September 11, 2013 - OCE Referral Regarding Rep. Michele Bachmann

OCE Referral Regarding Rep. Michele Bachmann (PDF 63MB)

On June 13, 2013, the Office of Congressional Ethics transmitted a referral to the Committee on Ethics of the United States House of Representatives regarding Rep. Michele Bachmann.

Nature of Review

In July 2010, Representative Michele Bachmann established a leadership PAC and hired political consultant Guy Short to manage the PAC.  In June 2011, Representative Bachmann launched a presidential campaign and retained Mr. Short, through his consulting firm, to work on that campaign.  During the course of the presidential campaign, Mr. Short was compensated by both Representative Bachmann’s leadership PAC and her presidential campaign.  Funds from the leadership PAC may have been used to subsidize her presidential campaign.

After Representative Bachmann launched her presidential campaign, Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson was named as her campaign’s Iowa State Chairman.  Mr. Short and other consultants to Representative Bachmann’s presidential campaign may have arranged to compensate Senator Sorenson for his service to her campaign by directing payments to Senator Sorenson through Mr. Short’s consulting firm.

During Representative Bachmann’s presidential campaign, she engaged in a series of promotional activities for her book Core of Conviction, including a multi-stop book tour organized and paid for by the book’s publisher.  Representative Bachmann may have used funds from her presidential campaign to promote her book, and may have used book promotional activities paid for by the publisher to promote her presidential campaign.

If Representative Michele Bachmann authorized, permitted, or failed to prevent, by not taking reasonable steps to ensure that her leadership PAC operated in compliance with federal campaign finance laws, the use of funds from her leadership PAC to compensate a campaign consultant for work he performed for her presidential campaign, then she may have violated federal campaign finance laws and House rules.

If Representative Bachmann failed to disclose accurately payments to an Iowa State Senator for his services on behalf of her presidential campaign, instead only disclosing payments to a campaign consultant who then conveyed the payments to the State Senator, then she may have violated federal campaign finance laws and House rules.

If Representative Bachmann used campaign resources to promote the sale of her book Core of Conviction, then she may have violated federal campaign finance laws and House rules.

If Representative Bachmann accepted an improper in-kind contribution to her presidential campaign from the publisher of her book by using promotional book activities paid for by the publisher to promote her presidential campaign, then she may have violated federal campaign finance laws and House rules.

OCE Recommendation

The Board of the OCE recommended that the Committee on Ethics further review the allegation that Representative Bachmann may have violated federal campaign finance laws and House rules by using funds from her leadership PAC to support her presidential campaign, as there is substantial reason to believe that Representative Bachmann authorized, permitted, or failed to prevent, by not taking reasonable steps to ensure that her leadership PAC operated in compliance with federal campaign finance laws, the use of leadership PAC funds to compensate a campaign consultant for work he performed for her presidential campaign, resulting in a contribution from the leadership PAC to the presidential campaign in excess of the legal limit.

The Board of the OCE recommended that the Committee on Ethics dismiss the allegation that Representative Bachmann may have violated federal campaign finance laws and House rules by failing to disclose accurately payments to an Iowa State Senator for service as the Iowa state chairman of her presidential campaign, instead only disclosing payments to a campaign consultant who then conveyed the payments to the State Senator, as there is not substantial reason to believe that Representative Bachmann knew that the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) disclosure reports filed by her presidential campaign were false.  Because the evidence before the Board suggests that the FEC disclosure reports filed by the presidential campaign may not have accurately identified the Iowa State Senator as the true recipient of payments made by the presidential campaign, the Board voted to refer the information obtained during the course of its review of this allegation to the FEC.

The Board of the OCE recommended that the Committee on Ethics further review the allegation that Representative Bachmann may have violated federal campaign finance laws and House rules by using campaign resources to promote the sale of her book Core of Conviction, as there is substantial reason to believe that Representative Bachmann used resources from her presidential campaign to promote her book.

The Board of the OCE recommended that the Committee on Ethics further review the allegation that Representative Bachmann may have violated federal campaign finance laws and House rules by accepting an improper in-kind contribution to her presidential campaign from the publisher of her book, as there is substantial reason to believe that she used promotional book activities paid for by the publisher to promote her presidential campaign.

Committee Conclusion

On September 11, 2013, the Committee on Ethics released a statement indicating it would continue to gather information necessary to complete its review.  The Committee published the OCE report and findings and announced the allegations would be further reviewed pursuant to Committee Rule 18(a).