{"id":42550,"date":"2022-01-24T22:01:03","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T05:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/investigators-find-substantial-reason-to-believe-rep-doug-lamborn-misused-official-resources\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:08:21","slug":"investigators-find-substantial-reason-to-believe-rep-doug-lamborn-misused-official-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/investigators-find-substantial-reason-to-believe-rep-doug-lamborn-misused-official-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigators find \u2018substantial reason\u2019 to believe Rep. Doug Lamborn misused official resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In
In this June 16, 2014, file photo, incumbent U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, (R-Colo.), speaks during the GOP congressional debate at Centennial Hall in Colorado Springs. (AP Photo\/Julia Moss Colorado Springs Gazette, file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Congressional ethics investigators said Monday that they found evidence that gives them \u201csubstantial reason\u201d to believe U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn misused official resources and solicited or accepted improper gifts from his subordinates.<\/p>\n

Aides to the Colorado Springs Republican told nonpartisan investigators from the Board of the Office of Congressional Ethics that they were frequently asked to run errands for Lamborn\u2019s wife, Jeanie, and that they were instructed to help Lamborn\u2019s son apply for a federal job.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf mama ain\u2019t happy, nobody\u2019s happy,\u201d Jeanie Lamborn allegedly said to an unnamed staffer, according to their account to investigators.<\/p>\n

The board unanimously recommended that the U.S. House Committee on Ethics, a panel of federal lawmakers, further investigate the allegations made against Lamborn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Committee notes that the mere fact of conducting further review of a referral, and any mandatory disclosure of such further review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,\u201d U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Florida, and Jackie Walorski, R-Indiana, said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

Brandon Pope, a former staffer for Lamborn, filed a federal lawsuit last year alleging Lamborn ignored COVID-19 precautions \u2013 including mask wearing and social distancing \u2013 and created unsafe working conditions in his offices.<\/p>\n

The legal action also accused Lamborn of using his position in Congress to benefit his family, making staff run errands for his wife. Lamborn allegedly allowed his son to live out of a storage room in the basement of the U.S. Capitol for a period of weeks and ordered staffers to help the son find jobs in a federal database and prepare for interviews.<\/p>\n

Lamborn\u2019s spokeswoman, Cassandra Sebastian, said in a written statement Monday that the Office of Congressional Ethics is \u201coverzealous.\u201d In a rebuttal letter, Lamborn called the office \u201cbiased\u201d against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely disappointing that two disgruntled former staffers have weaponized the ethics process for political and personal purposes,\u201d Sebastian said. \u201cCongressman Lamborn intends to cooperate fully with the bipartisan House Committee on Ethics, just as he did with all reasonable requests of the OCE. He remains certain the committee will ultimately reach the appropriate decision by dismissing the OCE\u2019s referral and he expects to be fully exonerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Office of Congressional Ethics said that \u201cat least five of Rep. Lamborn\u2019s current and former staffers stated that they performed personal tasks for the Lamborns.\u201d One staffer said they were asked to help move the Lamborns\u2019 furniture and set up Zoom calls for Jeanie Lamborn.<\/p>\n

At least current staffer \u201creported running errands for Mrs. Lamborn as an \u2018unofficial errand.\u2019\u201d The ethics office\u2019s investigators found that Jeanie Lamborn \u201cregularly made requests of staff, which generally fell into two categories: campaign-related matters, such as picking up mail, and personal errands or services.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. Lamborn\u2019s significant involvement in Rep. Lamborn\u2019s office led former staffers to feel that they were required to comply with her requests,\u201d a report from the OCE said. \u201cA former staffer explained that Rep. Lamborn\u2019s chief of staff, Dale Anderson, made it clear that \u2018Mrs. Lamborn had precedence.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamborn was interviewed by congressional investigators are part of their probe. He told that that he didn\u2019t think his wife would ask staffers for help with personal errands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to follow the rules very carefully and very sincerely,\u201d Lamborn said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t think she would knowingly do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ethics office also said current and former staffers told investigators that they were asked to help the Lamborn\u2019s son apply for a job at the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Rep. Lamborn states that his son received the same assistance in the job hiring process an ordinary constituent would benefit from, the OCE found testimonial and documentary evidence indicating otherwise,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

Finally, the report says that Anderson, Lamborn\u2019s chief of staff, may have been permitted to solicit gifts from aides on the congressman\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is never permissible for a member (of Congress) to solicit a gift from a<\/p>\n

subordinate,\u201d the report said. \u201cTo the extent Rep. Lamborn failed to oversee Mr. Anderson\u2019s repeated instruction that staffers provide Rep. Lamborn and his family gifts, Rep. Lamborn may be responsible for solicitation of gifts in violation of federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a developing story that will be updated.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aides told investigators they were frequently asked to run errands for Lamborn\u2019s wife, Jeanie, and that they were instructed to help Lamborn\u2019s son apply for a federal job<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85382,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42550\/revisions\/85382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42550"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}