The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics announced yesterday that the Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS), and Ranking Member of the Committee, Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) “have jointly decided to extend the matter regarding Representative Ronny Jackson (R-TX), which was transmitted to the Committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics on March 25, 2024.”
In May 2022, the committee announced that Jackson was the subject of an investigation into whether he used campaign funds for personal use. Jackson has denied wrongdoing.
Jackson’s spokesperson Kate Lair said in a written statement: “Once again, Congressman Jackson has nothing to hide, and he and his team have fully complied with the Ethics Committee since the beginning.” She added: “This is sadly not the first time the leftists at [the Office of Congressional Ethics] have decided to waste taxpayer dollars going after public servants for absolutely nothing.”
(Note: The bipartisan House Ethics Committee — which includes five Republicans and five Democrats — is chaired by Jackson’s fellow Trump supporter, Rep. Guest.)
The former U.S. Navy Rear Admiral (Lower Half), Jackson served the White House as Physician to the President from 2013 to 2018 under Barack Obama and Donald Trump. When nominated by Trump to serve as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2018, the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs interviewed colleagues of Jackson, who “raised serious concerns about [RDML] Jackson’s temperament and ethics and cast doubt on his ability to lead the second largest agency in government.”
The Committee then asked the Defense Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate. The OIG “found that Jackson had engaged in various inappropriate behaviors as an admiral; the following year, the Navy retroactively demoted him to the rank of captain.”
Note: During the OIG investigation, Jackson retired from the U.S. Navy as a Rear Admiral (Lower Half) in 2019.
The House Ethics Committee notes that the recent mandatory disclosure of such an extension regarding Jackson “does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” which will announce its course of action on or before Monday, June 24, 2024.