{"id":2282843,"date":"2024-06-24T17:04:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T21:04:02","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2024-06-24T17:07:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T21:07:55","slug":"substantial-evidence-hunt-jackson-misused-campaign-funds-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/substantial-evidence-hunt-jackson-misused-campaign-funds-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Substantial&#8217; evidence Hunt, Jackson misused campaign funds &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsubstantial-evidence-hunt-jackson-misused-campaign-funds-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2282843&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The House\u2064 Ethics Committee is reviewing reports from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) suggesting that Representatives Wesley Hunt and Ronny Jackson, both from Texas, may \u200dhave improperly used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newly-introduced-omar-act-would-block-lawmakers-from-paying-spouses\/\" title=\"Newly Introduced \u2018OMAR Act\u2019 Would Block Lawmakers from Paying Spouses\">campaign funds<\/a> \u200bat private clubs. The OCE&#8217;s investigation found substantial reasons to believe both \u2064used their campaign committees to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/iran-extends-traffic-curfew-to-lower-risk-areas-to-sustain-virus-decline\/\" title=\"Iran extends traffic curfew to lower-risk areas to sustain virus decline\">make payments<\/a> for personal or non-political purposes, such as memberships and dues at these\u200d clubs. Although both congressmen failed to \u2062fully comply with the \u2063OCE&#8217;s inquiries, the Ethics Committee is continuing its review without concluding whether \u200dany violations occurred. The reports specifically\u2064 mention \u2064payments made by Hunt&#8217;s committee to the Post Oak Hotel and suggest issuing subpoenas to individuals connected to Hunt, including his wife and \u200bstaff members. Jackson&#8217;s case involved similar concerns, with past refusals to \u200cprovide documents and participate \u200cin interviews noted \u2063in previous OCE\u200b referrals. The ongoing investigations aim to determine the\u2062 legitimacy of these expenditures.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ethics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>House Ethics Committee<\/a> released two reports on Monday from the Office of Congressional Ethics that conclude there is \u201csubstantial reason to believe\u201d that Reps. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/ronny-jackson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Ronny Jackson<\/a> (R-TX) used <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/campaigns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>campaign<\/a> funds improperly at private clubs.<\/p>\n<p>In the reports, the OCE recommends that the Ethics Committee subpoena Hunt and Jackson, among others, related to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/2999847\/house-republicans-deny-wrongdoing-amid-ethics-panel-investigation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>allegations<\/a> the Republicans made payments to private clubs from their campaign committees. The congressmen did not comply with the OCE\u2019s investigation, according to the reports.<\/p>\n<p>The committee said in releases for both Hunt and Jackson on Monday that it would continue reviewing the matters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Committee notes that the mere fact of conducting further review of a referral, and any mandatory disclosure of such further review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,\u201d the committee said.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/sites\/ethics.house.gov\/files\/documents\/OCE%20Report%20and%20Findings_20.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Hunt\u2019s report<\/a>, the OCE found the congressman paid $2,706.25 to the \u201cPost Oak Hotel\u201d for \u201cMembership\u201d using his campaign committee. A year later, the campaign reported making an identical disbursement to the hotel for \u201cFood\/Beverages.\u201d The campaign committee, between April 2022 and January 2024, reported $74,525.60 in payments to the Post Oak Hotel.<\/p>\n<p>Hunt declined to interview with the OCE but produced emails and text messages, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs such, Rep. Hunt\u2019s payments for unlimited use of the Oak Room served at least some campaign purpose,\u201d the report said. \u201cHowever, Rep. Hunt\u2019s refusal to certify the completeness of his production to the OCE called into question whether there were other documents demonstrating use of the Oak Room for any personal purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on the foregoing information, the Board finds that there is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Hunt converted campaign funds from Hunt for Congress to personal use or that Rep. Hunt\u2019s campaign committee expended funds that were not attributable to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/defund-the-police-advocate-cori-bush-marries-security-guard\/\" title=\"\u2018Defund The Police\u2019 Advocate Cori Bush Marries Security Guard\">bona fide campaign<\/a> or political purposes,\u201d the report concluded.<\/p>\n<p>The OCE recommended that Hunt, his wife Emily, James Kyrkanides, his chief of staff, and Grayson Hilburn, Hunt\u2019s field representative, be subpoenaed.<\/p>\n<p>In Jackson\u2019s case, both the congressman and the Amarillo Club he frequented <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/sites\/ethics.house.gov\/files\/documents\/OCE%20Report%20and%20Findings_19.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>refused to be interviewed<\/a> or provide documentation. The OCE made a similar referral to the Ethics Committee in 2021, detailing that Texas for Ronny Jackson, his campaign committee, \u201croutinely\u201d made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-making-taxpayers-pay-off-student-loans-is-a-rotten-idea\/\" title=\"5 Reasons Making Taxpayers Pay Off Student Loans Is A Rotten Idea\">monthly payments<\/a> of $175.37 to the Amarillo Club from October 2020 to September 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Despite a referral against him, Jackson\u2019s campaign continued to make \u201cconsistent payments\u201d to the club, with the descriptions changing over time. Between October 2020 and January 2024, Jackson\u2019s campaign committee has spent at least $6,839.18 on membership dues to the Amarillo Club.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTexans for Ronny Jackson initially described the monthly payments as \u2018Registration Fees,\u2019 but soon began characterizing the disbursements as \u2018Membership Fees,\u2019 \u2018Food\/Beverage,\u2019 \u2018Membership Fees Food\/Beverage Site Fee,\u2019 \u2018Membership Dues,\u2019 \u2018Membership for Exclusive Campaign Purposes,\u2019 \u2018Membership for Exclusive Campaign Purposes Food\/Beverage,\u2019 and \u2018Membership for Exclusive Campaign Purposes,&#8217;\u201d the report detailed.<\/p>\n<p>The Amarillo Club declined to provide the OCE with information as to what non-dining amenities Jackson used, such as the gym, room rental, and conference space, so the ethics office could not determine to what extent Jackson\u2019s use of the club and spending was campaign-related.<\/p>\n<p>Other Texas members, such as Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), are facing reviews from the Ethics Committee for their finances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis baseless complaint from OCE raises no new information, and despite over two years at the Committee on Ethics it is still being looked into,\u201d a Jackson spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cOnce again, Congressman Jackson has nothing to hide, and he and his team have fully complied with the Ethics Committee since the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is sadly not the first time the leftists at OCE have decided to waste taxpayer dollars going after public servants for absolutely nothing,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n<p>Hunt\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, the House Ethics Committee disclosed reports from the Office of Congressional Ethics indicating &#8220;substantial reason to believe&#8221; that Reps. Wesley Hunt and Ronny Jackson misused campaign funds at private clubs. The OCE advised subpoenaing Hunt, Jackson, and others<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2648,"featured_media":2282844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/ronnyjackson_wesleyhunt-1024x680.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[32511,10223,10023,23081,32510],"class_list":["post-2282843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-campaign-funds","tag-hunt","tag-jackson","tag-misuse","tag-substantial-evidence"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/ronnyjackson_wesleyhunt-1024x680.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2648"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2282843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2282844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2282843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2282843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2282843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}