Potential federal consequences are possibly looming for Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) after a new federal filing from her campaign revealed that she had used campaign money for personal rent and utility payments. The fact that campaign money had been used for personal expenses of the Congresswoman had been previously known, but the exact nature of those expenses had not yet been revealed. The Boebert campaign has chalked up the charges to the campaign account as a mistake and says that the money has already been reimbursed — but for starters, how exactly did the supposed mistake happen? Four separate transactions across a span of about a month are at issue here.
In a letter from this August in which the Federal Election Commission (FEC) asked the Boebert campaign for more information about the expenditures, the federal agency wrote that if “it is determined that the disbursement(s) constitutes the personal use of campaign funds, the Commission may consider taking further legal action.” Well, it’s now been admitted by the Boebert campaign itself that the expenses did, in fact, constitute personal uses of campaign cash — but in that earlier letter, the FEC also said that “prompt action to obtain reimbursement of the funds in question will be taken into consideration.”
Originally, a filing for the second quarter of 2021 that the Boebert campaign filed with the FEC did not identify the ultimate purpose of the charges, which went through Venmo. Four personal transactions in total were present, together totaling $6,650. Two of the charges were for $2,000, while two were for $1,325, with one of each on May 3 and June 3 of this year. Each disbursement was identified on that original filing simply as a “Personal expense of Lauren Boebert billed to campaign account in error,” and the original filing added in each case that the money had already been reimbursed. Boebert’s campaign filed an amended report, identifying the larger transactions as for rent and the smaller ones as for “rent/utilities,” on Tuesday. The next steps in this matter aren’t immediately clear.
Boebert is one of an array of Republican members of Congress, at least a few of whom are in their first terms, who have recently opted to publicly push theatrics and extremism rather than focusing on the needs of their constituents. Not too long ago, there was even a whole thing when Boebert showed up (virtually) for a House committee hearing with guns displayed behind her.
