MPs Ronny Jackson and Wesley Hunt investigated over campaign funds for club contributions

The office found that Jackson’s committee, Texans for Ronny Jackson, spent nearly $12,000 between 2020 and 2024 on dues, fees, meals and other expenses related to the Amarillo Club, a dining establishment, gym and meeting space in Amarillo, Texas.

According to the OCE, Hunt’s campaign committee paid more than $5,400 in dues and fees to the Oak Room, a private club in the Post Oak Hotel in Houston, in 2022 and 2023.

In both reports, the office said it had found “substantial reasons to believe” that the members of Congress had used campaign funds from their campaign committees “for personal purposes” or that their committees had “spent funds that were not attributable to genuine campaign or policy purposes.”

The bipartisan House Ethics Committee said in press releases Monday afternoon that it received guidance from the OCE about Jackson and Hunt in late March. The panel, led by Chairman Michael Guest (Republican, Mississippi) and Ranking Member Susan Wild (Democrat, Pennsylvania), jointly decided on May 9 to review the matter.

The press release for Hunt included a lengthy response from the congressman’s lawyers, who denied that campaign funds had been used for personal purposes.

“All payments made by Hunt for Congress to the Post Oak Hotel, including membership in the Post Oak Club, were for campaign-related purposes only and not for personal purposes,” the congressman’s legal counsel wrote in his 12-page response to the OCE report.

Hunt “does not maintain a campaign office” and has concluded that Oak Room membership fees are “a more sensible use of campaign funds” than renting a campaign office in Houston, the lawyers wrote.

A spokesperson for Hunt’s office told CNBC: “We believe we have cooperated fully with the House Ethics Committee and expect the matter to be dismissed soon.”

Jackson’s office did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The Ethics Committee’s press release on Jackson did not include a response from his representatives.

The OCE reports said that if a congressman’s campaign committee spent funds that “were not attributable to a genuine campaign or political purpose,” then that congressman “may have violated House rules, rules of conduct, and federal law.”

The reports said neither Jackson nor Hunt cooperated with the investigation, although Hunt “initially” provided “some limited information.” The OCE recommended that the House Ethics Committee serve subpoenas on both congressmen.

Jackson, who served as White House physician under then-Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump before entering Congress in 2020, was previously accused by the OCE of misusing campaign donations at the Amarillo Club.

In the more than two years since the House Ethics Committee brought these allegations to light, Jackson’s campaign team “has continued to make regular payments to the Amarillo Club,” according to the report released Monday.