Senator accused of illegally using campaign funds to splurge on pricey trips to Europe and 'California wine country'

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Law & Crime

Dec 28th, 2024, 12:53 pm


Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has been accused of using campaign funds to splurge on travel expenses for trips to Europe, Japan, Aspen and “California wine country.” The Democrat-turned-independent “illegally” used the money to pay for chartered domestic and international flights, hotels, personal meals and catering — which “appear unrelated to any campaign or official business,” according to a government watchdog group.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit, hurled the accusations in a complaint filed last week with the Federal Election Commission, which has been urged to refer the allegations to the Department of Justice. According to the group, Sinema “appears” to have violated criminal law and election rules by using campaign funds for “personal” purposes.

“Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (‘CREW’) brings this complaint before the Federal Election Commission seeking an immediate investigation and enforcement action against Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and her principal campaign committee, Sinema for Arizona, for apparent direct and serious violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act,” the complaint says. “FECA prohibits political campaign committees from expending campaign funds for personal use if the expenses ‘would exist irrespective of the candidate’s election campaign.’ Senator Sinema appears to have used the financial support of her campaign committee in place of other sources of funding to pay for her personal travel, which existed irrespective of her government service and Senate campaign.”

What makes Sinema’s case stand out even more, according to the watchdog group, is that she announced she would not run for reelection in March, “exactly eight months before Election Day, and before Sinema for Arizona disbursed over $100,000 for what appear to be personal travel expenses,” the complaint says.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/flagrant-and-serious-violations-senator-accused-of-illegally-using-campaign-funds-to-splurge-on-pricey-trips-to-europe-and-california-wine-country/

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Full headline: ‘Flagrant and serious violations’: Senator accused of illegally using campaign funds to splurge on pricey trips to Europe and ‘California wine country’

Link to CREW COMPLAINT (PDF) - https://www.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-12-17-Sinema-for-Arizona-complaint-signed.pdf

[Bettie]

1. Shocking! Just

well, not so shocking.....

[NotHardly]

22. The grift is especially strong in this one

[4catsmom]

58. no she's actually small potatoes

compared to Trump, Thomas, etc.

[Trueblue1968]

32. If this is true, can we say jail time is called for ???

[Bettie]

42. Who knows?

She still has some fans here, but she made a big thing of declaring she isn't a Democrat.

[ChazInAz]

47. I'm not a fan.

I went way out of my comfort zone to knock on Tucson doors, work the phone bank to GOTV for her.
Then she immediately betrayed us all!
"Not in a forgiving mood."

[Bettie]

48. I get that

a while ago, we had a state rep who stood in our living room and told us what she wanted to do...then, she switched to R right after she got in.

ETA: But Sinema still has her fans....for whatever reason.

[Turbineguy]

52. Obviously she should immediately switch to the GOP.

That will protect her against prosecution.

[odins folly]

56. She's out of a job come the new congress

She didn’t run for reelection.

[yellow dahlia]

2. I'm shocked!

Shocked, I say...

[Deuxcents]

4. I'd like to know what's gonna happen now that she's been accused...

[RainCaster]

5. Nothing, but we knew that already

[Deuxcents]

8. Why not garnish her wages? Taxpayers should be able to recover her spending spree

[RainCaster]

10. She's a Republican- they are NEVER held to account

If you are poor and vote Democrat, you will be held to an accounting. There is a different system in place for rich Republicans.

[Unladen Swallow]

13. She's a Republican?

[totodeinhere]

16. No, she changed her registration from Democrat to independent, but she

continued to caucus with the Democrats. But she often voted with the Republicans.

[Wiz Imp]

28. According to this site, she voted with Democrats 83.75% of the time over the past 2 years.

For her entire tenure in Congress it was slightly lower at 79.58%. Yes, it was lower than most Democrats (I'm not defending her), but voting with Republicans about 15% of the time didn't make her like Republicans in general.

https://www.progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?x=47&y=2&house=senate&party=&sort=overall-current&order=down

[AZProgressive]

29. I think GovTrack is more accurate

Here are the ideology scores for 2022 -- they don't have anything more recent. She is the most conservative Senator that caucuses with Democrats. She's right there with Murkowski and Collins who are usually the most liberal Republicans. Senator Sanders was the most liberal Senator out of all of them.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/report-cards/2022/senate/ideology

When she was in her last year in the House her ideological score was near McSally's. I supported Deedra Abboud in the primary back in 2018 as I knew Sinema would turn out like this but a lot of establishment Democrats such as Schumer wanted her.

[Wiz Imp]

31. Not measuring the same thing.

And I disagree it's more accurate. I was looking for what each Senator's voting record was in relationship to Joe Biden's or Democratic leadership's position was on legislation. That is what the link I posted was measuring. This link from 538 measures the same thing.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-congress-votes/ I also found another site a few weeks ago that had slightly different numbers than the ProgressivePunch website, but was similar in overall rating. Unfortunately, I can't find that link again, but I posted this about the data from that link on Dec. 14:

"Hell he's not even close to Jon Tester who voted with Biden less than 75% of the time. (Fetterman voted with Biden 92% of the time, Warren 92.9%, Bernie Sanders only 89.%, Manchin 35.7%)."

Back to the original point. Sinema was terrible but she did not "frequently vote with Republicans". She did more often than most, but not nearly as often as Manchin & Tester. And Collins and Murkowski voted with Biden, far more often than Sinema voted against him.

