The House by voice vote Friday reprimanded Rep. David Schweikert after an investigation found a series of campaign finance irregularities.
The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday that the Arizona Republican admitted to 11 rules violations, and agreed to pay a $50,000 fine, after the panel found he “violated House Rules, the Code of Ethics for Government Service, federal laws and other applicable standards in connection with: campaign finance violations.”
That includes “misuse of his Members’ Representational Allowance for unofficial purposes; pressuring official staff to perform campaign work; and his lack of candor and due diligence during the investigation.”
The violations happened between 2010 and 2018. The House Ethics Committee noted that Schweikert, who was first elected to the House in 2010, used several delaying and evasive tactics to avoid more stringent penalties.
The Ethics Investigative Subcommittee found that Schweikert “erroneously disclosed or failed to disclose” $305,000 in loans or repayment of loans “made or obtained for the benefit of his congressional campaigns” from July 2010 to December 2017. He also failed to report “at least $25,000 in disbursements made by his campaigns; failed to report more than $140,000 in contributions received by his campaigns; and falsely reported making disbursements totaling $100,000.”
Allegations of Schweikert’s misspending initially surfaced back in 2017 when the Washington Examiner’s Philip Wegmann broke the story.
The last member of Congress to be reprimanded on the House floor was California Democrat Laura Richardson in 2012 for forcing her congressional staff to do campaign work and violating codes of conduct for government service.
