Arizona Republican and former chief of staff allegedly misused office resources and broke campaign committee rules
/Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo
By Lindsey McPherson
The House Ethics Committee is continuing an investigation into allegations that Rep. David Schweikert and his former chief of staff misused office resources and violated campaign committee rules, as the panel on Wednesday released the initial report from the Office of Congressional Ethics board unanimously recommending it review the matter.
OCE’s six-member board voted unanimously on April 5, 2018 to refer the allegations involving the Arizona Republican to the House Ethics Committee, which opened an investigation in May.
The board found “substantial reason” to believe Schweikert authorized Members’ Representational Allowance, or MRA, expenditures that his former chief of staff Oliver Schwab made outside of the scope of permissible official expenses and that he failed to ensure his campaign committee followed the rules in accepting contributions from one of his congressional office employees in the form of individual outlays that later were reimbursed.
