NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — There are new questions surrounding embattled Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles — and the stories he has told about money going in and out of his campaign bank accounts.
Now, one of Ogles’ top contributors, Nashville businessman Lee Beaman, is disputing campaign financial disclosures that the Middle Tennessee Republican filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). In 2022, Ogles told the FEC that Beaman was the custodian of his campaign records, and three separate financial disclosures filed with the FEC had reportedly been signed by Beaman, who was allegedly attesting to their accuracy.
Beaman, who has been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, disputed those assertions in responses filed with the US Senate committee that is considering his appointment.
“Mr. Ogles asked me in a text message to serve as his campaign treasurer, a position I thought was an honorary position,” Beaman said in a written response to questions from the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “When I did not respond either way, he assumed I agreed to serve. A couple of months later, I saw my name listed as treasurer in a political advertisement. At that point, I told him I could not serve.”
Beaman stated that he was certain that he “never signed or compiled any reports, and I had nothing to do with any campaign bank accounts.”
The written responses were submitted to the committee after Democrats raised questions about Beaman’s involvement in a campaign that has been under investigation.
In those responses, the Nashville businessman said he received an inquiry from the House Ethics Committee in September and that he had responded to the committee’s questions.
In November 2023, an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation raised questions about whether Ogles had the financial resources to make a $320,000 personal loan to his campaign, as he had claimed on reports filed with the FEC. A nonpartisan watchdog group, the Campaign Legal Center, later filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).
The House Ethics Committee formally gave public notice in January 2025 that it had received an OCE referral and would be investigating the matter.
In addition, as NewsChannel 5 previously reported, the FBI seized Ogles’ personal phone and Gmail account in 2024, although investigators’ efforts to review that evidence has apparently been stymied by a federal magistrate’s delay in responding to motions in the case.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) questioned whether the House ethics investigation had been stalled by Speaker Mike Johnson, who roomed with Ogles in a House owned by Beaman and least to a Tennessee-based Christian ministry.
“The non-partisan office of Congressional ethics found evidence of wrongdoing but, despite OCE’s recommendation to subpoena witnesses, the investigation has been stalled since another of Beaman's tenants, Mike Johnson, became speaker of the House,” Whitehouse said.
The Rhode Island Democrat added, “In a normal Senate, it would be a bipartisan Senate thing to hold the nomination of someone involved as campaign treasurer in a House ethics investigation until the investigation was concluded.”
A scheduled vote on Beaman’s nomination was postponed last week by the Senate committee.
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