House Ethics Committee acknowledges investigation of John Duncan Jr.
WASHINGTON _ The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday acknowledged an investigation of Rep. John Duncan Jr., a scion of a Tennessee political dynasty who announced his retirement in July.
Duncan, a Republican, came under fire that month after reports that his campaign paid his son, John Duncan III, almost $300,000. The younger Duncan has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of official misconduct. Those payments were made in monthly installments of $6,000 recorded as salary expenses, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Duncan acknowledged the payments in a 2017 statement to the Knoxville paper and said that they were not improper.
"Many members of Congress, past and present, have paid family members for campaign work. The fact that family members have run, and worked in, my campaigns has been public for a long time," he said, according to the paper.
Duncan III was a county trustee in 2013 when he pleaded guilty to approving bonuses for himself and six members of his staff for completing a training program that none of them had, in fact, completed, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. He later lied to investigators, saying he did not know it was improper to award the money before the training was completed. He served one year of probation.
_CQ Roll Call
