Florida Dems lodge complaint against Rubio for improper use of Senate resources: report

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is now facing an ethics complaint filed by the Florida Democratic Party.

According to Florida Politics, the Republican lawmaker is accused of improperly utilizing official U.S. Senate resources for his campaign's Twitter account. The ethics complaint lodged on Wednesday, May 18, includes a total of seven examples of improper resource usage.

“The use of official Senate resources for campaign purposes, including staff time and potentially funds from the Senators‘ Official Personnel and Office Expense Account for production expenses of videos that were ultimately used by the campaign, is a clear violation,” the complaint says.

An investigation into the matter has been requested by Benjamin Tyler, who serves as general counsel for the Florida Democratic Party.

Per Florida Politics:

One video shared on @marcorubio Feb. 19 shows Rubio sitting in what appears to be his Senate office and discussing the Ukraine situation. That’s a violation of a rule that bans the use of official Senate resources for campaigns, the complaint alleges. At least one of these tweets from @marcorubio involved video footage of an official Senate proceeding, according to the complaint.

The news outlet also highlights that: "Rules expressly forbid mixing campaign activities and official business, but Rubio’s staff denied that he did so."

“Senator Rubio used official Senate resources for campaign purposes … (violating the rule) which makes it ‘inappropriate to use any official resources to conduct campaign or political activities,’” stated the request for an investigation.

With the Florida primary election just weeks away, Rubio is expected to face a relatively tight race against Val Demmings. Despite several pieces of evidence to back the complaint, Rubio's team is pushing back. On Wednesday, May 18, Elizabeth Gregory, a spokeswoman for Rubio's Senate campaign, released a statement addressing the complaint filed against the Florida Senator describing it as "an effort to distract from 'the startling four serious ethics complaints against Demings.'”

“Florida Democrats, like Val Demings, can’t seem to keep congressional ethics rules straight,” she said.