayorkas’s complete failure since last fall, and anyone who thinks that’s breaking news should have their ears checked,” he said. “It’s clear they’re coming after Jim Jordan and me because we are getting to the bottom of this.”
