A political action group filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., and now the clock is ticking.

Spectrum News first reported Friday that End Citizens United filed a request to have Garcia investigated for alleged violations of the Ethics in Government Act. Earlier that week, the Daily Beast reported that Garcia sold up to $50,000 in shares of Boeing weeks before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released a 2020 report investigating the deadly crashes involving Boeing’s 737 Max airliner. Garcia served on that committee at the time.

What You Need To Know

  • Spectrum News first reported Friday that End Citizens United filed a request to have Rep. Mike Garcia investigated for alleged violations of the Ethics in Government Act

  • The Office of Congressional Ethics, a nonpartisan office made up of private citizens, can either take up the inquiry for preliminary review or reject it, but the decision will not be made public

  • If the OCE takes up the inquiry and refers it to the House Committee on Ethics, then the results of its investigation will be made public

  • Garcia has not spoken publicly on the matter, but his staff says this is a “desperate attempt to resurrect a previously failed partisan attack”

The OCE, which was created in March 2008, is a nonpartisan office made up of private citizens. Two board members, one appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Minority leader respectively, can authorize a preliminary review following receipt of the complaint. If the office decides to take up a preliminary inquiry into ECU’s allegations against Garcia, only the congressman will be notified. 

The OCE receives thousands of requests for investigation during each session of Congress, but very few are actually investigated by the committee. In the 117th Congress, 20,587 were filed, while only 23 were taken up for preliminary review, and just 15 were transmitted to the House Ethics committee for further investigation or action.

The only way the public ever gains access to the information OCE finds in its investigations is if they are referred to the committee for further action. 

“People want to know more information about what the congressman knew, what potential information he may have had access to, and did that information inform his decision to make this trade,” said Casey Burgat, a professor at George Washington University. “That's a reasonable question to ask.”

Garcia has yet to speak publicly about the accusations leveled at him by the Daily Beast, but his staff has remained adamant that the Santa Clarita congressman knew nothing of the reports contents, calling it a “desperate attempt to resurrect a previously failed partisan attack.”

“Rep. Garcia was not aware of the content of the subject report until it was released. He also engaged in no meetings or hearings on the subject. This makes claims of insider trading an impossibility. In short, he was not privy to any information that wasn’t public domain,” Liam Anderson, a spokesman for Garcia told Spectrum News.

“Congressman Garcia immediately rectified the accidental late filing. Everything is filed and everything is public. People are sick of these blatant lies and see right through these lazy attempts to smear their political opponents.”

Garcia arrived in Congress in May of 2020 following a special election to replace former Democratic Rep. Katie Hill, who resigned following an admission of an affair with a staffer.

Republicans were in the minority at the time, which Garcia staffers argue only reinforces that the congressman could not have known what was in the report when the trade was made. Garcia no longer serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, having been reassigned when Republicans took the majority.

End Citizens United argues that Garcia acted within his own self-interest, calling it “a slap in the face to families in his district who trusted him to fight for their needs, not to safeguard his stock portfolio.”

“For years, Congressman Garcia has engaged in a consistent and disturbing pattern of violating the law to conceal his financial interests from his constituents. We urge the Office of Congressional Ethics to immediately launch an investigation into Congressman Garcia’s actions and hold him accountable for this egregious abuse of power,” said Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United.

Garcia has not been charged with any crimes. But Burgat says even the suggestion of dishonesty could injure his campaign for re-election. Garcia won his seat in November 2020 by just 333 votes over Democrat Christy Smith. He won by a wider margin in 2022, but it’s a district President Joe Biden carried in 2020, making it a critical district both parties have their eyes on.

“I wouldn't want to be Mike Garcia, in this instance,” Burgat said, noting that the Congressman has no margin for error in his district. “This is just one of those instances where left, right, or center, people frustrated at the institution of politics — frustrated with politicians — they're going to take it out on the incumbent. And they're definitely going to take it out on the incumbent who has a name connected to that wrongdoing.”