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Last year, we did an article regarding Congresswoman Marie Newman’s alleged corruption scandal in which she paid a challenger to drop out of the race:
Welk, more news has surfaced for the Moms Demand Action member-turned-Congresswoman, and it ain’t good:
The scandal enveloping congresswoman Marie Newman—who is accused of signing and then reneging on a contract to pay a political rival not to run against her—has taken a shocking new turn. Federal campaign records show that after striking a secret settlement with the rival, the Illinois Democrat did, in fact, put the man on her campaign payroll.
In October 2018, Newman allegedly signed a contract with Iymen Chehade promising him a cozy six-figure salary on her congressional staff in exchange for his political support, according to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). When Newman ultimately didn’t hire Chehade after she won her 2020 election, he sued.
The two reached an undisclosed settlement over the summer. But, it turns out, that’s not the end of the story.
Newman’s latest FEC filings show she did hire Chehade as a foreign policy adviser—only instead of being paid through her congressional office, Chehade was hired through Newman’s campaign.
Chehade has received a total of $54,000 since the second half of 2021, mostly in salary installments of $7,500 a month, but sometimes with additional $2,000 payments. According to the FEC filings, the disbursements to Chehade began on July 1, 2021, just two days after both sides reached a deal to resolve the lawsuit.
In a four-page “employment agreement” that was photocopied into the OCE report, Newman and Chehade accepted that he would be hired as a foreign policy adviser and would remain in that position for as long as Newman remained in Congress—so long as Chehade didn’t “materially breach” stipulations in the contract such as working a 40-hour week. Newman also agreed to pay Chehade between $135,000 and $140,000, with “cost-of-living and merit raises” applicable every year after.
But according to the OCE report, “Chehade’s policy expertise was not the only reason she contracted to employ him in the future. Instead, Rep. Newman likely was motivated to enter the agreement to avoid competing against Mr. Chehade in the next Democratic primary.”
Yikes.......
What a bad look for Everytown’s Demand a Seat campaign.