The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), an ethics watchdog group sent a complaint to the OCE’s chief counsel that asked for an immediate probe into Adam Schiff
The group on Friday asked the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for using footage from the Senate floor in an ad announcing his run for the Senate & abusing official resources for political purposes” by using the video.
Schiff announced Thursday that he’s running for the Senate in 2024, via a video that was shared on his Twitter account. That video includes footage of Schiff speaking on the Senate floor during impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump.
“This is a clear violation of House ethics rules and federal law,” said Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT. “Rep. Schiff has been in Congress for over two decades and undoubtedly knows that official government resources cannot be used for political purposes.”
Rep. Schiff is asked to immediately take down the video and cease distribution of the footage. “The Office of Congressional Ethics should move swiftly to investigate and sanction Rep. Schiff for this breach.” she added.
Schiff’s campaign countered that the congressman didn’t violate any ethics rules because the video was of him speaking in the Senate rather than from the House floor.
“House ethics rules prohibit the use of House floor or committee footage for campaign purposes — the rules do not apply to footage from the Senate, which is what was used in Congressman Schiff’s video,” a campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “No footage from any House proceeding was used in the video, and Congressman Schiff was fully in compliance with House ethics guidelines.”
However, FACT argues House ethics rules clearly prohibit members from using either House or Senate video or photographs, because both are official government resources. This apparently includes footage or a photo of floor proceedings, even it was reposted from a third-party source, such as a news organization.
“Members may not re-use an image of a floor proceeding published by a third-party, if the member could not use that image in the first instance,” the House Ethics Committee stated in a 2017 report.
The news of Schiff jumping into the California Senate race came two days after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) followed through on his plan to boot Schiff, along with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), from the House Intelligence Committee, which Schiff had chaired for the past four years.