United States Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado), according to the House Ethics Committee’s guidelines, may have violated House ethics rules, The Daily Beast exclusively reports.
Per The Daily Beast, “The ethics instruction guide for 2022 congressional financial disclosures makes clear that members must disclose not only royalties they received, but anticipated royalties as well—’any royalties currently due from the publisher for completed sales.'”
However, the GOP lawmaker “reported no royalties from the memoir she released last July, My American Life,” and “Congressional guidelines and legal experts said her lack of reported income would violate House ethics rules.”
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A spokesperson for the GOP lawmaker, the news outlet reports, told The Daily Beast Boebert “did not receive any money from her book deal until January 2023,” but noted “that does not actually appear consistent with ethics guidance.”
The Daily Beast reports:
The House ethics guidelines state that members should report ‘any royalties currently due from the publisher for completed sales,’ and that ‘when an interest in future royalties cannot be ascertained, it is acceptable to report ‘indefinite’ or ‘unascertainable’ in Block B.’
Despite the guidelines, a staffer for the MAGA lawmaker “shared an email that their office received the evening after this article published, from the staff director and chief counsel of House Ethics, Tom Rust,” in which “Rust appears to override the House guidance as it is written—and as three ethics experts interpreted it to The Daily Beast—and he seems to clear Boebert of disclosing details about her 2022 book deal and royalties.”
Rust wrote Thursday, “Based on this and the facts as you have presented them below, my staff-level guidance is that the Committee’s prior guidance was correct, and Rep. Boebert did not need to disclose any information about her publishing agreement or royalties on her 2022 financial disclosure statement.”
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On the other hand, according to The Daily Beast, “ethics experts say that the rules were not complicated and are in place for a reason.”
Vice president and Senior Director of Ethics at nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center, Kedric Payne, noted “book deals are common in Congress,” adding the guidelines “clearly require disclosure of royalty income.”
Payne emphasized, “Alarm bells ring when a lawmaker has book sales but doesn’t report book income,” and “voters have a right to know that their elected officials are fully transparent about their financial interests.”
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The Daily Beast’s full report is available at this link (subscription required).