Scoop: The mayor of the liberal city struck with complaint of ethics for alleged luxurious gifts

First on the fox: A non -partisan government guard filed an ethical complaint against Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday morning.

The denunciation of the Foundation for Accounting and Civic Confidence (FACT) calls for the Ethics Council and Government Accountants to investigate Bowser for allegedly accepting illegal travel and hospitality gifts on high -profile trips to Doha, Qatar, for 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Golf Tournament in August. In Dubai, Las Vegas, Miami and Mar-Alag-Lag.

“ The basic standard for elected officials is honest transparency, which means that following all the outreach laws and voluntarily answering the questions of the public. The mayor’s lack of willingness to provide basic information on numerous high -profile trips is unacceptable, ” Kendra Arnold, executive director of the fact, first shared with Fox News Digital.

Fact quoted Wjla’s research on the missing records of Bowser’s prominent trips, in which they discovered that Qatar paid Bowser and four $ 61,930 staff members to fly to the Middle East in 2023.

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“It is not simply Qatar’s journey, but a worrying pattern of Mar-Alago in Doha to Augusta National; the district has no record of those who paid for these trips or what public purpose they were, if there was one,” said Arnold. “The rules of ethics exist to protect themselves from corruption and, when ignored, the confidence of the public erodes. I urge the Council to investigate and enforce the law without delay.”

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Although the Middle East trip should have been revealed to be accepted as a legal donation to the District of Columbia, he said in the complaint that there is no record of the one who paid for the trip.

“When the press interrogated, the mayor’s office initially said that the trip was paid by the DC Chamber of Commerce. The chamber said this was not true. At that time, the mayor said that the trip was paid by the United States mayors conference. This was also false,” said Fact.

In February 2025, the mayor applied for the breakdown of travel expenses, labeled it as “in kind donation” and sought a “retroactive donation agreement”, despite the two years passed, according to the fact.

“However, incredibly, it was not until the application for the information law of a journalist in March 2025 that this information was publicly revealed, more specifically that Qatar paid more than $ 61,930 for the journey that the mayor’s office tried to describe retroactively as a” type donation. ” Bowser 2023 “, according to the complaint.

Once again, quoting Wjla’s research reports, he said that the Columbia district has no expense records for several more trips, included in the Gulf of Masters in Augusta, Georgia and trips to Las Vegas, Miami and Mar-Alago.

In fact, he accused Bowser of violating a “fundamental principle of ethics” that prevents corruption and not recommending that elected officials accept bribes and donations.

Under Washington, DC, right, government officials cannot accept certain gifts, including trips, accommodation and transport. The law allows donations to the same district if the government entity “uses the gift or donation to carry out its authorized functions or duties”.

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In this case, detailed and precise records for “audit and public inspection” must be available. These donations to the district must be “registered and approved before the donation is used”.

“It is clear that Mayor Bowser’s trip to Qatar describes himself as a gift, and one that elected officials are forbidden to accept personally. In addition, this gift would not be described as a donation made in the district because the donation was not registered and approved before the donation was used. The district still has no record,” he concluded in the complaint.