A group consisting of a Department of Justice Criminal Division member, a prosecutor in then-D.C. U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves' office, and FBI agents in the bureau's Washington Field Office in 2024 weighed a campaign finance probe of former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema after she left the Democratic Party, reports the New York Post.
Sinema left Congress in January 2025 after announcing she would not run for reelection in Arizona. She was a member of the Democratic Party for most of her political career but switched her affiliation to independent in 2022.
The officials in former President Joe Biden's DOJ and FBI discussed investigating Sinema in February 2024, according to emails reviewed by the Post.
The exchanges started following the Post's report on Sinema's campaign spending on things that looked more personal than political, including plane tickets, hotels, meals, wineries, ski trips, and travel for her private security detail — all while she wasn't actively campaigning.
A prosecutor in Graves' office flagged the story to the DOJ and the FBI.
"I'm interested in looking at the Sinema referral if it's [sic] something you're looking to assign," then-FBI special agent Walter Giardina wrote to a bureau colleague in a Feb. 2, 2024, email.
Sinema's chief of staff, Daniel Winkler, told the Post it was "disappointing, though not surprising, to learn that Walter Giardina, who led politically motivated investigations at the FBI, also sought to investigate Kyrsten for partisan political reasons after she defied Biden and the Senate Democrats to protect the filibuster."
"Giardina's pathetic attempts led nowhere, his abuse of power is now exposed to the public, and the filibuster stands strong today," he added.
The Post said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, first obtained the emails from legally protected whistleblower disclosures.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the Post it was very rare to pursue criminal charges against a sitting member of Congress.
Under the strict letter of the law, you can't use campaign funds for personal expenses," Rahmani said.
"The rule is pretty strict. It's the 'irrespective test': Unless the expense only exists because of your campaign or you being a federal officeholder, you can't use campaign funds for it," he explained.
"If you're going to lunch with someone related to your office, you can use those [campaign] funds — but they're strict when it comes to things like travel, clothing and food," he added.
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