Yesterday, End Citizens United (ECU) filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Rep. Anthony D’Esposito alleging a series of alarming House ethics violations, including potentially: engaging in sexual relations with a subordinate employee, compensating an employee for work that was not performed, employing a relative, and engaging in conduct that discredits the House of Representatives.
See below for coverage:
Newsday: Democrat-backed PAC files ethics complaint against Anthony D’Esposito
Laura Figueroa Hernandez
10/08/24
Key sections:
- A Democratic-aligned political action committee filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Anthony D’Esposito on Tuesday, calling for an investigation over whether he violated rules governing lawmakers when he hired his fiancee’s daughter and an alleged paramour for taxpayer-funded jobs in his district office.
- The complaint, filed by End Citizens United, a Washington-based political action committee, comes just over two weeks after The New York Times published an article noting D’Esposito, a freshman House Republican from Island Park, hired the two women to work at his Garden City office.
- In the six-page complaint, Tiffany Muller, the president of the organization, urges the nonpartisan office to investigate whether D’Esposito violated House rules barring the employment of relatives when he hired Tessa Lark, the daughter of his longtime fiancee Cynthia Lark, to work in his district office.
- The complaint also contends D’Esposito may have violated House ethics rules governing behavior by allegedly having an affair with a married woman, Devin Faas, and later giving her a part-time job in the district office. The complaint also raises questions as to whether Faas indeed worked for his office given her employment as a secretary with the Town of Hempstead at the time.
- “Representative D’Esposito has turned his office into a playground for corruption and unethical behavior,” Muller said in a statement to Newsday. “We urge the Office of Congressional Ethics to immediately launch an investigation and hold him accountable for these apparent violations.”
Politico Playbook NY: Keeping Up With the Delegation
Emily Ngo
10/09/24
Key sections:
- PAC End Citizens United filed a complaint Tuesday urging a House ethics probe into Long Island Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, who the New York Times first reported had hired both a woman he had dated and his fiancée’s daughter.
- The watchdog group, which has endorsed D’Esposito’s Dem rival Laura Gillen, alleged a violation of the “spirit” of House rules prohibiting members from engaging in sexual relationships with their subordinates and hiring relatives to work in their congressional offices.
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