Rep Doug Lamborn (CO-05) is yet another exhibit in an ever-increasing accumulation of evidence demonstrating the stupidity, negligence and callous disdain of Republicans in Congress. Not all Republicans, but enough of them to be confident that these traits are common to the vast majority of them.
So what disgraces has Lamborn heaped upon his party’s already disreputable image? Former military aide Brandon Pope has been cataloguing them and now he’s suing.
His suit alleges Lamborn violated the Congressional Accountability Act, a federal law that provides workplace safety rights to congressional staff. Scott MacFarlane at NBC picks up the story.
According to the lawsuit, “Lamborn did not require employees in the District Office to wear masks, claiming that he would not allow House Leadership to dictate how he ran his office, and he did not permit all employees to social distance. Worse, when Lamborn and other senior members of his staff became infected with COVID-19 in the fall of 2020, Lamborn refused to implement or follow reasonable and responsible COVID-19 protocols.”
Newsweek’s report included these revelations.
When Lamborn’s deputy chief of staff tested positive for COVID-19, Pope said, Lamborn continued to work closely with his staff even though he and the deputy had been in close proximity to one another. Lamborn also lied to the Office of the Attending Physician, the Capitol doctor, about his and his workers’ possible COVID-19 exposure, the lawsuit alleges.
Anderson and Lamborn’s wife allegedly “belittled” any staffer who raised pandemic concerns. Pope said that Anderson personally shouted him down during discussions about his concerns. Anderson shamed a concerned female worker, calling her “dramatic” and insulting her behind her back, Pope said. The worker stopped raising her concerns as a result, Pope continued.
The suit cites:
- Lamborn calling the virus “a hoax” during staff meetings in April 2020
- a number of staffers testing positive by October because of Lamborn’s criminal negligence
- Lamborn sleeping in his DC congressional office after he knew his staffers were exposed to Covid-19
- Lamborn himself testing positive in November 2020
Additionally, Brandon Pope recounts how Lamborn required staff to provide personal favours and tasks for the congressman’s family, including aiding his son with job applications, helping his wife set up a webcam to chat with family members and assisting with furniture removals to Lamborn’s vacation home.
Lamborn also compelled his staff to give him and his wife Christmas and birthday gifts under threat of firing. Ironically, the most likely reason he enforced this latter requirement was so he could boast to others about his staff’s regard for him. Pope’s lawsuit just exposed that lie.
Also exposed is Lamborn’s arrangement for his son to live in a storage space in the basement of the Capitol for several weeks. It’s unknown at this point how many people knew about this arrangement and how Lamborn and his son managed to keep it from Capitol Police. That this rent-free lodging in a government building was a secret is a strong indication of it being highly illegal. Rep Lamborn is very likely to be investigated for several violations relating to that alone.
Brandon Pope was fired on December 7, 2020, after he also tested positive to Covid-19. Pope maintains that it was in retaliation for “seeking to protect employees from unsafe conditions in the workplace” a claim that’s easy to believe given that it’s very much in line with Lamborn’s self-centeredness and tyrannical mistreatment of his staff.
When asked for a statement on the lawsuit, Lamborn’s communications director Cassandra Sebastian said, “The workplace safety allegations made by Mr Pope are unsubstantiated and did not result in the termination of his employment. Congressman Lamborn looks forward to full vindication as all facts come to light.”
We’ve all heard this kind of “full vindication” statement from Republicans before, most recently from former NY Rep Chris Collins and former CA Rep Duncan Hunter, both convicted of their crimes and jailed. Brandon Pope’s lawsuit may result in Lamborn not only being sued but also being charged with multiple felonies – and he won’t have a Trump card to pardon him.
Lamborn has a rep in his district for ignoring what people want him to do.
Oh how that doesn’t surprise me, PJ!
Before Jared Polis was our governor (he was a Congressman), he came doen to District 5 (in which I live) to hold a Town Hall (since Lamborn wouldn’t). He was asked whether the Colorado delegation could accomplish anything at all, since the partisan divide was already pretty bad. At that time he replied that the Colorado delegation actually did work together with the exception of one member. That, of course, was Lamborn.
He was also named in the insider tradin which occurred before the American public was informed about CoViD, but Loeffler and Perdue got all the attention.
Please, oh please, oh please – felony charges would be wonderful.
” every tyrant has a pretext for his tyranny” Aesop