The Colorado Attorney General’s office has taken up an investigation into allegations that Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (Q-Colo.) used falsified campaign expenses to funnel more than $30,000 to herself so that she could pay off outstanding tax bills for her failing Rifle restaurant, the New York Times reports.
First reported by the Denver Post last year, the self-described patriot reportedly filed two expense reports claiming that she drove nearly 39,000 miles during her 2020 Congressional campaign, roughly the distance of one and a half trips about Earth’s equator. She received two checks totaling $22,259 based on those expense reports.
Curiously, Boebert had eight outstanding tax liens against her “peach tree dish” of food poisoning, Shooters Grill, totaling around $20,000, which were cleared around the time she cashed those checks. The tax liens were for failure to pay unemployment taxes on her payroll from August 2016 to February 2020; former employees have said bookkeeping practices at the restaurant were lax and Boebert would often hand employees cash instead of paychecks with mandatory deductions.
For her part, Boebert, of course, denies the claim, saying that the liens were paid off before she deposited the check; however, it’s feasible that Boebert paid off the liens because she knew the money was going to be replenished by the campaign reimbursement. After the story was broken by the Denver Post, Boebert amended her expense report to state that it was also for hotel rooms and food, but $17,280 was designated as a mileage reimbursement.
The complaint was brought by American Muckrackers PAC, a Republican-led group whose initial target, Republican bro Madison Cawthorn, lost his primary bid for reelection to his North Carolina Congressional seat. Boebert’s primary is scheduled for June 28th.