Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) is the subject of an investigation, the House Ethics Committee revealed on Tuesday.
The subject of the investigation was not disclosed by the Ethics commission, but Nehls stated in a statement that it is centered on the financial aspects of his campaign. The Republican from Texas declared that he will support the panel’s inquiry.
“I look forward to assisting the House Committee on Ethics inquiry into my campaign’s finances,” Nehls stated in a statement. “My campaign has complied with every Federal Election Commission (FEC) law, and my books are open.”
On Tuesday, ranking member Susan Wild (D-Pa.) and chair of the House Ethics Committee Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said that they had started an investigation into Nehls after learning about the congressman on December 11 from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).
The OCE is a neutral, impartial body that investigates claims of wrongdoing involving legislators and staff employees.
According to Guest and Wild, the committee will make its decision by May 10 at the latest.
“The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” the pair stated.
The committee’s investigation of Nehls’s campaign money was not immediately apparent.
In 2020, Nehls won an easy seat to represent Texas’s 22nd Congressional District in the US Congress. He was the sheriff of Fort Bend County prior to that.
George Santos, a former congressman from New York, was the subject of the House Ethics Committee’s most recent high-profile case, which resulted in his removal from office. Santos “violated federal criminal laws and other standards of conduct within the Committee’s jurisdiction,” the bipartisan committee said in a much-awaited and damning report.
The House passed Santos’ expulsion by a bipartisan vote of 311-114-2 not long after the report’s publication.
