A leader of the Tea Party Patriots filed an ethics complaint Monday against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for “abuse of political power” in his crusade against Republican mega-donors Charles and David Koch.
“It’s been generations since a member of the Senate has abused the power of his office to attack private citizens the way Harry Reid has sought to vilify Charles and David Koch,” said Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin.
Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, has regularly spoke on the Senate floor about the need to rein in spending by the Koch brothers, which he says has undermined the democratic process in America.
Ms. Martin accused Mr. Reid of “abusing his office in pursuit of naked political purposes.”
“Reid’s repeated and mean-spirited attacks violate federal laws and Senate rules against using taxpayer-funded resources for partisan politics and he knows it, yet he repeatedly takes to the floor of the Senate and the media to attack those with whom he disagrees — and then turns around and devotes the Senate floor to a ’talk-a-thon’ on a major donor’s key issue of climate change,” she said.
The major Democratic donor she referred to was California billionaire and environmental activist Tom Steyer, who has pledged to spend $100 million to defeat opponents of liberals’ climate change agenda.
Ms. Martin’s complaint, filed with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, requests that the committee “investigate whether Senator Harry Reid violated Senate rules by unlawfully and unethically targeting private citizens, Charles and David Koch, whose philosophical and political views are in opposition to Senator Reid’s philosophy and to misuse Senate resources to reward Tom Steyer, a mega-donor to Democrats in the Senate.”
She also questions whether Mr. Reid “misused Senate staff or resources to engage in partisan campaign activity in violation of federal law and Senate rules,” according to the complaint.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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