News · Press Release

Rochester Post-Bulletin: Hagedorn deflects questions about ethics scandal, terminates interview

In his desperate efforts to avoid questions about a growing ethics scandal consuming his office, Congressman Jim Hagedorn is only making things worse. On Friday afternoon, Hagedorn awkwardly dodged members of the Rochester-area media in a parking lot, raising many more questions than he answered. According to the Rochester Post-Bulletin, Hagedorn “was in no mood to cast any further light on his office’s spending,” and “rebuffed questions for the next 2-1/2 minutes,” giving a “contradictory response” to questions about who owns the mysterious company he paid hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars. Then he walked away.

Click here to watch Hagedorn dodge questions

Here are 8 questions Hagedorn needs to answer about his violations of House ethics rules:

  1. Who owns Abernathy West, the new company Hagedorn paid nearly $340,000 in tax dollars and that has worked hard to conceal their ownership?
  2. Why does Hagedorn believe it’s acceptable to conceal the identity of a mysterious company benefiting from taxpayer dollars?
  3. Who made the decision to shift Hagedorn’s taxpayer funded mail spending to Abernathy West?
  4. Why is John Sample, the staffer whose company collected more than $100,000 in taxpayer dollars from Hagedorn’s office, still collecting a salary paid for by Minnesota taxpayers?
  5. Who made the decision to shift Hagedorn’s mail program to Invocq, the company owned by one of his staffers?
  6. Why did Hagedorn lie about completely delegating his email program to his chief of staff when emails obtained by the Star Tribune prove otherwise?
  7. Why did Hagedorn need to spend more than any other Member of Congress on franked mail?
  8. When will Hagedorn release the results of his lawyers’ “internal review”?

“Congressman Hagedorn’s refusal to answer basic questions about the scandal consuming his office confirms what ethics experts have been saying for weeks: Hagedorn blatantly broke House ethics rules and he owes Minnesota taxpayers an explanation for why he wasted their hard-earned money on personal favors,” said DCCC Spokesperson Brooke Goren.

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