PRESS RELEASE Contact: press@congressionalintegrity.org
For Immediate Release
Date: March 17, 2023
Washington, DC – A story released yesterday revealed that Trump allies organized a bootcamp to train House GOP Congressional staff on aggressively attacking President Biden. This is just another step in their plan to hurt President Biden and Democrats in order to try to get the MAGA Republican leader Donald Trump re-elected and to further their extreme agenda. In response, Congressional Integrity Project Executive Director, Kyle Herrig, issued the following statement:
“CPI says they’re in DC to drain the swamp, but from here it looks more like a hostile takeover. The same people who worked to overturn the 2020 election now want to push more conspiracy-laden investigations on Capitol Hill and quiet the voices of hardworking, ordinary Americans.”
POLITICO: Trump-allied group trained congressional staff on how to go after Biden
By Heidi Przybyla // March 16, 2023
- “A group closely aligned with former President Donald Trump helped organize a ‘bootcamp’ for GOP congressional staff this past February, training them on how to conduct aggressive oversight of the Biden administration, according to new disclosure forms filed with the U.S. House clerk’s office. The sponsor, the Conservative Partnership Institute, counts Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows among its leaders and has been described as the ‘nerve center’ for the MAGA movement and MAGA-aligned lawmakers. It was one of three organizations to host the gathering.”
- “‘I’m not aware of any other group that has held trainings so consistently and for such a wide range of staffers,’ said Brendan Fischer, deputy executive director at Documented, a nonpartisan investigative watchdog which tracks such trainings. ‘It really demonstrates how CPI is creating and nourishing the next generation of far-right politicos.’”
- “Invitees included, among others,15 staffers to Republican lawmakers who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Lance Gooden of Texas. The staff, mostly legislative assistants, were invited ‘because their official duties include assisting with oversight matters’ on a range of congressional committees, according to a disclosure form filed by one of the other three hosts, the American Accountability Foundation. The group is a nonprofit opposition research firm formed in 2021 that’s used ‘unorthodox’ and ‘controversial’ tactics to block the Biden agenda, according to Fox News.”
- “‘CPI says they’re in DC to drain the swamp, but from here it looks more like a hostile takeover,’ said Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, which is serving as a hub for Democrats responding to GOP investigations. ‘The same people who worked to overturn the 2020 election now want to push more conspiracy-laden investigations on Capitol Hill and quiet the voices of hardworking, ordinary Americans,’ he said.”
- “Such training sessions are permissible under congressional ethics rules unless registered lobbyists are driving the sessions, said Richard Painter, a former ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration. ‘Even if it’s technically legal, it’s very unseemly,’ he said of ‘outside partisan groups hauling staff over to a resort with only Republicans in the room and coaching them on how to get more aggressive.’ ‘It really undermines the integrity of any investigations,’ said Painter.”
- “Located blocks from the U.S. Capitol, CPI ‘is creating the MAGA-oriented political infrastructure that the Trump administration lacked,’ according to Documented. Among its core programs, according to its most recent annual report, is ‘recommending solid conservative candidates for staff positions.’ CPI claimed to be the ‘go-to organization’ offering ‘ideological vetting’ and staffing for congressional offices.”
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