Johnson cleared of wrongdoing for flights
Tax dollars used to buy tickets to home in Fla.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson has been cleared of any wrongdoing for using taxpayer dollars to cover the cost of flights between a Florida family vacation home and Washington, D.C.
“Based on all available information, the Committee found no evidence that your actions violated federal law, Senate Rules or standards of conduct,” Shannon Hamilton Kopplin, staff director of the Senate Ethics Committee, wrote in a June 23 letter. “Accordingly, the Committee has dismissed the complaint.”
Last month, a Democratic activist, working with the state Democratic Party, filed a complaint against Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, with committee Chairman Chris Coons, D-Delaware, and Vice-Chairman James Lankford, R-Oklahoma.
The complaint said senators may use government funds to pay for official business, but it contended Johnson has “flouted this rule” by repeatedly using official funds to subsidize personal travel.
Johnson officials, however, rejected the criticism, saying the flights from Florida to Washington were legitimate expenses that were all approved by auditors and the Senate Rules Committee.
In a statement, a Johnson official said the senator was pleased with the ethics committee’s decision.
“The senator was confident that this frivolous complaint would be dismissed because he has done absolutely nothing wrong and, in fact, has been a faithful steward of taxpayer dollars,” Johnson spokeswoman Alexa Henning said. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
“This was another failed attempt by the Democrats and their allies in the media to smear him with falsehoods.”
Philip Shulman, a state Democratic Party official, kept up his criticism of the second-term senator, even though the complaint had been rejected.
“The facts are simple,” Shulman said. “Ron Johnson, a multimillionaire who has doubled his fortune since joining the Senate, used taxpayer money to travel to and from his family’s vacation home in Florida — not