MAGA congressman, Matt Gaetz’s spending in office appears to violate several House ethics rules intended to guard against corruption and conflicts of interest, Politico reports.
The Florida congressman improperly transferred $28,000 in taxpayer funds to an LLC linked to speech-writing consultant, Darren Beattie, thereby defying House rules that explicitly prohibits spending taxpayer dollars on speech-writing consultants.
Beattie was a former White House aide who was fired by the Trump White House over his attendance at a 2016 white nationalist forum.
Gaetz also violated the House gift rule which prohibits any lawmaker, aide and their family members from accepting gifts worth more than $50. A private company installed a television studio in his father’s home in Florida which Gaetz uses to make his television appearances. Taxpayers foot the bill to rent the television camera and the company who built the studio takes a fee for every appearance he makes on television from the home studio.
It is still unclear how much it cost the private company—which Gaetz refuses to identify—to build the studio. His office also declined to provide any details but denies any wrongdoing in both cases. Aides to Gaetz said the House Ethics Committee approved both arrangements but declined to produce any evidence to back up their claim.
Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP
