Outgoing Rep. Carolyn Maloney under investigation for soliciting 2016 Met Gala tickets before she gave up her seat
Carolyn Maloney, who became Congresswoman from Long Island, is under investigation for soliciting tickets to the Met Gala in 2016, just before she stepped down from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in order to return to her seat in the Long Island district, according to Politico.
“This has never come to my attention,” Maloney, 63, told Politico about her decision to give up her committee posts in order to return to Congress.
According to Politico, Maloney has received “informal guidance from two people who worked for the committee in an earlier period.” The New York Daily News reports that Maloney “has been summoned to appear at the House Oversight Committee to testify about her 2016 requests.”
Maloney, who received a special election victory in November, is also under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for fundraising from the state of New York during the 2016 race. Politico writes:
The ethics complaint was filed after Politico reported earlier this month that Maloney, 63, had solicited party tickets to the Met Gala through her personal fundraiser, which raised several hundred dollars from New York State Republican Party.
Maloney also failed to file a campaign finance disclosure form when she was running for Congress in November 2014 and was then forced to resign from her committee posts because of a federal law that bars members from giving or accepting gifts from a state’s central political party for a one-year period, POLITICO reports.
After Politico reported that Maloney has received in-kind support from the Republican Party, the New York state GOP called for Maloney to return to the House Ethics Committee because the committee does not consider whether members have committed any ethical violations, Politico reports.
Maloney defended herself in a November 2016 interview with the Daily News, writing that the Met Gala ticket request was “within the boundaries” of her duties.
“The rules of the House ethics committee have always been to take the complaint seriously and investigate it,” she said. “If that means I don’t want to return because that’s the rule, then that’s what happens. I don’t want to come back to Congress on the basis of a complaint that’s never been raised.”