(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) House Democrats tapped into the coffers of their campaign funds to bankroll their overseas trip to El Salvador, where they visited illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 member now federally indicted for human smuggling.
Most of the Democrats falsely claimed they paid for the trip “out of their own pocket.”
In total, Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., and Maxine Dexter, D-Ore. plowed through $7,000 for their April 17 trip, according to Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by the New York Post.
Garcia’s campaign used $1,981.99 for travel on Taca International Airlines, a local Salvadoran carrier. On April 29, he spent another $501.53 for “event space rental” at the five-star Hilton San Salvador, a luxury hotel featuring upscale dining and poolside amenities.
Frost’s campaign donors paid $1,362.49 for a flight on Avianca Airlines and $967.43 on additional travel on Volaris.
Not to be outdone by her colleagues, Ansari had her campaign shell out $2,616.45 in four Avianca Airlines transactions between April 17 and 21, the Post reported.
Meanwhile, Dexter’s FEC filings show $1,315.44 on Taca Airlines on April 18, just one day after the group arrived in El Salvador.
Despite these filings, three Democrats publicly claimed they paid for the trips themselves. This was not the case for Garcia.
An Ansari spokesperson said that she “paid for her own flights and hotel with her own money, and the campaign paid for a campaign volunteer with campaign funds.”
Tellingly, her office previously told a different outlet that she “paid for the trip out of her own pocket.”
A spokesperson for Dexter also said months ago that the trip was self-funded.
Frost’s office told Politico no tax dollars were used, specifically referencing the Members’ Representational Allowance. The MRA is used to cover the expenses of running congressional offices.
Only Garcia had admitted early on that campaign funds were used for the trip.
Separately, Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., spent $291.25 in campaign funds for a separate visit to El Salvador.
The Democratic politicians were in El Salvador to protest the Trump administration’s deportation of Garcia, an illegal alien described by DHS as an MS-13 gang member.
He had been removed from the U.S. amid a legal dispute over a court order staying an earlier deportation order.
He has since been returned to the U.S., only to face a federal indictment on human smuggling.
Following the indictment, Democrats largely distanced themselves from Garcia at the direction of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
