An ethics watchdog is asking for an investigation into Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen (NV) for potentially abusing official Senate resources for campaign purposes.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed an ethics complaint that stems from Rosen’s April 5 reelection campaign announcement video that was uploaded to Twitter.
In the video, Rosen “clearly used video taken by a news organization in the Senate Judiciary Committee room,” according to FACT.
As FACT noted, federal law states, “appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made except as otherwise provided by law.”
Further, the Ethics Committee broadly interprets “official resources,” FACT added.
According to the complaint:
Specifically, a Senator may not use photographs or videos taken in Senate buildings for campaign purposes. This includes photographs or videos obtained from a third-party source, i.e. another website or news organization. A Senator may not evade federal law by re-using an image or video published by a third-party if the Senator could not use that image or video in the first instance.
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It appears that she is using video taken by a news organization in the Senate Judiciary hearing room for her campaign video, in which she appeared in her official capacity, presumably used official staff, and was located in an official building. An image of the Senate Judicial hearing room and Senator Rosen’s campaign video can be seen below:
Senator Rosen is clearly using video taken in her official capacity in an official government building for campaign purposes in violation of federal law and Senate ethics rules. The law is broad—not only does official resources include any use of title and video taken in government buildings, but it does not allow for a Senator to evade the law by re-posting video obtained from a news outlet. The law is clear and the image above speaks for itself—there are no facts that can excuse this violation.
FACT executive director Kendra Arnold said federal law and ethics rules “protects taxpayer-funded resources from abuse.”
“This is an important rule because it not only protects taxpayer-funded resources from abuse, but it also protects the integrity of official proceedings by reducing the incentive for Senators to use them for political purposes,” Arnold said. “It is important that the authority of the federal government not be weaponized for campaigning.”
Rosen is a freshman senator who joined the upper chamber in 2019 after defeating former Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV).
A spokesperson for Rosen’s office told the Washington Examiner that the senator’s video and tweet “are consistent with Senate ethics policies.”
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
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