The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) on Friday filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics against Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) for allegedly using official government resources for campaign and political purposes.
The complaint by the non-partisan ethics watchdog maintains that Jones has consistently used his campaign Twitter account to link to his official Senate Twitter account.
FACT highlighted an example from last week, when Jones’ political account tweeted, “Retweeting in a trial break here . . .” while linking to Jones’ official Senate tweet that displayed a video of Jones recorded in his Washington, D.C. Senate office.
The watchdog has identified at least 28 examples, dating back to January 2019, of Jones purportedly using official taxpayer-funded resources for political purposes. The most recent examples largely pertain to the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. FACT maintains that federal law and Senate Ethics rules both prohibit Senators from using official resources—including government buildings, staff, websites or social media accounts—for campaign or political activity. This includes linking to an official website from a campaign website, according to the watchdog.
“In utilizing official resources for his reelection efforts, Senator Jones has misused taxpayer funded resources,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, said in a statement. “FACT hopes that the Senate Select Committee on Ethics will act immediately to investigate Senator Jones’ apparent violations and hold him accountable to their straightforward laws governing official, publicly funded social media accounts.”
The full FACT complaint can be read here.
UPDATE 5:10 p.m.
A spokesperson for Jones’ Senate office reacted to FACT’s complaint in a statement to Yellowhammer News.
“Senator Jones has sole control over the use of his personal Twitter account (@dougjones),” said Caroline Stonecipher. “This account is neither managed nor accessible by either official Senate staff or campaign staff. Senator Jones has firmly adhered to guidance from both the Senate Ethics Committee counsel and Senate Rules Committee counsel in maintaining this as a personal account from which he is allowed to post both official and non-official content.”
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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