Senate Democrats File Ethics Complaint Against Sens. Cruz and Hawley
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Seven Senate Democrats filed an ethics complaint on Thursday against Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) calling for a formal probe into how the two senators’ objections to the Electoral College certification may have played a role in inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The complaint reads in part: “The Senate has the exclusive power to determine whether these actions violated its ethics rules, to investigate further conduct of which we may not be aware that may have violated these rules, and to consider appropriate discipline. The question the Senate must answer is not whether Senators Hawley and Cruz had the right to the object to the electors, but whether the senators failed to ‘[p]ut loyalty to the highest moral principles and to country above loyalty to persons, party, or Government department’ or engaged in ‘improper conduct reflecting on the Senate’ in connection with the violence on January 6. The Senate Ethics Committee should investigate their conduct to fully understand their role. The actions of which we know demand an investigation and a determination whether disciplinary action is warranted. Until then, a cloud of uncertainty will hang over them and over this body.”