Uh-Oh: Lauren Boebert Quickly Deletes Cameo After Ethics Red Flags
Representative Lauren Boebert’s Cameo page disappeared just one day after it went up amid questions over whether it broke congressional rules.
The Colorado congresswoman was charging $250 for personal advice or a “pep talk” on the celebrity video service, she explained in a welcome video. But questions quickly came up about whether her Cameo gig violated House rules prohibiting honoraria, or a “payment of money or thing of value for an appearance, speech, or article.”
Now, Boebert’s Cameo page is gone, returning a 404 error, and she may have managed to avoid an investigation from the House Ethics Committee over the whole thing. Members of the House are prohibited from earning more than $31,815 in outside income, and the only way she could have legitimized her Cameo income would have been to funnel it into her campaign account. However, that would have violated Cameo’s terms of service.
Boebert managed to stay in Congress during the past election thanks to switching to a safer, more conservative district after barely surviving Democratic challenger Adam Frisch in 2022. It seems that merely retaining her seat wasn’t lucrative enough for her, so she tried to copy her old colleagues Matt Gaetz and George Santos by launching a Cameo page.
But Boebert failed to realize that the two have ethical violations of their own that made them former members of Congress: sexual misconduct for Gaetz and various corruption charges for Santos. Despite her own numerous theatrical missteps, Boebert has yet to join Gaetz and Santos in breaking federal law or attracting attention for ethical shortcomings. But, seeing as how her congressional career has gone thus far, it may only be a matter of time.
Infamous Trump stooge Rudy Giuliani let the world know that he is desperate and broke after an unsuccessful attempt to postpone his trial.
Giuliani is facing another trial after refusing to pay $148 million he owes to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers he defamed after Donald Trump lost the state in 2020. Giuliani sought to delay this latest trial, claiming the dates interfered with President-elect Trump’s inauguration in January, which he wanted to attend. The last-ditch delay tactic was likely an effort to seek a Trump pardon post-inauguration and make all of his legal problems go away—but unfortunately for him, his request was denied. This set Giuliani off on a pitiful rant against the judge, Lewis J. Liman.
“It’s punishment for being the one who revealed first Joe Biden’s 30-year criminality,” Giuliani opined. “He’s been trying to torture me, stop me, take everything away from me since then.” It’s unclear whether he’s referring to President Biden or Judge Liman.
“The reality is I have no cash,” he went on. “It’s all tied up. So right now, if I wanted to call a taxi cab, I can’t do it. I don’t have a credit card. I don’t have a checking account. I have no place I can go take cash out except a little bit that I saved, and it’s getting down to almost nothing.”
Giuliani already handed some of his prized possessions over to the plaintiffs, including his luxury watches, a diamond ring, and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz. It remains to be seen whether Trump will come to his aid.
After funneling hefty sums into the 2024 elections, the crypto industry is poised to wield considerable influence over the incoming government.
The industry spent more than $180 million on campaigns this election cycle, surpassing all other special interest groups, NOTUS’s Claire Heddles reported Tuesday. Lawmakers who ran afoul of the industry’s agenda found themselves targets of aggressive campaigns by crypto-backed PACs. Two hundred seventy-six candidates deemed “pro-crypto” by the group Stand With Crypto will hold seats in the 119th Congress.
Rick Claypool of the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen told NOTUS that the crypto industry can “use a ton of money to create this crypto-shaped club that they’re holding over candidates, and that changed candidate behavior.”
President-elect Donald Trump, for his part, has transformed from skeptic to friend of crypto. Calling it “a scam against the dollar” and “a disaster waiting to happen” during and soon after his first term, he is now one of its most outspoken advocates, vowing to transform the United States into “the crypto capital of the planet.” His sons have even launched a crypto venture of their own.
A letter to Trump and members of Congress by crypto industry trade group Blockchain Association, shared by Heddles on X, shows that the industry is anticipating reaping the fruits of its 2024 spending.
In the letter, Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith proposes regulatory overhauls and changes in leadership at agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury to support crypto industry growth. “Following a historic election,” Smith wrote, “the crypto industry is hopeful and optimistic for a........
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