(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) A senior staffer in the office of Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., has been accused of illegally profiting from his position to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to a report from the Daily Caller.
Robert Gottheim, who is paid around $140,000 in his capacity as district director of Nadler’s office, received more than $80,000 between 2019 and 2021 for legal services in violation of House ethics rules.
“House ethics rules make this simple prohibition abundantly clear: senior staffers cannot be paid to be campaign attorneys,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, which filed the ethics complaint. “But Nadler’s team has done exactly that.”
A campaign spokesman for Nadler told Fox News Gottheim was “not a lawyer,” but rather a “campaign adviser” whose pay was categorized as “legal” due to campaign-finance filing conventions.
“He’s a campaign advisor, which doesn’t have any fiduciary responsibility,” the spokesperson said. “When the campaign files the quarterly reports the treasurer must choose a category to list his expenditures, so they chose ‘legal & strategic advising.'”
Sutherland rejected Nadler’s defense.
“It’s laughable for Nadler’s campaign to say his District Director is only a mere ‘campaign advisor,’ when government forms show he’s been paid dozens of times for providing legal consulting to the campaign,” she said. “We’re unsure why they think they’re above the law.”
News of corruption within Nadler’s office comes as the 15-term congressman and current chair of the House Judiciary Committee faces a primary challenge from House Oversight Committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney.
The two powerful Democrats been forced to compete in New York’s newly-redrawn 12th district (in which, incidentally Trump Tower is located).
Former President Donald Trump last week issued a statement making light of the situation while endorsing Maloney—to whom he had previously contributed campagin funds, he admitted.
Formerly Nadler’s ally in the House, Maloney has privately told supporters that the 75-year-old Nadler is “half-dead,” according to CNN.
Maloney, 76, did not explain, however, why a spring chicken like Nadler couldn’t be elected in a Democratic party run by a 79-year-old president and an 82-year-old speaker of the House.
