Troy Nehls is under a House ethics investigation for alleged misuse of campaign funds

The Office of Congressional Ethics voted unanimously to continue an investigation into Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) after finding “probable cause” that the Texas Republican may have converted his campaign funds for personal use and failed to do so to disclose required information in annual financial reports.

The OCE released the results of its ethics investigation on Friday. It detailed allegations that Nehls failed to disclose information in his House financial statements, in violation of House rules, standards of conduct and federal law. The report comes after the House Ethics Committee agreed to open an investigation into whether campaign committee payments were made for campaign purposes.

“Rep. “Nehls’ campaign committee, Nehls for Congress, reported campaign expenditures that may not have been legitimate and verifiable campaign expenditures that appeared to be for bona fide campaign or political purposes,” the report said. “The Board recommends that the Committee further investigate the above allegation regarding Representative Nehls as there is probable cause to believe that he used Campaign Committee funds for personal use.”

The report quoted Nehls’ campaign as saying its location was Freedom Hall in Richmond, Texas. However, the committee noted that a bar or tavern operated by a company called Z-Bar, LP has been located at the address since March 2023. The investigation also found that the site was “converted into an Islamic center and boarding school” sometime between March 2023 and October 2023.

Although the address was listed as campaign headquarters, the committee found that no disbursements were made by the campaign to pay rent to Z-Bar or Freedom Hall.

Instead, financial records show that Nehls’ campaign made rental payments to a company called Liberty 1776 in 2020 and 2022. However, it is unclear what was rented by the campaign or “whether the campaign committee received anything in return for these payments,” and Nehls did not inform the committee about the payments.

However, the report notes that Nehls is the “principal beneficiary of all payments to Liberty 1776” and cites public records showing that the company is a “single-member LLC owned and operated by Nehls’ representative.” operated by him and was founded in 2019”.

“The sporadic nature of the payments, as well as the lack of publicly available information linking Liberty 1776 to campaign headquarters, raise concerns about the personal use of campaign funds,” the report said.

The report also shows that Nehls did not disclose any connection to Liberty 1776 in his annual financial reports, contradicting public records showing that he is an owner of the company. However, the committee said it was unable to verify the information because Nehls refused to cooperate with the investigation, as did several of his staff and campaign members.

As a result, the OCE recommended that the Committee issue subpoenas to Nehls and eight other individuals associated with him to comply with this action.

Nehls defended his decision not to cooperate, arguing that the OCE “was founded under Nancy Pelosi, which is why I refused to cooperate with the office.”

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“My books remain open and I am working with the legitimate House Ethics Committee,” he said in a statement.

The OCE opened the investigation in July 2023, with at least three Ethics Committee members voting to expand the investigation into a second phase review just a month later. The board later voted to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, which considered the matter in March.