NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s office was the target of a confidential ethics investigation last year that focused on allegations involving the use of taxpayer dollars for her political campaigns, NewsChannel 5 Investigates has confirmed.
Disclosure of those never-revealed questions about how Blackburn ran her Senate office comes as the Brentwood Republican asks GOP voters for their nomination to put her in charge of the Tennessee governor's office.
How the investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee was ultimately resolved remains unclear. Blackburn’s office ignored NewsChannel 5’s request to release correspondence between the committee and the senator or her representatives during that inquiry.
"It is laughable that Phil Williams pretends to care about ethics when he and his colleagues continue to prove they are activists desperate to manufacture controversy for clicks rather than report the facts,” said a statement released by Audrey Cook, communications director for Blackburn’s Senate office.
The statement did not identify any facts about which NewsChannel 5 was wrong. In fact, it confirmed that there had indeed been an ethics investigation.
"No one takes compliance with Senate ethics rules more seriously than Senator Blackburn, and the Senate Ethics Committee completed its review and resolved this matter with our office’s full cooperation,” the statement continued.
NewsChannel 5 first heard rumors of the ethics investigation a few months back, but had been unable to confirm it until this week.
That investigation – likely officially classified as a "preliminary inquiry" – included interviews with members of Blackburn's staff, NewsChannel 5 Investigates was told.
Those people were asked about the relationship between staff members working on taxpayer time and Ward Baker, the well-connected political strategist who has headed Blackburn's campaigns for years. Investigators wanted to know if Senate staffers had been pressured to engage in political activities while on taxpayer time or using taxpayer resources.
Under Senate rules, staff members may volunteer to work on the boss’s political campaign, but they cannot be coerced into doing so, nor can it be done using government resources.
"The ethical concern with having official staff working on the campaign is that you're using taxpayer money for campaign activity – and that's a basic ethics rule that all staffers are aware of, as well as all members,” said Kedric Payne, general counsel and vice president at the Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan group that works to hold the government accountable.
Not only is such conduct considered unethical, but it can also often be illegal, Payne added.
"Investigations have occurred with congressional offices potentially violating this rule, but you don't see it often because most people are fully aware of it and they know that there's not really a gray area,” he continued.
“It's really cut and dry if you are … using official staff for campaign activity."
In Blackburn's case, eyebrows were first raised when Tennessee's Republican county groups began meeting in 2023 to elect new officers, and her Senate field staff showed up as well. Blackburn was facing a re-election campaign in 2024.
Ethics committee investigators questioned staff members about charges to taxpayers for many of those trips – questions that NewsChannel 5's own investigation confirmed.
Among the examples:
- A Facebook photo from the Putnam County GOP showed Senate staff member Blake Neely in the background. Reports from the U.S. Senate show Blackburn's office charged taxpayers for "staff transportation" and "staff per diem" on that same date for Neely's trip from Chattanooga to Cookeville and back.
- When the GOP meeting was gaveled into session in Dekalb County, photos show Blackburn staffer Tyler Privette was there to observe. Again, we found where Blackburn's office used tax dollars on that same date for "staff per diem" and "staff transportation" for Privette's travel from East Tennessee to Smithville and back.
- And when Weakley County's new Republican officers took their oaths, Senate staffer James Matthew Wyatt was there in the background. And, yet again, Blackburn's office billed taxpayers for Wyatt's trip from Jackson to Martin and back.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates found multiple other examples across the state where Blackburn’s team used official expenses for travel to counties on the same dates as those Republican meetings.
"It is a red flag if you see that there are travel expenses paid for official staff to travel to a town where they also attend a campaign activity,” the CLC’s Kedric Payne said “However, you sometimes need to gather more facts to see if there was any official reason why the staff went to the district."
The ethics expert said there is no reason Blackburn’s office could not release its correspondence with the committee. Those exchanges might reveal the findings of the investigation, as well as any responses or corrective actions addressing the concerns.
"If the Senate Ethics Committee did look into this, they would provide documentation to that office that can be made public,” Payne said. “There's no restriction on the Senate office letting the public know that the Senate Ethics Committee has looked into a situation and what they have found."
In response to NewsChannel 5’s questions, Blackburn's gubernatorial campaign provided photos of a member of competitor John Rose's congressional staff working to help his boss get elected governor – while wearing his House name tag.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates checked and could find no evidence that the person in question was reimbursed by taxpayers for those visits.
Rose's campaign manager, Chris Devaney, insisted there was no wrongdoing.
"Official staff can legally volunteer their own time to help on any campaign,” Devaney said. “No taxpayer funds have ever been used to promote a candidate."
Do you have information for my investigation? You can email me at phil.williams@newschannel5.com.