FIRST ON FOX: The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), a conservative-leaning ethics watchdog, released a year-end round up of 2024's worst ethics violations committed by public officials that the group investigated this year.
The theme for this year's report was ethics violations tied to efforts to win elected office. The violations ranged from failures to disclose financial information and violations of federal contribution limits, to "blatant" Hatch Act violations and officials seemingly using campaign funds for their own personal pleasure.
FACT is a nonprofit based in the nation's capital that was formed in 2014, and describes itself as "dedicated to promoting accountability, ethics, and transparency in government and civic arenas." At the end of each year, the watchdog unveils its top ten worst violators.
"It is important to note the alarming detail that there is not one particular ethics rule implicated among them, rather they cover a wide variety of fronts, including the laws enforced by the Office of Special Counsel, the Federal Election Commission, and the Office of Congressional Ethics," the 2024 report states. "It’s clear these top violators too often prioritize themselves over serving their constituents."
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One of the examples FACT cited involved Wisconsin Democratic member of Congress, Gwen Moore, whose political action committee under her control spent 94.8% of its funds on things like food and travel, such as catering, food delivery, restaurants, hotels, a resort in California's wine country and alcohol, according to the report.
The report said that Moore's leadership PAC spent almost eight-times more on this than it did on its required purpose of supporting candidates.
Moore ultimately beat her GOP challenger in November by a wide margin, keeping her in control of the Milwaukee-area congressional district. The congresswoman's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Two other violations from the report included Hatch Act violations. The Hatch Act is aimed at ensuring that the government functions in a nonpartisan manner and bars certain public officials from engaging in political activities while they are on duty.
FACT's report charged President Joe Biden's Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Xavier Becerra, with sending "a blatant political email," two months before November's election, which was described in a media report at the time as "a sales pitch for Kamala Harris."
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The official email from HHS was sent to people who signed up to receive updates on the government's Medicare program, which means it could have reached up to 67.5 million recipients, according to FACT. While the email did not directly say "vote for Harris," it lauded Harris for casting a tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, noting that the move from Harris served to lower healthcare costs.
HHS did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Other ethics violations included in FACT's round-up were several instances of misused or misrepresented campaign funds.
The report highlighted outgoing Maryland Democratic Rep. David Trone, who earned backlash during this year's election cycle for allegedly funding his campaign with money earned through his Total Wine empire despite claiming he had stepped away from his family's wine business after being elected to Congress in 2018. Trone, who left the House to run for Maryland's open Senate seat this year – losing in the primary – failed to disclose his interest in numerous Total Wine franchises in the lead up to the election, the report alleged.
Representatives for Trone did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The report also claims that Rep.-elect Eugene Vindman, who recently took over Virginia's seventh congressional district with a win last month, received campaign contributions significantly exceeding those allowed under federal law. VoteVets PAC, a political action committee supporting left-leaning veterans running for Congress, was reportedly engaging in illegal campaign work for Vindman's campaign by acting as their press liaison.
Vindman's campaign manager did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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Together, all of these examples and more lay out what FACT's Executive Director Kendra Arnold called "a preview" of what elected officials are like when nobody is looking.
"We uncover and file complaints on all types of ethics violations, but this year the ones committed in the campaign stage unfortunately stood out," Arnold told Fox News Digital. "Of all the types of violations it could easily be argued that those committed to get into office are among the very worst."
