Group files complaint against Crapo; he amends report, defends campaign payments to wife
By: Betsy Z. Russell, Idaho Press, June 21, 2018
A Washington, D.C., watchdog group filed an ethics complaint Thursday related to just over $6,000 of undisclosed payments to the wife of U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.
The Campaign for Accountability complaint notes that Crapo failed to disclose payments from his leadership PAC to his wife, Susan, on his 2017 personal financial disclosure report. The payments were compensation for campaign work.
Crapo listed his Senate campaign committee as having employed his wife and paid her more than $1,000, but didn’t also list his leadership PAC, Freedom Fund. However, he detailed the payments from both committees, totaling nearly $27,000 in 2017, on his campaign finance reports, identifying them as payments for producing handmade gifts for donors at annual fundraisers in 2015 and 2016.