This article originally appeared on WND.com
Guest by post by Bob Unruh
Deferred’ compensation not on record – anywhere
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Georgia Democrat who’s been involved in a scandal over his church evicting residents from a government-subsidized housing complex it owns, now has another apparent ethics breach to face.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust is insisting that the Senate Select Committee on Ethics “immediately investigate” Warnock for his $155,000 payday in 2022 from the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where he apparently still is a part-time pastor.
The Washington Examiner reports the problem is that the Senate has a $30,000 limit on outside income for senators.
And while Warnock claimed that the additional cash windfall was for “deferred compensation” for services before he became a senator, that is recorded nowhere.
Not in his financial disclosures, not in the church records.
The report said Warnock “may have flouted federal law” with the income.
The Examiner confirmed he didn’t list it as an asset in 2021 or in the church’s 2021 financial records.
“The fact that neither Senator Warnock nor his employer reportedly disclosed the ‘deferred compensation’ agreement prior to it being paid in 2022 indicates that it was likely not actually deferred compensation earned before Warnock became a senator,” the foundation’s Kendra Arnold explained in the complaint about Warnock.
“Nevertheless, even if the parties entered into a deferred compensation agreement before he was a senator, it should have been disclosed before it was,” Arnold said. “When the facts presented so clearly indicate a violation has occurred, it is incumbent on the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate, inform the public to maintain citizen confidence, and hold the senator responsible for violations should they be found.”
The report explained Warnock has been employed by the church since 2005 and apparent still is employed there, even while being a senator. Earlier, he reported taking in $120,000 from the church, with $89,000 purportedly a nontaxable “parsonage allowance” which he used for his $1 million Atlanta home.
Federal rules require that senators and candidates report all “deferred compensation.”
FACT reported the fines for violating the rules could be up to $50,000 in fines or a year in prison.
Arnold, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, explained, “Either Sen. Warnock and his church had a deferred compensation agreement that both have conspicuously failed to report the existence of for years, or he received outside income of over four times the legal limit.”
The scandal at the church itself involves its decision to evict residents from a church-owned housing complex, sometimes over no more than a few hundred dollars in back rent, after claiming no one was being evicted there.
Copyright 2023 WND News Center
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