This summer reporters at MinnPost and MNReformer revealed that our first district congressman was blowing through his taxpayer funded congressional office funds, over forty percent of his annual funds were spent in only the first quarter, mostly on mailings. This is multiples more than MN-01’s previous rep. Tim Walz, and any current U.S. Representative. Initial reports said 100K was spent on a Texas company co-owned by a staff member and 300K spent on a Texas LLC with unknown ownership that Hagedorn refused to answer questions about. Claims by Hagedorn that he was unfamiliar with details and quantity of spending were debunked by a Mpls Star and Tribune article: they received emails from a former Hagedorn staffer. In August, Hagedorn hired former Rep. Duncan Hunter’s lawyer, Elliott Berke to review his office situation, and his letter is out: kttc.com/…
The letter by Berke stated Hagedorn is a saint and that Hagedorn’s opponent, Dan Feehan, will unfairly use this against him. The main news in the letter is that the 300k spent on the LLC in Texas was likely owned by the brother of Hagedorn’s Chief of Staff, Peter Su, who had been fired this summer, though the staff member that co-owned the company that 100K was spent on, Sample, is still employed by Hagedorn. House ethics rules state that office money should not be spent on family or staff members companies, but Sample is still on staff and if company is a LLC, no rules seem to apply. What’s going on here?
Links:
minnesotareformer.com/...
.kttc.com/...
kttc.com/…
minnesotareformer.com/..