An ethics watchdog organization wants the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether Congressman Justin Amash violated House rules during a twitter fight with a White House staffer. The group filed ethics related complaints against both Amash and White House Director of Social Media Dan Scavino.
Over the weekend Scavino called Congressman Amash a “liability” and urged Trump supporters to unseat him in the next election. Amash responded, basically, “bring it on,” and linked to a website where people can contribute to his campaign fund.
“Linking to a campaign contribution website is so transparently campaigning that it clearly goes over the line and we thought that was very significant,” said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Both the congressman from Grand Rapids and Scavino appear to have tweeted from their personal twitter accounts. But there are aspects of both accounts that make them appear to be accounts used for official business, the watchdog group said in the complaints.
“There have been so many ethical problems in the last couple of months with (the Trump administration) that we don’t think we can give anyone the benefit of the doubt,” Bookbinder said.
“The more it happens, the more it damages the system because you have electoral politics takes over everything,” Bookbinder said.
A spokesperson for Amash declined comment, other than to call the claim “completely frivolous.”
