Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was hit with an ethics complaint Friday after the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) requested an immediate probe over the use of video footage from the Senate floor in an ad announcing Schiff's Senate run.
The ethics watchdog group sent the complaint to the chief counsel for the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) and asked for an investigation into whether Schiff "abused official resources for political purposes" by using the video.
The California congressman announced his 2024 run for Senate on Thursday in a video that was shared on his Twitter account. Footage of Schiff speaking on the Senate floor during former President Donald Trump's impeachment proceedings was included in that video.
"This is a clear violation of House ethics rules and federal law," Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, said in a statement. "Rep. Schiff has been in Congress for over two decades and undoubtedly knows that official government resources cannot be used for political purposes. Rep. Schiff must immediately take down the video and cease distribution of the footage, and the Office of Congressional Ethics should move swiftly to investigate and sanction Rep. Schiff for this breach."
Schiff's campaign pushed back against FACT's claims, saying no ethics rules were broken because the video was taken on the floor of the Senate and not the House.
"House ethics rules prohibit the use of House floor or committee footage for campaign purposes — the rules do not apply to footage from the Senate, which is what was used in Congressman Schiff's video," a campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "No footage from any House proceeding was used in the video, and Congressman Schiff was fully in compliance with House ethics guidelines."
According to FACT, House members are barred from using video footage from both the House and the Senate for campaign purposes.
"Federal law states that 'appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made except as otherwise provided by law,'" the complaint read. "To enforce this law, the ethics rules prohibit members from using any official resource for campaign or political purposes. 'Official resources' includes anything funded by taxpayers, such as a member's official website, social media accounts, and photographs and video from the House or Senate floor."
"To make it abundantly clear, both the House ethics rules and Senate rules specifically identify congressional video of floor proceedings as official resources that members are prohibited from using for political purposes," the complaint added.
Politico reporter Anthony Adragna shared the video and questioned whether using the footage was allowed.
"Is Schiff allowed to use footage from the Senate floor in this announcement?" he asked Thursday. "I think no? (:12 mark)."
Roll Call chief correspondent Niels Lesniewski responded to Adragna, saying, "Could be ok. He's not a senator, and it looks like they used NBC TV footage of the floor, which is a common workaround."
According to a House Ethics Committee report from 2017, however, there is no workaround.
"Members may not re-use an image of a floor proceeding published by a third-party, if the member could not use that image in the first instance," the committee stated.
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