'Clear violations of federal law': Watchdog group files ethics complaint against Mike Johnson
House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) financial disclosure forms — in which he didn't even disclose a personal checking or savings account — have prompted an anti-corruption watchdog group to file an ethics complaint against the new speaker.
The Daily Beast reported that End Citizens United's new ethics complaint includes allegations of Johnson failing to disclose certain gifts, overlooking blind spots in his spouse's income, making "contradictory" financial statements relating to his work as an attorney for far-right groups, and various other "inconsistencies." End Citizens United president Tiffany Muller said the American public deserves to know whether the new speaker of the House has financial conflicts of interest.
"It’s laughable to believe that the person leading government funding negotiations doesn’t have a reportable savings or retirement account," Muller told the Beast. "But beyond his own potential financial mismanagement, failing to disclose travel and his spouse’s sources of income is against the law and the Office of Congressional Ethics must investigate and hold him accountable."
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?
In the six-page complaint, End Citizens United found evidence of Johnson failing to report an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel in February of 2020 paid for by the 12 Tribes Film Foundation that cost a total of $17,950. Congressional ethics reporting laws dictate that all travel costing more than $415 needs to be reported. Johnson also accepted another paid trip by young Earth creationist group Answers in Genesis to Williamstown, Kentucky in 2022 that exceeded the $415 threshold.
"These blatant omissions are clear violations of federal law and show a disregard for the Act’s important transparency goals that allow the public to know what groups have privately funded the Speaker’s travel," End Citizens United wrote.
The group also pointed to Johnson's lack of disclosure of his spouse's income from her LLC, Onward Christian Counseling Services, which was founded in 2017 and remains active as of 2023. According to the complaint, the company's website was recently taken down, though the archived version shows that Johnson's wife advertised "confidential, biblically based individual, marriage and family counseling to the people of Northwestern Louisiana."
Federal law concerning statements submitted to government agencies states that anyone who "falsifies, conceals, or covers up material facts, "makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation" could be fined and/or jailed for up to five years.
