Lauren Boebert is not the brightest bulb in the GOP’s House of Representatives, but her latest mess up might just land her in legal trouble.
The right-wing cheerleader was already under investigation by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after her team filed thousands of dollars in questionable Venmo payments. These payouts were billed as personal expenses using campaign finances which violates FEC law. Now, according to new filings submitted to the FEC, we might know what those “personal expenses” were for. According to the report, Boebert made four payments — two for $2,000 each and another two for $1,325 each — to John Pacheco. While no one is exactly sure what Pacheco’s relationship to Boebert is, the address listed for him is the same as Shooters Grill in Rifle, the restaurant Boebert owns. According to the Denver Post, these payments were for the restaurant’s rent and utility bills.
Paying for the expenses of your personal business using campaign dollars is a big no-no for D.C. politicians, something Boebert must’ve known because her team was quick to reassure the FEC that they had reimbursed the campaign for those payments. Those claims will now be investigated by the commission when Boebert’s team turns in their next supplemental report in October. Whether they reimbursed the campaign for those Venmo payments or not, it’s a pretty bad look for the Congresswoman to be using donations to pay for her own rent and utilities when she opposed helping Coloradans facing eviction in the middle of a pandemic and criticized the Biden administration for providing government handouts last year.
Then again, this isn’t the first time Boebert’s been in hot water when it comes to her personal finances. The Denver Post reported in February that she had claimed $22,000 in mileage reimbursement for 2020, despite travel being severely limited due to the nationwide lockdown. She also failed to disclose her husband’s income — he earned $478,000 as a consultant for an energy firm — before winning her Congressional seat.
No word on whether Lauren herself is concerned about these developments. She’s probably too busy tweeting.