In the wake of Rep. Adam Schiff and the House Intelligence Committee’s two-week round of live witness testimony in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump , ranking GOP member Rep. Devin Nunes is facing a new hurdle after an official ethics complaint was filed against him over his possible involvement in the Ukraine ordeal.
According to The Hill , a liberal group known as The Democratic Coalition filed the complaint against the Republican lawmaker with the independent Office of Congressional Ethics — a body that has the power to formally recommend investigations against congressmen to the House Ethics Committee.
The group alleged that Nunes, who was very much a part of the live testimony phase of the impeachment investigation, previously met with a Ukrainian government official about opening an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden while on a business trip in Ukraine.
“Rep. Nunes is currently engaged in overseeing an investigation which it appears he is a fact witness, and which may examine his own activities meeting with foreign officials,” the complaint stated.
The group argues that because he may have mixed political ambition with normal U.S. government business while overseas, that a conflict of interest exists by him being involved in the impeachment investigation process.
And The Democratic Coalition isn’t the only entity on the left making such allegation. California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier, who is also a member of the House Intel Committee, suggested recently on MSNBC that her colleague might be subject to official investigation to determine if funds used for the trip were for official business or political gain for Trump.
“I think there certainly is a potential — if it’s true — a potential ethics inquiry that needs to take place. If he was on a political errand for the president, that was using taxpayer funds inappropriately, and he should be investigated by the Ethics Committee, and he should be forced to repay the Treasury the money that was spent for what was a purely political activity.”
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith echoed the suggestion during an interview on MSNBC when asked if an investigation will be opened into his Republican colleague. “Quite likely, without question,” Smith said.
BREAKING: Here’s the text of The Democratic Coalition’s House Ethics complaint against Rep. Devin Nunes for abusing his office and failing to recuse from the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry. #DevinNunesGotCaught pic.twitter.com/yUGsSZhlMJ
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 23, 2019
Schiff, who has emerged as the face of the Democrats’ attempt to impeach the president, stayed mostly silent on the subject, though he indicated that it could be a question of ethics when he was questioned about it on Sunday during CNN’s State of the Union .
As The Hill reported, the odds of an official House Ethics Committee probe into Nunes’ Ukraine trip are slim, given that the committee has an equal number of Democrats and Republicans and would require bipartisan support to move forward with it.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , Nunes attacked Democrats’ accusations that he arranged meetings with Ukrainian officials to investigate the Bidens as “fake news” during a recent appearance on Fox News.
