Even if she does manage to win reelection in November, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) may wind up spending more of her second term in a courtroom than the nation’s capital because she’s about to be put under the microscope by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser.
The New York Times reports that Boebert is being investigated because she allegedly ““inflated the mileage she logged on the campaign trail in 2020 and then used more than $20,000 in reimbursements from donors to pay off years of tax liens on her restaurant.”
If it can be proven that Boebert did indeed use campaign funds to pay off tax liens, she could be forced to repay the money and also be sent to prison.
The complaint against Boebert was filed by the same group that recently helped take down Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) in his primary, American Muckrakers PAC, and one of its leaders, David B. Wheeler, is making it clear he wants to see the same fate for Boebert, remarking:
“We helped fire Madison Cawthorn. Now it’s Lauren Boebert’s turn.
“I think we’re gonna go after Lauren Boebert in Colorado in a similar way. I think we’re gonna engage in that race pretty quickly.”
The claims Boebert made about how many miles she allegedly traveled are nothing short of absurd:
The allegations have bounced around liberal circles since The Denver Post first reported in February 2021 that Ms. Boebert had cashed two checks from her campaign totaling $22,259 for mileage reimbursement, a figure that equated to 38,712 miles — well more than 24,901-mile circumference of the planet.
The Denver Post also explained just how ridiculous Boebert’s reimbursement claim is:
“Boebert would have had to drive 36,870 miles in just over seven months between April 1 and Nov. 11 to justify the second payment. Boebert’s reimbursements to herself in one year eclipse her predecessor’s reimbursements over 10 years.”
Boebert’s predecessor, Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO), reimbursed himself “$9,797 from campaign coffers for all travel expenses — including airfare — during a decade representing the same district.
Could it be any clearer that Boebert has used her campaign (and potentially her time in office) to grift off taxpayers, the very same thing her political idol, failed one-term former President Donald Trump, did during his four years in office?
Additionally, Mediaite notes that Boebert’s actions would leave her open to criminal charges on two fronts:
The investigation takes on an additional level of potential criminality as Boebert is accused of using the reimbursed funds to pay off tax liens filed against her restaurant. The Times notes that the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment filed liens totaling $20,000 against Boebert “from August 2016 to February 2020 for failure to pay unemployment premiums on her business, Shooters Grill.”
“As you are both fully aware, utilizing an illegal source of funds or ill-gotten funds to pay off a tax lien is illegal in Colorado and under federal law. That is the very definition of ill-gotten funds,” reads the Muckrakers complaint to Colorado’s attorney general.
Maybe, when all is said and done, Boebert will also lose her restaurant, Shooters Grill. That would be the ultimate in karmic justice.
