Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib reportedly paid herself $17,500 from her election campaign funds — after she won her midterm election in November 2018.
That appears to be a violation of campaign finance rules, the Washington Free Beacon reported Friday. In total, campaign records reveal that the congresswoman paid herself a salary of $45,000 before and after the election.
U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) (L) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) (R) talk as they accompany other freshmen House Democrats to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office to deliver a letter “urging him to end the shutdown” on Capitol Hill, Jan. 16, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas.
FEC rules state that campaign funds can no longer be transferred to a candidate once that person ceases to be a candidate.
“If the candidate loses the primary, withdraws from the race, or otherwise ceases to be a candidate, no salary payments may be paid beyond the date he or she is no longer a candidate,” the rules state. (RELATED: Rep. Rashida Tlaib Wrote Column For Nation Of Islam Publication)
Tlaib first gained notoriety for promising to “impeach the motherf****r” [Donald] Trump” shortly after winning her election. (RELATED: Rashida Tlaib’s Ties To Anti-Semitism Run Deeper Than Previously Known)
Just this week, during former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony, Tlaib noted the presence of Lynne Patton, a Housing and Urban Development official who is black. Patton was standing behind Republican North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows and this apparently provoked Tlaib to say that Meadows was a racist and that the congressman was merely using Patton as “a prop.”
HUD official Lynne Patton stands behind Rep. Mark Meadows during testimony of Michael Cohen to Congress, Feb. 27, 2019. Fox News screenshot.
Patton found that accusation revolting and she wondered why “the congresswoman from Michigan would take the word of a self-confessed perjurer and criminally convicted white male over a black female … that’s more racist.”