Life just got a little worse still for GOP Princess Lauren Boebert, after the New York Times dropped a bombshell report, revealing that the controversial Colorado Republican House Rep. is now under investigation by state officials over evidence that seems to show that the gun-loving congresswoman “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.”
Left-leaning circles have heavily scrutinized the ultra Right-wing legislator on the topic since the allegations were first reported on by The Denver Post back in February of 2021, citing allegations that Boebert had cashed two checks from her election campaign, totaling $22,259, that were allegedly for mileage reimbursement. The Times notes that this monetary figure would be representative of about 38,712 miles — a ginormous leap from the 24,901-mile circumference of the literal planet.
The scandal gained new traction after the very same group that was responsible for leaking the unflattering information and infamous nudes of now-former GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn, which ultimately led to the controversial lawmaker’s recent election demise, brought the ordeal to the attention of the Colorado attorney general’s office. The state’s AG office has since referred it for an interagency examination. The group recently promised that Boebert would be their next target, after successfully taking Madison Cawthorn down.
The deputy Colorado attorney general for criminal justice, Janet Drake, spoke with one of the founders of the American Muckrakers PAC, David B. Wheeler, this week and confirmed that her department will be working closely with the state’s Department of Revenue and Department of Labor and Employment “to investigate the issue.”
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Spokesman for the Colorado attorney general, Lawrence Pacheco, also confirmed that the apparent scandal has officially been forwarded to an interagency group “to evaluate the allegations and whether legal actions are justified.” He stated that Democratic Attorney General Philip J. Weiser has no further comment on the matter.
Boebert’s aides have spoken out, claiming that the lawmaker has accounted for all of the excessive mileage she logged. The Times reports, “The campaign did have to revise the initial total under scrutiny, but that was because other reimbursable travel expenses, such as hotel costs, had been combined with mileage.”
“And, they said, she paid off the tax liens before the reimbursements reached her bank account.”
The Times notes that investigations like this tend to be notoriously slow-moving, but Boebert should more likely be concerned over the attention she’s getting from Muckrakers PAC, whose president, David Wheeler, said, “Colorado deserves more than an irresponsible, loudmouth member of Congress. Maybe it’s time for Boebert to look for another line of work.”
The Times reports, “At the core of the inquiry are eight tax liens from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment totaling $20,000 and filed against Ms. Boebert from August 2016 to February 2020 for failure to pay unemployment premiums on her business, Shooters Grill.”
“In late 2020, Ms. Boebert reimbursed herself for mileage from the 2020 campaign and paid off the liens,” the report adds.
The Muchrackers’ PAC wrote in their complaint to the attorney general, “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.”
“This is not an attack on Lauren Boebert,” Mr. Wheeler stated. “Had Representative Boebert paid her restaurant staff properly and also paid the unemployment premiums to the State of Colorado, an investigation never would have been necessary.”
You can read the full report from the Times here.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
