GOP J.D. Vance Hammers Dem Tim Ryan on Second Ethics Complaint

J.D. Vance, the Trump-backed Republican nominee for Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat going head-to-head against Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), told Breitbart News his opponent is “recklessly abusing taxpayer resources” to benefit himself after receiving another ethics complaint within a month.

Last week, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a non-partisan ethics watchdog, filed a second complaint requesting that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) investigate Ryan following the organization’s first complaint. FACT’s complaint alleged that Ryan abused official resources for political purposes — which is prohibited and, if he is found guilty, would be a violation of federal law and House ethics rules.

“Tim Ryan has demonstrated a track record of recklessly abusing taxpayer resources to benefit his Senate pipe dreams,” Vance exclusively told Breitbart News on Monday. “This trend is a slap in the face to every Ohioan. While working people all over our state struggle to make ends meet, Tim Ryan is busy using their tax dollars to try to score a political promotion.”

The ethics complaint from FACT alleged that Ryan has repeatedly used official House or Senate floor videos for political purposes, which they claim is a direct violation of federal law and House ethics rules.

FACT noted that Ryan’s Twitter account, @TimRyan, includes a cover photo of himself, which references his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio. The account repeatedly asked followers and supporters to sign up for campaign communications by text, directly linked to Ryan’s campaign website, and explained how to donate.

The example FACT’s ethics complaint used is a tweet from July 28 when Ryan “retweeted” a video of official Senate floor footage. He stated that the bill featured in the footage “died in the Senate” and that the “Senate is broken” using his Twitter account:

The complaint also acknowledged that this “personal” account was not the only one to use official floor footage for political purposes. FACT noted that for the Twitter account of Izzi Levy, @chevytothe_levy, who identifies herself as the communications director for Ryan’s U.S. Senate campaign, the “vast majority” of content is campaign-related.

FACT pointed out a number of times that the account posted links to Ryan’s social media account and sent tweets that include official pictures or videos of Ryan on the House floor:

FACT, in a press release, explained in detail how federal law and House ethics rules prohibit lawmakers from using official resources for political purposes:

Federal law and ethics rules prohibit Members from using any official resources for political purposes. “Official resources” includes anything funded by taxpayers, such as photographs and video from the House or Senate floor. To make it abundantly clear, both the House Ethics rules, and Senate ethics rules specifically identify Congressional photographs and video of floor proceedings as official resources that Members are prohibited from using for political purposes. Simply put, under the House ethics rules, a Member is prohibited from using either House or Senate photographs or video because both are official government resources. This includes any photograph or video floor footage even if it was reposted from a third-party source, i.e., another website or news organization. A Member is also not allowed to use the campaign or its staff to violate the ethics rules. Finally, it is irrelevant whether the social media accounts are official campaign accounts, but rather it is only relevant that the accounts are being used for campaign purposes.

In a statement to Fox News, which first reported on the complaint, Ryan’s campaign called the complaint a “meritless claims”:

These meritless claims are nothing but a ham-handed attempt by Washington Republicans to change the subject to literally anything other than JD Vance’s embarrassment of a campaign or his disgraceful sham nonprofit whose only accomplishment was bringing a Purdue Pharma shill to Ohio.

I was proud to cosponsor this bill named for Ohio’s own [Sergeant First Class] Heath Robinson…Now, our effort to get lifesaving care to military members has died in the Senate with a majority of votes. The Senate is broken. Every day this bill stalls is an insult to our vets and their families.

Despite what Ryan’s campaign has claimed, FACT executive director Kendra Arnold said in a statement, “The law is clear.”

“A Member of Congress cannot use any House or Senate floor footage for campaign purposes,” Arnold continued. “Furthermore, under the ethics rules, each Member is responsible for their campaign and their staff. These instances speak for themselves, and there is no valid excuse for violating these rules.”

Breitbart News reported on July 22 that FACT also filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics, asking the office to “immediately investigate” Ryan for “abusing” House proxy voting rules by stating in his official capacity he was unable to attend in person due to the “ongoing” pandemic, despite attending in-person campaign events.

The July 22 complaint noted that the congressman voted by proxy 56 times while continuously posting pictures and videos of himself on Twitter campaigning in person. The watchdog emphasized that Ryan revoked his proxy voting authority a few days later, making it apparent that his primary focus was his campaign rather than fear of the coronavirus, which — if true — would violate House ethics rules.

Last week, in the first poll since the unprecedented Mar-a-Lago raid, Emerson College Polling showed that Vance and Republicans had overtaken Democrats in the Buckeye State. Vance led Ryan by three points, 45 percent to 42 percent.

In fact, when the voters were asked, “regardless of whom they support, which candidate they expect to win,” a majority of the respondents (52 percent) said Vance would win, compared to the 48 percent who said Ryan.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.