There’s messy and then there’s Lauren Boebert.
The freshman politician has proven she can hang with the big dogs when it comes to publicly humiliating herself. From throwing masks at House staffers to praising the Taliban on Twitter to her Kamala Harris cardboard cutout, she’s almost as good at self-owning as fellow GOP blowhard, Ted Cruz. But while her wild publicity stunts are just that — bids for attention — the latest scandal that she finds herself embroiled in might have more legal consequences.
Boebert is facing questioning from the Federal Election Commission after her team filed documents disclosing thousands of dollars in questionable payments. Via CNBC, the FEC sent a letter to Boebert’s campaign treasurer, asking about four separate Venmo payments made between May and June that totaled more than $6,000. On the forms, the transactions were described as “personal expense of Lauren Boebert billed to campaign account in error.” Later, the document noted that the “expense has been reimbursed.”
This is the first time Boebert’s use of campaign funds has been called into question, either. A separate complaint was filed by a government watchdog group earlier this year, asking the FEC to investigate a reported $20,000 in mileage reimbursements that Boebert received during her 2020 election campaign. If those Venmo payments end up violating the FEC’s laws against using campaign dollars for personal expenses, Boebert might be facing some serious trouble in court.
Of course, she’s not the only Republican who’s had a hard time keeping track of their money. Both Cruz and Matt Gaetz have come under scrutiny — Cruz for buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own book, reportedly with campaign money, and Gaetz for some oddly timed Venmo transactions with an accused sex trafficker. There’s fiscally conservative and then there’s just fiscally incompetent.
(Via CNBC)