On Thursday, September 5, 2019, the House Ethics Committee, as reported by Ronald Hansen of the Arizona Republic, released the details surrounding the ethics probe into the actions and behavior of Arizona Congressional District Six Representative David Schweikert.
This information reveals that the Ethics Committee is looking into three possible House Rule violations. According to the piece, these potential transgressions include:
- “Authorized payments to an employee not in line with the work they actually performed.”
- “Received a loan or gift from a congressional employee.”
- “Omitted required information from annual personal financial disclosures and from his periodic campaign finance reports.”
Representatives of Congressman Schweikert have dismissed the latest revelations as little more than a rehashing of already known information and are confident that he will be cleared of any suspicion of wrongdoing.
Representative Schweikert has previously said that this was all a bookkeeping error.
The Democrats competing to run against Mr.Schweikert for the Congressional District Six Seat have offered their views on the latest revelations.
Anita Malik
Stephanie Rimmer
“The mismanagement of the 6th Congressional District Office is appalling. Mr. Schweikert fails to represent us with the diligence I am expected to maintain managing millions of dollars annually in financial transactions for the exportation of U.S. goods. I am sad to report that my review of high dollar campaigns in Arizona proved candidates are not prepared to manage the millions of dollars in individual donations they receive every cycle. These campaigns are an auditor’s dream, riddled with recording keeping errors that are never corrected nor even reviewed. Candidates for public office should be held to the same standards we hold non-profit organizations in the management of funds from private donations and public grants.”
“Yesterday, the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics released new details regarding the allegations against Congressman Schweikert. The office found a substantial reason to believe that Schweikert used the official resources of his office for campaign purpose or made his taxpayer-funded Congressional staff perform a political activity, while he also may have received “improper gifts” and “authorized expenditures outside of the scope of permissible official expenses.” This comes on the heels of a 424-page report released in July that found substantial evidence there have been multiple additional ethics violations within Schweikert’s office, including improper “lavish” and “extravagant” spending of taxpayer dollars – even involving a trip to the Super Bowl. A full investigation by the House Ethics Committee remains ongoing.”
“Congressman Schweikert is out of touch with our community and has become the worst of Washington politicians. He’s continually put his own special interest backers
“Click here to watch the ad.”
When everything is sorted out in the Schweikert ethics probe, one of two findings will probably be released.
- Representative Schweikert and his team, through multiple “bookkeeping errors,” are very incompetent and that should disqualify them from future public service.
- Representative Schweikert and his team have committed corrupt acts and that should disqualify them from future public service
The People of Congressional District Six need to weigh all of this when deciding who they feel is the best to represent them in January 2021.
Most would think that the person who can not properly manage his bookkeeping or worse allowed corrupt acts to transpire would not be the People’s Choice in November 2020.
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