Why hasn’t Ryan Zinke, who’s running for Congress, filed a financial disclosure statement listing his assets and showing how he’s earning his income? Why won’t he follow the rules that everyone else running for Congress does?

Every person running for Congress must file a personal financial disclosure form.  They exist to let the public know what conflicts of interest those candidates might have if they get elected and make it to Washington.  According to the law, the reporting requirement is triggered once someone spends or raises $5,000 

Back in May 2021, Zinke told the Clerk of the US House that he didn’t have to file because he hadn’t yet raised $5,000.  Believe that if you will, but in any case, that was back in May. Now, according to his own Federal Elections Commission report,  he’s raised almost $700 thousand.  But he still hasn’t  filed a financial disclosure statement.

According to a December 15, 2018 report in the Washington Post, even Trump had concerns about Zinke’s ethics when he pressured him to step down after investigations began into whether he was using the Interior Department to make deals that benefitted himself.

Shouldn’t Zinke be jumping at the chance to clear the air? Doesn’t the public deserve that transparency?

Maybe all Zinke’s doing here is displaying the same arrogance as Donald Trump did when he refused to release his tax returns: Those rules are for others to follow. Or maybe, like Trump, he has something to hide.

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