Liberal watchdog group files ethics complaint over Boebert’s reimbursements

A left-leaning watchdog group on Thursday called for an investigation into whether Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) reimbursed herself for personal mileage expenses claimed as campaign mileage.

In a letter to Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) chairman David Skaggs, Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig called for the office to probe Boebert’s reimbursement for campaign travel, arguing it includes dates for which the then-candidate did not have any public events listed.

UPDATE: We’ve made a formal complaint to @CongressEthics about @RepBoebert’s massive $22,000 mileage reimbursement from her 2020 campaign.

Campaigns shouldn’t line the pockets of elected officials. https://t.co/NvTiysSLsl

— Accountable.US (@accountable_us) February 4, 2021

The complaint to the OCE claims that during her 2020 campaign, the first-term representative reimbursed more than $22,000 in mileage expenses, “which suggests she claimed more than 38,000 miles as campaign expenses — the equivalent of driving around the entire planet, plus an additional 14,000 miles. Even worse, this purported travel was in the midst of a pandemic and she had no publicly advertised campaign events during several months of the campaign.”

“While the Federal Elections Commission allows candidates to reimburse themselves for travel costs, it requires that they log travel costs if they are mixing campaign and personal travel. It is unclear if such logs were kept,” Herrig added. “When questioned about the reimbursements, Rep. Boebert’s campaign defended the expenses without providing evidence to suggest she drove 38,711 miles for campaign purposes.”

The letter came a week after the group announced it would collaborate with another liberal advocacy group, American Oversight, to track the hiring of several figures associated with the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including former senior White House aide Stephen Miller and former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

The Hill has reached out to the OCE and Boebert’s office for comment.