REPRESENTATIVE RON PAUL
Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) is a twelve-term member of Congress, representing Texas’ 14th congressional district. His ethics issues stem from improperly seeking double reimbursements for travel expenses.
Double Billing for Travel Expenses
In February 2012, an investigation by the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call found Rep. Paul had repeatedly paid for travel costs using his official member representational allowance while also receiving reimbursements for the same expenses from political and nonprofit organizations supporting his activities.
For instance, on September 21, 2000, Rep. Paul used his American Express card to buy an American Airlines ticket for $230.50.2 House disbursement records show taxpayers paid for the ticket on October 13, 2000. On October 26, 2000, however, Rep. Paul’s campaign committee reported a $230.50 disbursement to American Airlines, apparently to pay for the same ticket. Rep. Paul bought two airline tickets in January 2005, again using his American Express card. He purchased one from United Airlines at a cost of $1,076.78, and a second from Continental Airlines for $403.70.6 House disbursement records show he was reimbursed for both tickets on February 11, 2005. Nonetheless, on February 21, 2005, the Liberty Committee, a nonprofit group supporting libertarian causes that had close ties to Rep. Paul, issued a $1,480.48 check to American Express – an amount equal to the sum of the cost of the two tickets.
Roll Call found many other instances between 1999 and 2009 where flight dates and costs listed in House disbursement records appear to match other reimbursements issued to Rep. Paul, though the public records did not always contain enough information to be certain. In 2009, the House began reporting disbursements with far less detail, making it impossible to find precise information about travel expenses and compare them to other records.
The Liberty Committee’s checkbook for much of the period in question was under the control of Nora LeBlanc, the mother-in-law of one of Rep. Paul’s daughters. Paul’s daughter, Lori Pyeatt, has long been the treasurer for Rep. Paul’s campaign committees, as well as for the Liberty Political Action Committee and the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education (FREE), other groups that reimbursed Rep.David James, the head of the Liberty Committee, told Roll Call that in March 2005, he discovered what he believed to be a case of accidental double billing while looking for documentation for a flight. Mr. James brought the matter to the attention of Rep. Paul’s office. Rep. Paul reimbursed the Liberty Committee $403.70 for the flight, but the incident caused a rift. Rep. Paul stopped submitting expenses to the Liberty Committee and eventually tried to take control of the group away from Mr. James, but failed. Ms. LeBlanc turned the group’s financial records and checkbook over to Mr. James in 2006.
In February 2012, in the wake of the Roll Call stories, Mr. James sent a letter to Rep. Paul’s private business office requesting a $10,000 refund for nearly 20 flights he said had been paid for using Rep. Paul’s official member funds yet also expensed to the Liberty Committee.
In April 2012, after conducting an audit, the Liberty Committee increased the amount it said it was owed to $20,000. Rep. Paul had expensed 63 flights to the group, and the Liberty Committee said two-thirds of those were also billed to his official House allowance. In total, Roll Call’s reporting and the Liberty Committee’s audit found evidence of 52 double-billed flights.
Rep. Paul’s spokesman, Jesse Benton, initially said inadvertent errors could have caused “a handful of instances” of double billing, but “absolutely zero taxpayer funds were ever misused.” He later accused Mr. James of “pursuing a personal grudge” against the congressman, though he said Rep. Paul would look into the matter. In addition, Mr. Benton said Mr. James had failed to provide documentation of the group’s claims, though both Mr. James and Roll Call forwarded a chart summarizing audit results and other documentation, including check numbers, to Rep. Paul.
Potential Violations
Conversion of Federal Property
Whoever embezzles, steals, purloins or knowingly converts to his use any “record, voucher, money, or thing of value of the United States or of any department or agency thereof” commits the crime of conversion. By billing travel to his member representational allowance after the same travel already was reimbursed by the Liberty Committee, Rep. Paul may have committed the crime of conversion.
False Statements
Federal law prohibits members of Congress from making “any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation”26 on “a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress or any office or officer within the legislative branch.”
Committee on House Administration regulations require members to certify and document all expenses before funds may be dispersed from the member representational allowance. Further, the Supreme Court has ruled that the False Statements Act applies to false statements, writings, or other representations made to a disbursing officer of the U.S. House of Representatives. If Rep. Paul certified vouchers for expenses for which he was otherwise reimbursed, he may have made a false statement.
False Claims
Federal law prohibits anyone from knowingly presenting a false, fictitious or fraudulent claim to any person or officer in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, or any department or agency thereof. According to the House Ethics Manual, fraudulently submitting vouchers to be disbursed from the members’ representational allowance may violate this statute. If Rep. Paul knowingly presented a false claim to a disbursing officer for an expense for which he was otherwise reimbursed, he may have made a false claim against the United States.
Conduct Not Reflecting Creditably on the House
House Rule 23 requires all members of the House to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.” This ethics standard is considered to be “the most comprehensive provision” of the code. When this section was first adopted, the Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the 90th Congress noted it was included within the Code to deal with “flagrant” violations of the law that reflect on “Congress as a whole,” and that might otherwise go unpunished. This rule has been relied on by the committee in numerous prior cases in which the committee found unethical conduct including: the failure to report campaign contributions, making false statements to the committee, criminal convictions for bribery,or accepting illegal gratuities, and accepting gifts from persons with interest in legislation in violation of the gift rule. If Rep. Paul was reimbursed with taxpayer funds for expenses for which he already had been reimbursed by others, he engaged in conduct that does not reflect creditably on the House.
