By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org, Special to SouthFloridaReporter.com, Dec. 21, 2015 – A national watchdog group is claiming U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio may have broken U.S. congressional ethics rules by allegedly using funds from a political action committee to pay a writer who helped pen the Miami Republican presidential candidate’s 2012 memoir, An American Son.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, wants the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics to investigate whether Rubio converted campaign funds to personal use, which is a violation of Senate rules, according to a Dec. 17 letter the group’s executive director Noah Bookbinder sent committee chairman Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and vice-chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Between May 14 and October 3, 2012, the Rubio-affiliated Reclaim America paid a total of $20,000 to book author Mark Salter for “strategic consulting,” according to a 2012 quarterly campaign finance report filed by the PAC. However, Bookbinder’s letter claims that the payments to Salter came around the same time he was helping Rubio organize and revise the memoir, for which the senator received an $800,000 advance.
