Democratic Rep. Cori Bush hit with ethics complaint over allegedly misusing taxpayer-funded gov't resources for campaign fundraising

Democratic Representative Cori Bush of Missouri was hit with an ethics complaint on Thursday over allegedly misusing taxpayer-funded government resources for campaign fundraising.

Fox News Digital reported that the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed the complaint against Bush with the Office of Congressional Ethics last week.

Kendra Arnold, FACT executive director, told Fox News Digital, "Rep. Bush's abuse of official resources for political purposes shows a flagrant disregard for the law."

"These laws and ethics rules are in place to maintain the integrity of official proceedings, so members cannot leverage them for political advantage," Arnold continued. "The violation we have documented in our complaint is clear and obvious, and after confirming through investigation, we hope the OCE moves swiftly to impose the proper penalty."

FACT demanded a swift investigation into Bush after she allegedly used video footage taken in the House chamber to raise funds. A Twitter post from late July revealed that Bush retweeted the video originally posted by CSPAN and commented with a link to her campaign's donation page.

The 30-second clip shared by the congresswoman on her verified government official Twitter account showed Bush disrupting House proceedings to call Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise's bills "racist."

In response to the CSPAN video, Bush wrote on Twitter, "I didn't get to finish. Their bills are also sexist, patriarchal, xenophobic, classist, homophobic, and transphobic."

FACT alleged that Bush "disrupted official House proceedings with outrageous and unprofessional behavior and then campaigned and fundraised off of it."

It is considered a violation of House ethics rules to use any taxpayer-funded resources for political purposes, including soliciting campaign donations. Therefore lawmakers are prohibited from using photographs or videos taken on the House floor regardless of how they obtained that material or whether a different entity reposted it. Therefore, FACT declared it "irrelevant" that Bush shared the footage from CSPAN.

FACT's complaint called Bush's alleged violation "obvious" and stated that "there are no facts that can excuse it—Bush used official House proceedings and resources for political purposes."

"Video of official house floor proceedings is an official resource, and both using it for political purposes and posting it on a campaign social media account are violations of the ethics rules," the complaint stated.

"The fact that Bush uses this video on her campaign social media account and directly fundraises off of it shows a complete disrespect for the law," FACT's complaint added.

Bush's office did not respond to a request for comment, Fox News Digital reported.

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