| Reporting from the Detroit News details that it wasn’t just Tom Barrett’s campaign that paid Butzel Long after his wife came on board in 2023: both the “National Republican Congressional Committee and the Michigan 7th District Republicans also paid Butzel Long for legal services” following her hiring.
Neither the NRCC or the Michigan 7th District Republicans had paid any payments to Butzel Long prior to Barrett’s wife joining the firm.
This latest report raises further serious ethical concerns and Michiganders deserve answers to the below questions from Barrett:
- Did your wife personally profit – and thus did you and your household profit – from any income thanks to your campaign’s payments to Butzel Long or Aristotle?
- Did you pay Butzel Long a fair market rate for legal services, or did your campaign receive a favorable hourly rate as a result of your wife’s employment at the firm?
- Did your wife have any decision making role in the Butzel Long PAC’s political contributions? Did she encourage her employer’s PAC to donate to your campaign – as they had not before she came on board the firm?
- Did you or your wife encourage the NRCC or the Michigan 7th District Republicans to retain Butzel Long for legal services, following your wife’s hiring?
DCCC Spokesperson Katie Smith:
“Tom Barrett directed nearly $56,000 in campaign cash to companies his wife works for, all after she was hired. Now, new reporting shows that Barrett allies at the NRCC and the Michigan 7th district Republicans also paid the firm his wife works for after she came on board. Barrett’s actions raise serious ethical questions: did Barrett personally profit from these payments, and what exactly did he know?”
Read more from the Detroit News: Tom Barrett’s wife’s firm did work for his campaign
- GOP U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett’s congressional campaign has paid two firms that employ his wife more than $50,000 during previous election cycles for political work.
- Politico first reported that Barrett’s campaign and an affiliated fundraising committee paid the law firm Butzel Long $31,000 for legal services after the firm hired Ashley Barrett in May 2023, according to FEC records. The firm’s federal PAC also donated $13,300 to Barrett’s committees in 2024 (it hadn’t done so previously).
- The political software firm Aristotle International also saw its payments from Barrett’s campaign double after the firm hired his wife in 2023, to nearly $19,000 last cycle, per FEC records.
- FEC records show that the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Michigan 7th District Republicans also paid Butzel Long for legal services in the fall of 2024.
|
