The Palazzo Record

Ethics Report

Full Ethics Report Here (See page 18 for “River House”)

News:

Ethics report: ‘Substantial’ evidence of Rep. Palazzo wrongdoing

A congressional ethics report made public this week claims that U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo misspent campaign and congressional funds, and says it found evidence he used his office to help his brother and used staff for personal errands and services.

Allegations have previously been reported that Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his erstwhile wife nearly $200,000 through companies they own — including thousands to cover the mortgage, maintenance and upgrades to a riverfront home Palazzo owned and wanted to sell. A Mississippi Today report also questioned thousands in Palazzo campaign spending on swanky restaurants, sporting events, resort hotels, golfing and gifts.

The newly released report says it found “substantial” evidence that Palazzo used his position and office to help his brother, Kyle Palazzo. Kyle Palazzo, the report said, was prohibited from re-enlisting in the Navy for “affecting a fraudulent enlistment.” The report said Rep. Palazzo may have used his official office and resources to contact the assistant secretary of the Navy to help his brother’s efforts to re-enlist.

The report also questions Palazzo’s campaign paying his brother nearly $24,000 over 10 months as a “political coordinator” and letting Kyle Palazzo use the campaign’s credit card for food, gas, hotel rooms and other goods and services.

The report also says OCE found evidence that Palazzo used congressional staffers for personal errands and campaign work. It said that former staffers it interviewed “portrayed a district office that failed to separate official work from campaign and personal activities,” including shopping for his kids. For instance, one unidentified staffer said she and another spent an entire workday looking for iron-on clothing labels for Palazzo’s children’s clothes before they departed for summer camp. In 2011, during his first term in office, Palazzo faced allegations that he and his wife used congressional staffers for babysitting, chauffeuring kids around and moving.

Rep. Steven Palazzo ethics investigation: Is the congressman’s campaign account a slush fund?

In all, Palazzo has spent more than $115,600 on meals since he took office in 2010 — an average of $11,560 a year — not counting the nearly $188,000 he spent catering events and booking venues for his campaign.

Palazzo has also spent tens of thousands of dollars on hotel rooms in D.C., Mississippi and beachside Florida resorts, entertainment and golfing — including a $3,100 golf cart. The campaign also has spent nearly $42,000 on “gifts.”

The Campaign Legal Center said Palazzo, who makes $174,000 a year as a congressman, appears to be using his campaign account as a “personal slush fund.”

The campaign did not specify what campaign events or strategy sessions were held at a Hooters in Mississippi. Campaign records indicate expenditures of $57.41, $63.65, $89.78 and $394.63 for meals at Hooters, among more than 550 meals listed in the campaign account.

One is for more than $3,655 at the Capitol Hill Club. Others include $461 at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and $533 at Beau Rivage Prime casino restaurant.

Nearly $42,000 in “gifts.” These gifts include thousands of dollars worth of liquor and wine and purchases from a tactical clothing outfitter, a cowboy boot store and university campus stores. The campaign said these are “memorabilia for fundraising events, items given to silent auction events for local political party groups, etc.”

More than $12,700 on sporting events in the Washington, D.C. area. This includes about $2,000 on “fundraising expenses” at Washington Nationals baseball games, and more than $10,600 with Washington Suite Life, which offers suites at sporting and other events. Palazzo’s campaign said these expenses were for “tickets to the Nationals game for the fundraising event.”

More than $53,000 on golf-related expenses. This includes more than $3,100 for a golf cart for campaign events and thousands of dollars for golf balls, hats and tees with his logo on them. The campaign has for years held a golf tournament fundraiser at the Preserve Golf Club on the Coast.

Nearly $7,500 for “trailers.” The campaign has made five expenditures over several years for trailers, including one in 2018 for nearly $2,200 to MCPAL Company for an “enclosed trailer.” Secretary of State filings show Palazzo’s mother is president of MCPAL Company. Palazzo’s campaign said the MCPAL payment “was a reimbursement for a borrowed trailer that was stolen during the campaign.” The statement said, “As of now the campaign has one covered trailer and one flatbed trailer.”

Ethics report details questionable spending, decisions by Rep. Palazzo

Palazzo acquired a four-bedroom house in D’Iberville, Miss., known as the “River House,” from his parents in 2017. An email from a real estate agent involved in the process describes the property transfer to the congressman: “[Rep. Palazzo] is closing on the house (purchase from parents) this Friday … allegedly his plan [is] to make the currently required repairs and then put it back on the market and get it off his hands.”

After Palazzo obtained the River House, he spent more than $82,000 in campaign funds on it, the OCE report shows. Expenses included utilities, plumbing, landscaping, house cleaning, heating and air conditioning, pest control and a security system. Of the total, $60,000 went to rent paid to Greene Acres of MS, LLC, of which Palazzo is the sole owner. In effect, the Palazzo campaign was paying rent to Palazzo himself.

In February 2018, after Palazzo had expressed to his real estate agent that he was having difficulty selling the River House property and that it was a potential financial burden, Palazzo’s campaign committee agreed to rent the River House for $3,000 a month from Palazzo to serve as its campaign headquarters.

Rep. Steven Palazzo’s campaign spending probed by congressional ethics office

The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo’s campaign spending, after a watchdog group in March filed a complaint questioning whether he was using campaign contributions as a “personal slush fund.”

The Campaign Legal Center in late March requested OCE investigate whether Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his erstwhile spouse nearly $200,000.

The CLC’s complaint said Palazzo’s campaign committee paid a total of $60,000, in monthly payments of $3,000, for rent at a property called Greene Acres MS that Palazzo owns in Perkinston.

The complaint said, “there was no bona fide campaign purpose for renting Representative Palazzo’s farm for more than a year.”

The complaint also questioned Palazzo’s campaign paying nearly $128,000 to his now former wife’s accounting firm, while it paid another accounting firm “for apparently the same services,”

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