The campaign video Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) released to announce his 2024 Senate campaign became the subject of an ethics complaint within a single day.
In the ad, Schiff featured a variety of news clips from his time in office, including floor footage from his involvement in the February 2020 Senate impeachment trial against then-President Donald Trump.
Following the release of Schiff’s campaign video, FACT sent a complaint to the House Ethics Committee, asking it to “immediately investigate whether Representative Adam Schiff abused official resources for political purposes.”
FACT said the portion of Schiff’s campaign video that included the floor footage constitutes official resources.
“'Official resources’ includes anything funded by taxpayers, such as a Member’s official website, social media accounts, and photographs and video from the House or Senate floor,” the complaint states.
The nonprofit group argued the ethics rules are in place to both protect taxpayer-funded resources from being abused as well as ensure the integrity of official proceedings, “reducing the incentive for Members to make political speeches during official proceedings.”
Schiff’s campaign video showed a portion of the House floor footage that was republished by NBC News.
Politico reporter Anthony Adragna questioned whether the campaign video’s use of floor footage would be in violation of House rules. CQ and Roll Call chief correspondent Niels Lesniewski shared his assessment that because Schiff was speaking on the floor of the Senate and because he was sharing floor footage that was republished by NBC News, he had a “workaround” that “could be okay.”
A spokesperson for Schiff’s campaign shared a similar assessment that using Senate floor footage was acceptable.
By contrast, FACT argued that no such workaround exists.
“Simply put, under the House ethics rules, a Member is prohibited from using either House or Senate photographs or video because both are official government resources. This includes any photograph or video footage of floor proceedings even if it was reposted from a third party source, i.e. another website or news organization,” the FACT complaint states.
NTD News reached out to Schiff’s campaign for comment, but did not receive a response before publication.