Why Lauren Boebert is keeping her personal finances a secret — for now

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has requested an extension to disclose her personal finances — and do so well after her competitive June 25 primary election.

Boebert, one of the U.S. House’s most high-profile members, was supposed to disclose details about her 2023 finances on Wednesday, including assets, income, debt, royalties and business agreements, such as book deals.

Boebert’s 2023 financial report also could shed light on terms of her messy divorce that was finalized in October.

But the Clerk of the House of Representatives accepted Boebert’s extension request and set a new filing deadline of August 13. Such extensions are granted routinely, but it leaves Colorado primary voters with an incomplete record of Boebert’s sources of income.

Boebert — who attended former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial Thursday in Manhattan with other federal lawmakers — is favored to win a plurality in a crowded field that includes Logan County Commissioner and former state senator Jerry Sonnenberg and conservative media personality Deborah Flora.

Boebert moved to Colorado’s 4th Congressional District last year after facing a potentially tough reelection campaign against a strong Democratic opponent, Adam Frisch, in the 3rd District.

A victory in the Republican primary in Colorado’s deeply conservative 4th Congressional District is considered almost tantamount to winning the general election.

The never-ending drama involving Boebert and her performative politics are such that her high school in Rifle, Colo., does nothing to draw attention to its most famous alumna.

Just last month, Boebert’s oldest son, who faces felony charges involving identity theft, told a judge he couldn’t afford a lawyer. Boebert did not attend the court proceeding. And a report surfaced that Boebert appeared so drunk at a fundraiser in New York that servers cut her off.

Ethics experts called her 2022 financial report into question because it didn’t include income from her autobiographical book, which published that year. She did not, however, definitively violate congressional ethics rules.