Pursuant to Committee Rule 7(g), the Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Ethics (Committee) determined on December 20, 2018, to release the following statement:
On June 28, 2018, the Committee announced it had voted to establish an Investigative Subcommittee (ISC) with jurisdiction to determine whether Representative David Schweikert and/or Richard Oliver Schwab may have used or authorized expenditures from Representative Schweikert’s Members’ Representational Allowance for impermissible purposes; Representative Schweikert’s campaign committees may have received improper campaign contributions from Mr. Schwab and other individuals employed in his congressional office; Mr. Schwab may have received income in excess of the outside earned income limit for senior staff; and Mr. Schwab may have failed to file full and complete financial disclosure statements in violation of House Rules, law, regulations, or other standards of conduct. In its June 28, 2018, announcement, the Committee explained it had determined to take this action based upon a review of referrals from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) regarding these same matters. On September 5, 2018, OCE transmitted an additional referral to the Committee regarding allegations involving Representative Schweikert.
On December 20, 2018, in accordance with House Rule XI, clause 3(o)(2), and Committee Rule 19(d), the Committee voted unanimously to expand the jurisdiction of the ISC’s inquiry regarding Representative Schweikert to include additional allegations based upon a review of OCE’s additional referral. Specifically, the ISC’s inquiry was expanded to include: Whether Representative Schweikert violated the Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation, or other standard of conduct applicable to the performance of his duties or the discharge of his responsibilities, with respect to allegations that: (1) Representative Schweikert may have used official resources to benefit his campaign or pressured congressional staff to perform political activity; (2) Representative Schweikert may have authorized compensation to an employee who did not perform duties commensurate with his House employment; (3) Representative Schweikert or his campaign committee may have received loans or gifts from a congressional employee; and (4) Representative Schweikert may have omitted required information from his annual House financial disclosure statements and Federal Election Commission candidate committee reports.
The Committee notes that the mere fact of an investigation into these allegations does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred. No other public comment will be made on this matter except in accordance with Committee rules.