Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) will not face punishment from the House Committee on Ethics after she received a weapons charge for having a firearm in her carry-on bag at Dulles International Airport.
The charge, carrying a weapon in an airport terminal, a Class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia, was later dropped after she completed a firearm safety course.
“The Committee voted against impanelling an investigative subcommittee in this matter,” an Ethics Committee report on the case says. “The Committee considered the scope and nature of the conduct described above and determined that review by an investigative subcommittee is not required.”
“The Committee has determined to take no further action in this matter, and upon publication of this Report, considers the matter closed,” it concludes.
The lawmaker had forgotten the gun was in her bag, and it had no magazines or bullets with it. She later excused her actions by saying, ”In reality, considering our line of business and how dangerous it is, we probably should be allowed to carry them anywhere.”
Spartz was previously under fire for a report that alleged she verbally abused her congressional staff and told a staffer she’d rather “die than not complete a task” and asked if they could give her the same level of commitment.
The House Ethics Committee made “preliminary inquiries” into the behavior back in June, but little has come of the news since. Spartz spoke about the report in an August town hall with Indiana voters, saying she runs her office like she would run a business.
“I probably feel more accountability for your money than mine,” she said. “So, I want to make sure that if I spend your money, the results are delivered. And if people are not willing to deliver results, they have plenty of other opportunities to do it. And that’s what accountability I demand for people working for my office”
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Spartz won reelection to a third term in the House recently, triumphing over her Democratic opponent, Deborah Pickett, 56.6% to 38%.
She’s the only member of the House who is Ukrainian born and has voiced her support for the United States’s involvement in her home country’s war against Russia. But Spartz voted against a Ukraine aid bill in April, citing border security as a larger priority.