Squad Member Rep. Tlaib Under Investigation

Rashida Tlaib

Yet another member of the famed Squad is under investigation for possible ethics and financial violations.

In a recently published report, it was revealed the House Ethics Committee is investigating money Rep. Tlaib (D-Mich) paid herself AFTER the election was over out of campaign funds.

They Are Just Crooked

If you recall, it was not long ago that Rep. Omar (D-Minn) was put under investigation for having violated campaign finance law.

She has already been fined for one violation and there is a second investigation as well as other allegations made against her for even more violations.

Now, we find out Tlaib was writing herself out checks AFTER the election had been completed.

Candidates are entitled to pay themselves small salaries out of campaign funds prior to election day, but it is illegal for them to do so afterward unless they are paying themselves for salary prior to election day that was not received to that point.

Tlaib must now explain several checks for thousands of dollars that were written after the general election was already over.

An independent legal expert looked at the complaint and stated, “On its face, it looks like the $2,000 payment on November 16 might be for the candidate’s salary for the first two weeks of November.

“Tlaib stopped being a candidate halfway through this period, but it appears that she kept collecting her full salary as if she was still a candidate throughout the full first two weeks of November.” 

“The $15,500 payment is interesting. It’s not 100% clear what she’s doing, but what she may have done is to low ball her earlier payments for political purposes (at $2k), knowing full well that she would make up any difference at the end by giving herself a lump sum payment.

“That would let her skirt negative publicity, of the sort that Alan Keyes generated when he paid himself a sizable salary.

“An after-the-fact, lump-sum payment cuts against the purpose of the rule, which is to help the candidate pay for daily living expenses while campaigning.”

An FEC spokesperson tried to add some clarity to the situation, stating, “A candidate can pay themselves after the general election only for activity that occurred up to the day of the election.”

With the issue now in front of the House Ethics Committee, the committee has 45 days to decide to delay and continue the review process or move ahead with a full investigation into the matter.

On the surface, it would appear that Tlaib, like Omar, was using her campaign war chest as her own personal ATM.

Hopefully, the Ethics Committee votes to move forward and does not bury this complaint or only hit Tlaib with a slap on the wrist, as is generally the case.

After all, politicians rarely call out their own, as was proven when Rep. Waters (D-CA) went before the committee with blatant violations and barely received a scolding.

Politicians are corrupt, and they protect their own, so don’t get your hopes up too high that something will actually be done to Tlaib on this possible violation.

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