A nonprofit ethics watchdog group in Washington has requested a congressional inquiry into recent actions by U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said it sent a letter Tuesday to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, the House version of an ethics committee.
The letter requests the committee “commence an immediate investigation into whether (Lamborn) violated House rules by improperly threatening two constituents who revealed publicly that Rep. Lamborn had accepted campaign contributions from the gaming industry.”
The letter requests an investigation and is not an official complaint, according to CREW executive director and founder Melanie Sloan.
Sloan said CREW’s request is based on a story in Sunday’s Denver Post, which told of a Colorado Springs couple who received what they felt were two threatening voice mails from Lamborn. Jonathan and Anna Bartha had written a letter to the editor of the Woodmen Edition, printed Aug. 24, stating that Lamborn had accepted campaign contributions from gaming interests.
The couple claimed Lamborn left two voice-mail messages stating the letter was “blatantly false,” that he wanted to get together with the couple to work it out and that “there are consequences to this kind of thing.”
Anna Bartha said she and her husband “felt threatened and intimidated, and quite frankly, scared.”
Lamborn told The Denver Post that it was “ridiculous” to consider his messages as threatening.
In a letter to the Barthas, Lamborn wrote: “I apologize for any confusion my voice mail may have caused. Given our pre-existing friendship that we have shared over the years, which included my strong support for Anna’s recent School Board campaign, I simply felt it prudent to privately attempt to clarify my record after it had been publicly misconstrued.”
Lamborn said Tuesday that CREW had not contacted him. “I’m not sure what CREW is really up to,” he said.
He reiterated that the Barthas misunderstood his messages.
