Lauren Boebert paid rent and utilities with campaign funds, FEC filings show

Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert paid rent and utility bills with campaign funds in violation of federal campaign finance laws, new filings with the Federal Election Commision show.

The filings, submitted to the FEC on Tuesday, also indicate that Boebert reimbursed her campaign for the $6,650 worth of payments. Representatives for the congresswoman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Each of the four payments in question (two for $2,000 each and another two for $1,325 each) were amended to show payments for the same amount, description and on the same days to John Pacheco, whose address is the same as Shooters Grill in Rifle, which Boebert owns. Pacheco’s relationship to Boebert was not immediately clear.

The latest discrepancy appeared in a July campaign finance report for the committee Lauren Boebert for Congress. Payments to Venmo were described as “Personal expense of Lauren Boebert billed to campaign account in error. Expense has been reimbursed.”

The next month, FEC officials asked the campaign for clarification on the error. Boebert spokesman Jake Settle told Forbes that he would describe the payments as “personal expenses.”

If the payments were “personal use of campaign funds, the Commission may consider taking further legal action,” FEC Senior Campaign Finance Analyst Shannon Ringgold wrote in the August letter to Boebert’s campaign. “However, prompt action to obtain reimbursement of the funds in question will be taken into consideration.”

Boebert’s supplemental report filed Tuesday reiterated that the expenses had been reimbursed and will be reported with the campaign’s next, which is due in October.

In February, The Denver Post reported that Boebert was paid more than $22,000 in mileage reimbursements, which would have meant she drove 38,712 miles in 2020 during a stretch of the pandemic where travel was limited.

Boebert’s campaign later filed an amended report to the FEC, claiming the congresswoman received $21,200 in reimbursements for mileage, travel expenses and hotel stays. More than $17,000 of that money still went to mileage reimbursements, the campaign said.

And in August, The Associated Press reported Boebert had not divulged during her campaign that her husband made $478,000 as an oil and gas consultant in 2020. She filed that information with the House of Representatives several months into her first term.