The House Ethics Committee said on Monday that it could examine a congressional oversight agency. report They found “compelling grounds” to imagine that U.S. Representatives Ronny Jackson and Wesley Hunt used 1000’s of dollars of campaign funds for their very own personal purposes.
According to independent reports from the non-partisan Office of Congressional Ethics, campaign committees of the 2 Republican congressmen representing each Texas districts have made payments to personal social clubs over several years.
Jackson's committee, Texans for Ronny Jackson, spent nearly $12,000 between 2020 and 2024 on membership dues, fees, meals and other expenses related to the Amarillo Club, a dining establishment, gym and meeting space in Amarillo, Texas. the office found.
Hunt's campaign committee paid greater than $5,400 in membership dues and charges to the Oak Room, a personal club within the Post Oak Hotel in Houston, in 2022 and 2023. in line with OCE.
In each reports, the office said it had found “substantial reasons to believe” that the members of Congress had used campaign funds from their campaign committees “for personal purposes” or that their committees had “spent funds that were not attributable to genuine campaign or policy purposes.”
The bipartisan House Ethics Committee said in press releases Monday afternoon that it received guidance from the OCE about Jackson and Hunt in late March. The panel, led by Chairman Michael Guest (Republican, Mississippi) and Ranking Member Susan Wild (Democrat, Pennsylvania), jointly selected May 9 to review the matter.
The press release for Hunt included an in depth response from the congressman’s lawyers, which denied that campaign funds went into personal use.
“All payments made by Hunt for Congress to the Post Oak Hotel, including membership in the Post Oak Club, were for campaign-related purposes only and not for personal purposes,” the congressman's legal counsel wrote in his 12-page response to the OCE report.
Hunt “does not maintain a campaign office” and has concluded that Oak Room membership fees are “a more sensible use of campaign funds” than renting a campaign office in Houston, the lawyers wrote.
A spokesperson for Hunt's office told CNBC: “We believe we have cooperated fully with the House Ethics Committee and expect the matter to be dismissed soon.”
Jackson's office didn’t immediately reply to CNBC's request for comment. The Ethics Committee's press release on Jackson didn’t include a response from his representatives.
The OCE reports said that if a congressman's campaign committee spent funds that “were not attributable to a genuine campaign or political purpose,” then that congressman “may have violated House rules, rules of conduct, and federal law.”
The reports said neither Jackson nor Hunt cooperated with the investigation, although Hunt “initially” provided “some limited information.” The OCE really useful that the House Ethics Committee serve subpoenas on each congressmen.
Jackson, who served as White House physician under then-Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump before entering Congress in 2020, was already charged by the OCE for misusing campaign contributions on the Amarillo Club.
In the greater than two years for the reason that House Ethics Committee brought these allegations to light, Jackson's campaign team “has continued to make regular payments to the Amarillo Club,” in line with the report released Monday.
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