Watchdog tells FEC Mike Johnson used campaign funds to rent from GOP lawmaker Darrell Issa

Watchdog says Mike Johnson used campaign funds to rent from GOP lawmaker​

In a complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission, the watchdog group argues the House speaker dipped into cash restricted for campaign use to pay for a D.C. home he rents from California Representative Darrell Issa.

Johnson reportedly moved to Issa’s residence in March, following a ProPublica report that revealed he had been living in Washington with Steve Berger, an evangelical pastor, in a multimillion-dollar townhouse on Capitol Hill owned by a wealthy Republican donor.

The watchdog group, in its FEC complaint filed Wednesday, pointed to five $2,500 disbursements from Johnson’s campaign account since March, which were titled “rent” and totaled a little over $12,000. The funds were directed to a company called Greene Properties, located in Vista, California, and owned by California Representative Darrell Issa, according to the Republican lawmaker’s financial disclosure documents.

“It is against the law for a campaign to pay for the personal rent of a candidate,” Kedric Payne, vice president and general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, told Courthouse News in an interview. “In this situation, we see that the speaker has acknowledged that he is renting personal space from Darrell Issa, and then we see the campaign paid Darrell Issa’s company for rent. You put all those together, and it looks like the campaign is breaking the law.”