Josh Hawley Files Counter Ethics Complaint Against Senate Democrats

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) filed a counter ethics complaint against Senate Democrats on Monday, calling for the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate him for his objection to the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Hawley’s letter to the Senate Democrats who filed the ethics complaint against him and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) included:

The idea that one Senator who disagrees with another Senator can therefore have that Senator punished, sanctioned, censured, or removed is utterly antithetical to our democracy and the very idea of open, lawful debate. This line of thinking is, however, sadly consistent with the new woke-mob mentality that you should cancel anyone who disagrees with your views. Your baseless allegations are in that sense unfortunately typical of today’s leftwing cancel culture, a culture that tramples on the democratic traditions that left and right once defended together.

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Tina Smith (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) wrote to Senate Ethics Committee chair Chris Coons (D-CT) and vice chair James Lankford (R-OK) last week, “By proceeding with their objections to the electors after the violent attack, Senators Cruz and Hawley lent legitimacy to the mob’s cause and made future violence more likely.”

Hawley continued:

In light of the shameful abuse of the ethics process you have deliberately engaged in, I have considered whether I should call for you to resign or be expelled from the Senate. But I continue to believe in the First Amendment, which the US Supreme Court has repeatedly said protects even “offensive” and malicious speech, such as yours.

The First Amendment does not, however, give you carte blanche to abuse the Senate ethics process. I have today filed a complaint with the ethics committee that details your deliberate and partisan abuse of this process, including your apparent coordination with various dark money groups, and requests that you be appropriately disciplined.

In a letter to Coons and Lankford, Hawley asked if the Senate Democrats:

• Coordinated with the Never Trump organization the Lincoln Project, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), MoveOn, Voto Latino, the Sierra Club, and other outside organizations.
• Coordinated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the Joe Biden administration, and other members of Democrat leadership.
• Coordinated with lobbyists for corporations urging the suspension of those corporations’ political contributions.

“By knowingly submitting a frivolous complaint to accomplish impermissible partisan purposes, these Senators have engaged in improper conduct that may reflect upon the Senate,” Hawley wrote to Coons and Lankford. “The Committee should discipline these Members to ensure that the Senate’s ethics process is not weaponized for rank partisan purposes.”