There Is Something Strange Happening With Ronny Jackson’s Legal Expenses

It’s unclear what he’s using the legal expense fund for.

Rep. Ronny Jackson

Under House ethics rules, members of Congress can only open legal expense funds for a narrow set of reasons. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP

Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson has been fundraising with what appears to be an unauthorized legal expense fund.

Under House rules, members of Congress must get approval from the Ethics Committee to open a legal expense trust fund — and make that approval public — before soliciting any donations for the fund.

But despite there being no public record of Jackson receiving permission to open such an account — and no public record of any of the required quarterly fundraising reports — his campaign has been referencing the trust in fundraising communications for months.