Lauren Boebert, the Republican congresswoman from Colorado's 4th District, is the subject of a sworn complaint filed with the House Ethics Committee on September 17.
The complaint accuses her of having sexual relationships with three people who worked for her in her congressional office, and of arranging a $200,000 payment to one of them to keep that person from filing an ethics complaint of their own.
These are accusations, not findings. None of them has been proven. Boebert denies all of it, and so does one of the former staffers named in the complaint. So does Boebert's ex-husband, whom the complaint's author went to for comment. Here is what the complaint says, who filed it, what the rule is, and what happens next.
What the complaint says
The complaint was filed by American Muckrakers' David Wheeler and signed under penalty of perjury, the Colorado Times Recorder reported.
According to American Muckrakers' own account of it, the complaint names three people who worked under Boebert's direct supervision: a former district director, her current district chief of staff, and a former chief of staff.
It alleges that about $200,000 was paid "in or about March 2025," after the former district director threatened to file an ethics complaint. The complaint says the source of that money is unknown.
American Muckrakers says the complaint relies on House payroll records, campaign finance filings, court records, and sources it says know about the relationship "through text messages, bank records, court documents, and recorded conversations." It prints responses from two men. The former district director's ex-husband said, "I assumed this would eventually surface," and declined further comment; reached by phone by the Colorado Times Recorder, he declined to elaborate: "Divorce is painful. I have children. I'm three years post-divorce. This is not my issue." Boebert's own ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, answered in a text message that American Muckrakers posted as a screenshot: "I think it is all a fairy tale made up propaganda. I don't believe any of that. Bad sources."
We haven't seen those texts, bank records or recordings, and neither has any outlet whose reporting we read. The complaint also cites two older Colorado Times Recorder stories. The Times Recorder itself notes that "neither story makes any claim about inappropriate relationships involving staff."
Who filed it
American Muckrakers is a Democratic super PAC, and Wheeler is its co-founder, Newsweek reported. It is a partisan group, and its claims should be weighed that way.
What Boebert and the staffer say
Boebert's office rejected all of it. A spokesperson told Newsweek:
"Congresswoman Lauren Boebert rejects these allegations as utterly false and there is no truth to them whatsoever."
The statement went on, as reported by Us Weekly: "This is nothing more than a politically motivated stunt designed to manipulate the ethics process, create headlines, smear her, and generate clickbait."
The former district director named in the complaint told the Colorado Times Recorder: "These allegations regarding me are entirely false, defamatory, and beyond ridiculous. There is absolutely no truth to any part of this claim."
We are not naming the staffers here. They are not public officials, and the one who has spoken denies it.
The rule she's accused of breaking
In 2018, the House adopted a rule that bars members from sexual relationships with the people who work for them. It's now part of the House Code of Official Conduct. A member:
"may not engage in a sexual relationship with any employee of the House who works under the supervision of the Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner, or who is an employee of a committee on which the Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner serves."
If the complaint is true, the $200,000 payment would be a second, separate problem: an effort to keep a staffer from bringing a complaint to the Ethics Committee.
What happens next
The Ethics Committee hasn't commented. Newsweek reported that the committee will first decide whether the complaint meets its procedural requirements, and then decide what to do, if anything.
This is also not the first time Boebert's own account of her conduct has come apart. In 2023 she gave the public three different accounts of why she was escorted out of a Denver theater, and apologized only after security camera footage came out. We laid out how that went.
What we know
On September 17, the leader of a Democratic super PAC filed a sworn complaint with the House Ethics Committee accusing Lauren Boebert of sexual relationships with three staffers she supervised, which House rules forbid, and of arranging a roughly $200,000 payment to keep one of them from filing a complaint. Boebert calls the allegations "utterly false," one named former staffer calls them "beyond ridiculous," her ex-husband calls them "a fairy tale," and none of the underlying evidence has been made public. The Ethics Committee has not said whether it will investigate.
Source
This post is based on reporting by Erik Maulbetsch for the Colorado Times Recorder and Marni Rose McFall for Newsweek. Photo: U.S. House of Representatives, via Wikimedia Commons.
