After the House unanimously reprimanded him for 11 separate ethics violations just last week for, among other things, withholding information from and misleading the House Ethics Committee about his misconduct, embattled Congressman David Schweikert kicked off the general election today by…lying about his misconduct.
In an interview today, Schweikert was asked about his behavior that caused the House of Representatives to issue a formal reprimand for the first time in 8 years and one of the largest ethics fines in House history. And Schweikert did everything in his power to blame others, deny responsibility, and mislead his constituents.
To help Schweikert separate truth from fiction, we laid out Schweikert’s claims, and the underlying facts behind it below:
Claim: “We had an issue with a longtime employee, bookkeeping, accounting, and playing some games – inappropriate games with the campaign accounts.”
What The Committee Found: “Representative Schweikert has attempted to cast himself as an unknowing participant or victim […] Representative Schweikert not only engaged in such conduct, in some instances (particularly with respect to campaign reporting requirements), he was a direct participant in conduct that resulted in violations.” [Investigative Subcommittee Report, pp. 1-2]
Claim: “This [the violations] was actually from years ago.”
What The Committee Found: “The violations in this matter were serious, cumulative, and occurred on a continuous and prolonged basis.” [Committee Report, p. 7]
Claim: “It [the Committee’s decision] should have happened two years ago”
What The Committee Found: “Efforts like the ones Representative Schweikert undertook to delay and impede the ISC’s investigation were not only highly detrimental to the Committee’s work and reputation of the House, they were themselves sanctionable misconduct.” [Committee Report, p. 6]
Claim: “And you’re being asked for details of things that you weren’t actually the bookkeeper. You actually had an accounting firm. I think they would have preferred if I had been the bookkeeper. But that’s not how it is.”
What The Committee Found: “Representative Schweikert’s spouse played a significant role in managing his campaign committees’ finances until at least early 2013; during that time, his campaign committees failed to disclose tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions and disbursements that were made with campaign funds, falsely reported making disbursements with campaign funds that did not occur, did not follow FEC regulations regarding proper disclosure of loans and loan repayments, and reported receiving a $100,000 loan from the candidate that did not exist. […] In some instances, Representative Schweikert facilitated these reporting errors” [Investigative Subcommittee Report, p. 9]
Claim: “The fact of the matter is, two years ago, we changed our process. Now everything comes across my personal desk instead of trusting others.”
What The Committee Found: “[Schweikert] was indifferent to taking corrective actions after learning of reporting errors or ongoing campaign violations and unresponsive to campaign and official staff members’ concerns about Mr. Schwab’s conduct” [Investigative Subcommittee Report, p. 8-9]
Claim: “Look, we all have these moments where we get our hearts broken, where you trust individuals, particularly with money, even though you’re paying an outside firm to do additional compliance work, they failed me. And, ultimately, I get my head kicked in for it.”
What The Committee Found: “Representative Schweikert was aware of many of these errors as they were occurring yet failed to take corrective actions. In some instances, he facilitated the errors by omitting information or providing inaccurate information to individuals who prepared his campaign committees FEC filings.” [Investigative Subcommittee Report, p. 7]
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