3 Different GOP Congressmen Hit With Corruption Ethics Complaints

0
4311

No wonder people are angry with the American government. Under the tyranny of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), nothing happened. The self-described Grim Reaper McConnell sat on the doorstep of the Senate and killed off any new legislation. But Republicans lost, and that gave Democrats the ability to show America the rot that has been eating at the core of the not-so-Grand Old Party. Ironically, the King of Corruption, Donald Trump, was the one who split open that rot for everyone to see as he publicly committed crimes. Take a look.

Even now, Republicans killed proposed legislation that would go after the wealthiest tax cheats to help finance the infrastructure bills. The nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center filed complaints against three Republican legislators. It accused them of violating the federal transparency law, which meant they failed to disclose millions of dollars in profits from stock trades.

The Campaign Legal Center filed their complaints with the Office of Ethics and the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Those complaints accused Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Representatives Pat Fallon (R-TX), and Blake Moore (R-UT), according to The Business Insider.

The three complaints read:

‘When members of Congress trade individual stocks and fail to disclose those trades, they break the law and diminish the public’s trust in government, The recent prevalence of STOCK Act violations in the House shows that merely the threat of a fine is not deterring members of Congress from breaking the law; real accountability is necessary.’

These three legislators allegedly violated the STOCK Act. It passed in 2012 and was designed to fight corruption and conflicts of interest. The act honed in on those legislators with personal financial interests in certain companies that go after federal government contracts. That included lawmakers “formally and publicly disclose their individual stock trades within 45 days.”

However, the STOCK Act has few teeth behind it. Regardless of how much the lawmaker made, the fine was only the $200 filing fee. Still, the Ethics Committees can refer violations to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Then, the violators could be criminally investigated.

Campaign Legal Center’s General Counsel and Senior Director for Ethics, Kedric Payne said:

“This is all triggered by a clear trend of members of Congress defeating the purpose of the STOCK Act. My hope is that the members will comply with the law that they created. But if complying with that law is too difficult for them, that supports the idea that’s been suggested that there should be restrictions on how they trade stocks.’

Tuberville’s spokesperson Ryann DuRant said:

‘[Tuberville had] filed all required paperwork with the Ethics Committee [and paid a late filing penalty] and it has been paid.’

Moore’s office sent a statement to Insider on Thursday. It read:

‘[When the representative] was made aware of the deadline oversight, he immediately worked in consultation with the Ethics Committee to meet the requirements of the statutory remedy for late filings, and he has paid a late filing fee in full.’

‘Now that Congressman Moore has fully established a financial compliance process with his firm and the Ethics Committee, he will continue to ensure all future filing deadlines are met in accordance with Ethics rules.’

Payne said each member of Congress was “personally responsible for following the law.”


Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.