(TheRedWire.com) – The Senate Select Committee on Ethics sent a letter on Thursday admonishing Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a letter Thursday for directly soliciting campaign contributions on behalf of the Senate candidate during the 2022 Senate runoff race in Georgia.
According to the Ethics Committee’s letter, Graham had “directly solicited campaign contributions” on behalf of Republican Senate candidate Hershel Walker “five separate times” during an interview with Fox. It was decided based on these facts that Graham has “impermissibly conducted campaign activity in a federal building.”
This action is a direct violation of one of the standards that Senators are obliged to follow, which requires them to use public resources only for official actions.
Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Vice Chairman James Lankford (R-Okla.) sent the March 23 letter to Graham to inform him of his failure to “uphold that standard” which could have damaged “public trust and confidence in the United States Senate.”
It was further noted that Graham had also violated the standards of conduct in October 2020, when he had “directly solicited campaign contributions” during an interview that took place in Dirksen Senate Office Building. In the 2020 case, Graham had done so for his own campaign committee and not on behalf of any other Senator.
The incident had been previously submitted in a complaint, however, it was determined that conduct was “inadvertent, technical, or otherwise of a de minimis nature.” This resulted in the complaint being dismissed.
The case was further considered as part of this latest admonishment.
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