CNN: NY Republican in critical House race spent huge sums of campaign cash on steakhouses, booze, Ubers and a foreign hostel

CNN : "Campaign finance experts who spoke with CNN said that the spending - and how it was reported, often lacking critical details - raised red flags that could lead to an ethics probe."

A new damning report in CNN exposed vulnerable New York Republican Anthony D'Esposito, who is already in a tight race against DCCC Red to Blue candidate Laura Gillen, mired in yet another scandal - this time, over shady usage of campaign funds.

D'Esposito's campaign allegedly spent "tens of thousands of dollars of donor dollars at steakhouses and bars, a foreign hostel and on unaccountable payments to a close aide and friend, according to a review of federal filings." Additionally, D'Esposito's campaign "paid approximately $156,000 in unitemized credit card payments this cycle."

This is Anthony D'Esposito's third scandal in the closing months of running for a tough re-election campaign in New York's Fourth Congressional District.

Just weeks ago, a groundbreaking report in The New York Times exposed that vulnerable New York Republican Anthony D'Esposito gave both his fiancée's daughter and the woman with whom he was having an affair jobs on his congressional payroll, spending nearly $29,000 of Long Island taxpayers' hard-earned money - a potential violation of multiple House ethics rules.

In July, the New York Daily News revealed that despite campaigning on a "tough-on-crime image," D'Esposito faced multiple complaints as a police officer in the NYPD for "reckless" behavior on duty, allegedly "driving while intoxicated and disgracing the uniform."

DCCC Spokesperson Ellie Dougherty:
"Anthony D'Esposito has proven that he's abused every position of power he's ever held. In 11 days, Nassau County voters will reject their shady congressman whose brief tenure has been riddled with multiple disturbing scandals."

CNN: NY Republican in critical House race spent huge sums of campaign cash on steakhouses, booze, Ubers and a foreign hostel
Gregory Krieg and Em Steck | October 25, 2024

KEY POINTS:

• New York Rep. Anthony D'Esposito's campaign spent tens of thousands of donor dollars at steakhouses and bars, a foreign hostel and on unaccountable payments to a close aide and friend, according to a review of federal filings.

• Campaign finance experts who spoke with CNN said that the spending - and how it was reported, often lacking critical details - raised red flags that could lead to an ethics probe. One of the most vulnerable House incumbents, D'Esposito is already facing questions on that front after The New York Times reported last month that he employed both his lover and his longtime fiancée's daughter in his district office. He has denied acting unethically.

• Federal Election Commission filings from the launch of his first campaign in the spring of 2022 through the latest October quarterly filing found that the freshman Republican congressman's campaign spent nearly $102,000 on food and beverage, including roughly $13,400 at steakhouses and approximately $7,700 at bars and $2,000 at liquor stores. On two occasions, the campaign listed recipients simply as "Steak" - without naming a restaurant, grocer or retailer.

• The campaign also spent a little more than $43,000 on Ubers since August 2022. One Uber transaction from July 2024 cost a little more than $12,000.

• D'Esposito campaign spokesman Matt Capp called the five-figure Uber charge "a reporting error of some sort."

• In one eyebrow-raising section of the filings, the campaign spent nearly $600 for a hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Memorial Day this year. Photos posted on the congressman's social media account, however, show D'Esposito marching in a local parade in his South Shore district that weekend.

• The D'Esposito campaign said the vacation expense "was for one House employee who traveled to that destination for both business and non-business purposes."

• But there is no clear connection between much of the D'Esposito campaign's spending at those establishments and official campaign fundraising events.

• "Large expenses for restaurants and other lavish meals certainly do raise questions. At the minimum, you would expect a sitting congressperson to adequately report those. Under no circumstance is it acceptable to put as the payee on a report, 'Steak,'" said Dan Weiner, director of the Brennan Center's Elections and Government Program.

• "That's beneath what you would expect from a sitting office holder," Weiner added, "and is at the very least, unconscionably sloppy."

• According to federal filings, D'Esposito's campaign paid approximately $156,000 in unitemized credit card payments this cycle. The FEC requires all campaigns to itemize disbursements in excess of $200. Campaigns must list the name and address of the vendor, the purpose of the transaction, date the services were received and the payment amount.

• The campaign did not disclose any payments to traditional staff, instead relying on outside consultants to manage his political operation, including campaign strategy, digital spending, compliance and fundraising.

• One exception was Robert Gies, D'Esposito's chief of staff on Capitol Hill. Gies, a longtime friend of D'Esposito, was paid $5,900 for "campaign consulting" at the beginning of July 2024, according to a federal filing.

• The campaign also issued a $7,100 "expense reimbursement" to Gies in February. The filing did not explain what cost or expense it was repaying.

• Asked what Gies was being paid back for, Capp, the spokesman, did not offer a direct answer, saying only that the chief of staff has "been compensated for campaign consulting, outside and independent from his employment with the House of Representatives.