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Carper Hit With Ethics Complaint Over Clinton Endorsement

Carper endorsed Clinton after Joe Biden announced he would not run for president. (Al Drago/CQ Roll Call)
Carper endorsed Clinton after Joe Biden announced he would not run for president. (Al Drago/CQ Roll Call)

Endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton for president has landed Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del., in the crosshairs of a conservative watchdog group.  

A complaint filed Wednesday with the Senate Ethics Committee pertains not to whom Carper endorsed on Oct. 26 , but how he did it. Alleging a misuse of taxpayer-funded resources, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust has asked Ethics Chairman Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and ranking member Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to investigate the senator for posting his Clinton endorsement as a press release on his official “senate.gov” Web page.  

Screen Shot 2015-10-26 at 2.13.34 PM
Screenshot of the Oct. 26 press release. (Hannah Hess/CQ Roll Call)

“Not only did Senator Carper [publicly] use an official Senate website to issue a political press release, but staff resources were presumably used as well,” states the three-page complaint.  

The endorsement was later scrubbed from Carper’s website.  

Informed of the ethics questions, Carper said using his official website was an error, telling CQ Roll Call it was supposed to go to his campaign website.  

“We actually talked about it,” Carper said. “It was clear that that was not supposed to happen.”  

Niels Lesniewski contributed to this report.

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