Government Watchdog Files Ethics Complaint Against Florida Democrat Over Alleged Abuse Of Official Resources

The complaint was filed by The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) has asked the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate the allegations against Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost over the abuse of government services he has used in his campaign.

The complaint, first obtained by The Daily Wire, said that Frost has used his campaign account on X to publish posts that use official government resources, including photographs, which is a violation of House rules.

Kendra Arnold, the executive director of FACT, told The Daily Wire:

“Rep. Frost’s social media use has quite clearly abused official resources and is troubling. The law plainly requires strict separation between campaign and official acts to both protect taxpayers from funding political activity, and from unfairly benefitting incumbent members of Congress. Violating such a basic rule in a sphere as public-facing as social media is both an awful reflection on Rep. Frost and the House as a whole. While we await the OCE’s investigation into this matter, the simple response here from Rep. Frost should be to apologize and, at a bare minimum, delete these past posts and cease this activity in the future — we hope that is what he chooses to do.”

FACT included several examples of the posts from Frost, including photos from events Frost had attended. House rules forbid members from using any House resource usage in campaign ads.

The complaint said:

“The legal violations in this case are clear and there are no facts that can excuse them. In fact, Rep. Frost’s campaign social media accounts demonstrate that he consistently uses official resources for political purposes and that he has used numerous different types of taxpayer-funded resources for his campaign.” 

“The Office of Congressional Ethics is responsible for ensuring each Representative fulfills the public trust inherent in the office and that they comply with the House’s ethical standards. Therefore, we urge the Board to immediately investigate whether Representative Frost used official resources for campaign purposes in violation of the House ethics rules.”

From The FloridaPhoenix

An aide to Orlando Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost says he has paid back $4,000 in debt that he owed to Bank of America.

BofA filed a complaint against Frost in small claims court in Orange County on Aug. 18, citing his failure to pay off the $4,000 credit card debt. In its complaint, the bank claimed that Frost had “failed to make periodic payments and the account was subsequently charged-off.”

A spokesperson for Frost says that once he learned about the complaint last week, he went ahead and repaid the money he owed.

“Congressman Frost has always been honest about his past experiences with credit card debt as a result of having to leave his full-time job to run for Congress,” said Frost communications director Samantha Ramirez in a written statement to the Phoenix. “This is a sad reality that keeps too many working people from seeking public office. In this particular case, Rep. Frost has already paid the balance of his debt and the associated legal fees, and the matter has been resolved.”

Court records do not yet reflect any payment. According to the docket, Frost was scheduled to attend a virtual pretrial conference regarding the claim on Oct. 11.