GOP lawmaker’s colleagues silent on ethics scandal: 'I don’t comment on personal lives'

24 September 2024

Rep. Anthony D'Esposito (R-New York) has found himself in the middle of a controversy following a report by the New York Times' Nicholas Fandos published on September 23.

According to Fandos, the Long Island congressman may have "transgressed ethics rules" with his "audacious" hiring practices —which included hiring "his longtime fiancée's daughter to work as a special assistant in his district office" before hiring "someone even closer to him": a "woman with whom he was having an affair," Devin Faas.

Spectrum News, the day after the Times' article was published, asked two other House Republicans in New York State to weigh in: Rep. Marc Molinaro and Rep. Mike Lawler. But neither of them wanted to comment.

Molinaro told Spectrum, "I don't comment on people's personal lives." And Molinaro kept walking when asked if there should be an "ethics investigation" into D'Esposito.

When Lawler was asked if he had "spoken to" D'Esposito, he responded, "I'm not in the business of commenting on my colleagues personal lives."

D'Esposito has been attacking Fandos' New York Times article, describing it as "tabloid garbage" and a "slimy, partisan hit piece" in an interview with the New York Post.

According to the Times' Fandos, "Mr. D’Esposito has not been publicly accused of wrongdoing, but his employment of the two women, which resulted in the payment of about $29,000 in taxpayer funds, could expose him to discipline in the House of Representatives. The House code of conduct prohibits members of Congress from employing spouses or relatives, including stepchildren. Though Mr. D’Esposito has never married, congressional ethics experts said that employing a woman akin to his stepdaughter, who shared a home with him, could breach the requirement that members of Congress 'adhere to the spirit and the letter of the rules.'"

Watch the Spectrum video below or at this link.

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