Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) may be in hot water with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after she paid herself $17,500 in campaign funds following the 2018 midterm elections, according to a report.
Recent FEC filings show that the freshman Democrat lawmaker may have run afoul of campaign finance rules by making payments to herself after she ended her candidacy on Election Day.
According to FEC rules, a general election candidate can take a salary from his or campaign funds until the date of the election.
“If the candidate loses the primary, withdraws from the race, or otherwise ceases to be a candidate, no salary payments may be paid beyond the date he or she is no longer a candidate,” according to FEC rules.
But Tlaib’s FEC filings show that she dipped into her campaign coffers twice after the election, paying herself $2,000 on November 16 and $15,500 on December 1. The payments, which were all made weeks after the 2018 midterms ended, raised the question of whether Tlaib violated FEC statutes.
Tlaib has made headlines recently for accusing fellow House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) of racism for using a black woman, Trump administration Housing and Urban Development official Lynne Patton, as a “prop.”
“Just to make a note, Mr. Chairman, just because someone has a person of color, a black people working for them, does not mean they aren’t racist,” Tlaib said in her closing remarks after questioning disgraced former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. “And it is even insensitive, some would even say the fact that someone would even use a prop, a black woman in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself.”
The freshman Democrat has also made headlines for signing a pledge with fellow far-left Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to impeach President Trump.