In addition to losing his powerful gig on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) looks like he's going to have one heck of a rough year ahead.
According to Fox News, a non-partisan government watchdog group called the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) filed an ethics complaint against Schiff with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).
In the complaint, the watchdog group asked for an investigation into Schiff and certain video footage he used in a recent campaign ad.
At question is whether Schiff "abused official resources for political purposes" by using the video, which was part of a speech he gave on the Senate floor during one of former President Donald Trump's impeachment hearings.
Don’t you just love it? Schiff hit with ethics complaint one day after announcing Senate run. https://t.co/tvok27Lvne
— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) January 29, 2023
Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, explained why her group believes Schiff is in clear violation of federal law, not to mention House ethics rules.
"This is a clear violation of House ethics rules and federal law," Arnold said.
She added: "Rep. Schiff has been in Congress for over two decades and undoubtedly knows that official government resources cannot be used for political purposes. Rep. Schiff must immediately take down the video and cease distribution of the footage, and the Office of Congressional Ethics should move swiftly to investigate and sanction Rep. Schiff for this breach."
The group's complaint read: "To enforce this law, the ethics rules prohibit members from using any official resource for campaign or political purposes. 'Official resources' includes anything funded by taxpayers, such as a member's official website, social media accounts, and photographs and video from the House or Senate floor."
It added: "To make it abundantly clear... both the House ethics rules and Senate rules specifically identify congressional video of floor proceedings as official resources that members are prohibited from using for political purposes."
Schiff hit with ethics complaint one day into Senate campaign for using Trump impeachment video https://t.co/Mjk5N9eGmk
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) January 27, 2023
Schiff's ad was posted to Twitter on Thursday. In it, he wrote, "Our democracy is at great risk. Because GOP leaders care more about power than anything else. And because our economy isn’t working for millions of hard working Americans. We’re in the fight of our lives—a fight I’m ready to lead as California’s next U.S. Senator."
Our democracy is at great risk. Because GOP leaders care more about power than anything else.
And because our economy isn’t working for millions of hard working Americans.
We’re in the fight of our lives—a fight I’m ready to lead as California’s next U.S. Senator. pic.twitter.com/H0Pa0EhhMu
— Adam Schiff (@AdamSchiff) January 26, 2023
Only time will tell if OCE opens an investigation and if it does, what it will find.