[image: Sheldon Whitehouse, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas]
Legal experts are pointing out what they say is hypocrisy as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., faces an ethics complaint over a potential conflict of interest <www.foxnews.com/politics/ethics-watchdog-flags-senator-helping-make-millions-wifes-green-nonprofit> that resulted in millions of dollars in federal grants for a nonprofit associated with his wife.
“Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse <www.foxnews.com/video/6369101245112>, who has made his political career accusing others of dark money corruption, appears to be throwing stones in his glass house,” said Mike Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to former Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
“This is the height of hypocrisy,” Brett Tolman, former U.S. attorney and executive director of Right On Crime, told Fox News Digital. “Sen Whitehouse is a former US attorney and the self-proclaimed watchdog of dark money.”
Whitehouse spokesperson Stephen DeLeo told Fox News Digital in a statement, “The ‘legal experts’ at Fox News should review the bipartisan dismissal issued by the Senate Ethics Committee the last time a dark-money group attempted these same kinds of smears.”
Whitehouse voted for legislation that ultimately provided millions of dollars in funding for grants to environmental nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy, which works with his wife, Sandra Whitehouse, and pays her through a consulting firm.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), an ethics watchdog, wrote to Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chair James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chair Chris Coons, D-Del., this week, asking them to investigate Whitehouse “to determine whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest.” The group works primarily to draw attention to potential Democrat lawmaker ethics violations.
“This is not just a careless ethical lapse in judgment,” Tolman added. “This is corruption, Washington, D.C., style. This is literally what many public officials have been prosecuted for by DOJ (Department of Justice). I’m aware of multiple cases DOJ is pursuing right now with less egregious facts.”
Thomas Jipping, senior legal fellow with the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital the Ethics Committee should investigate the allegation against Whitehouse.
Legal experts are pointing out what they say is hypocrisy as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., faces an ethics complaint over a potential conflict of interest <www.foxnews.com/politics/ethics-watchdog-flags-senator-helping-make-millions-wifes-green-nonprofit> that resulted in millions of dollars in federal grants for a nonprofit associated with his wife.
“Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse <www.foxnews.com/video/6369101245112>, who has made his political career accusing others of dark money corruption, appears to be throwing stones in his glass house,” said Mike Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to former Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
“This is the height of hypocrisy,” Brett Tolman, former U.S. attorney and executive director of Right On Crime, told Fox News Digital. “Sen Whitehouse is a former US attorney and the self-proclaimed watchdog of dark money.”
Whitehouse spokesperson Stephen DeLeo told Fox News Digital in a statement, “The ‘legal experts’ at Fox News should review the bipartisan dismissal issued by the Senate Ethics Committee the last time a dark-money group attempted these same kinds of smears.”
Whitehouse voted for legislation that ultimately provided millions of dollars in funding for grants to environmental nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy, which works with his wife, Sandra Whitehouse, and pays her through a consulting firm.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), an ethics watchdog, wrote to Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chair James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chair Chris Coons, D-Del., this week, asking them to investigate Whitehouse “to determine whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest.” The group works primarily to draw attention to potential Democrat lawmaker ethics violations.
“This is not just a careless ethical lapse in judgment,” Tolman added. “This is corruption, Washington, D.C., style. This is literally what many public officials have been prosecuted for by DOJ (Department of Justice). I’m aware of multiple cases DOJ is pursuing right now with less egregious facts.”
Thomas Jipping, senior legal fellow with the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital the Ethics Committee should investigate the allegation against Whitehouse.