[AZProgressive]

33. Something that Biden or Democratic leadership proposes isn't always progressive or liberal

An example would probably be that hard right border bill sponsored by a Republican that leadership supported because they thought it would help them win an election. Another example off the top of my head would be something relating to Israel that a lot of liberals or progressives may oppose the Biden administration on depending on the policy they're objecting to.

She is easily as conservative as Manchin even though Arizona isn't nearly as red as West Virginia. The ideological scores also predate the Biden administration as she is reliably the most conservative Democrat if not the most. It is also easy to see that Bernie Sanders would be the most liberal even though he may disagree with Biden on important issues.

[Wiz Imp]

35. Read my post and the post I originally responded to again.

Neither mentioned anything about progressive or conservative. I don't give a damn about that in this context. The original post said she voted like a Republican and I proved that assertion was wrong. You're arguing against a point I never even tried to make.

[AZProgressive]

36. The link I posted mentions liberal & conservative

She shows up when Republicans start appearing on the list. The data is based on several factors including voting but it doesn't take account the full picture but the GovTrack scores don't surprise when determining who is conservative or liberal.

Either way good riddance to Sinema.

Edit: Your link was from ProgressivePunch that does rankings based on who they believe is more progressive.

[Voltaire2]

54. It was when she voted against the party, not how often.

Sinema and Manchin were dependable obstructionist votes to derail every legislative initiative in the senate.

[Quanto Magnus]

55. However she is like the Republicans

in that she was in it for the show.... remember the (McCain) copy cat move. That was absolutely for show.

Another similarity to Republicans; She is in it for the money...

[InstantGratification]

18. No idea what the options are to get the money back, but it isn't taxpayer money

She is accused of using campaign funds on non campaign related expenses.

[DENVERPOPS]

20. If they nail her

they will have to nail the greatest grifter of all time.........

[Deminpenn]

39. It's money from her specific donors, not taxpayers

Donors could sue her for their money back, I suppose, but they gave it willingly.

[Orrex]

24. They'll sternly order her to please try to try not do to it again so visibly.

[Skittles]

38. what happened to Clarence Thomas?

oh yeah

[localroger]

6. Why the scare quotes on California wine country?

I mean, is there some dispute as to whether the lower Central Valley actually exists or that they grow grapes there or something? True it's not exactly the Mediterranean coast but they do have lots of vintners there who will happily give you samples to brag on their wares, which is as good a reason to leave Los Angeles as any.

[JoseBalow]

7. The article mentions Sonoma

That's definitely California wine country, no quotes required.

[msfiddlestix]

44. Sonoma County is where I live. Just about 60 miles north of San Francisco. I didn't open the article

but now I'm curious about which winery is mentioned.
lol.

[Unwind Your Mind]

46. I looked and didn't see any specific Sonoma expenses

I live here too and I would call Sonoma and Napa counties our wine country

Definitely weird use of quote marks all over this “article”

[orleans]

34. "I mean, is there some dispute as to whether the lower Central Valley actually exists "

thanks for the laugh!

[surfered]

9. Most Senators are wealthy. If not when they arrive, then a few years later

You hang around rich people long enough and you think you should live like they do. You have an expense account…..

[wolfie001]

11. I can't imagine hating her even more

Yet she keeps on keeping on. So sickening.

[2naSalit]

12. I hope...

She's forced to pay it all back at the very least.

[sakabatou]

14. *pretends to be shocked*

[republianmushroom]

15. What, Oh damn, double damn, HUH, absolutely shocking, shocking I tell you.

[milestogo]

17. oh no! Not Kyrsten Sinema!

[sop]

41. At least she didn't buy a yacht like Manchin.

[ZonkerHarris]

19. arrest, trial, convict.

[Picaro]

21. This isn't party specific

While she initially represented as a Democrat she never really caucused with the Democrats. But she always exhibited plainly corrupt behavior.

In this particular case she was clearly primed for corruption. I mean what’s not to like about free money?

At this point, there aren’t a lot of serious controls on how the free money is used.

If not for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington she would have gotten away with this (and very likely still might get away with it).

We have a serious problem with our system now. It starts with the Supreme Court legalizing bribery.

[live love laugh]

23. Trump will intervene if necessary since she's been so faithful.

Stealthily faithful but faithful nonetheless ….

[Figarosmom]

25. I seem to remember hearing of this before

Years ago.

[liberal N proud]

26. Imagine that, a corrupt republican

[FoxNewsSucks]

27. Exactly what I was gonna say. And IOKIYAR

[LudwigPastorius]

30. I'm sure Pam Bondi will get right on that.

[Hekate]

37. Well isn't that special

[The Wizard]

40. She's always been beholden

to the bribing class. How much has she concealed in offshore money laundries?

[Autumn]

43. Well aren't I surprised. Not

A grifter from the get go.

[yardwork]

45. Not surprising. She's a grifter.

[kairos12]

49. That is Senator Sin-no-more. Yeah right, like that would happen.

[moniss]

50. I would be quite surprised if

anything beyond some fines happen if even that. Meanwhile DOJ spent millions and spared nothing in order to nail that desperado Hunter Biden for telling a lie about his drug use on a gun purchase form and for having back taxes despite them being paid when assessed.

I mean after all DOJ resources are limited and we have to prioritize the efforts.

[bronxiteforever]

51. She lied to get elected. She just wanted the money.

What a creep.

[Voltaire2]

53. All around horrible person.

I sincerely hope that her illegal activity comes with more penalties than 'you shouldn't have done that'.

[Ping Tung]

57. Senator: a person who makes laws in Washington when not doing time. Mark Twain

[Pepsidog]

59. I despise this person. Her and Manchin.

[tonekat]

61. Nail her to the wall!

Self serving scumbag.