Florida Republican Congressman Ross Spano is under federal criminal investigation: report

On Thursday, the House Ethics Committee announced that Rep. Ross Spano (R-FL) is under criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

The investigation, which was triggered by ethics complaints filed in August, centers on allegations that Spano borrowed $180,000 from two people, Carey Carreno and Karen Hunt, then immediately loaned $167,000 of that to his campaign, falsely reporting it as "personal funds."

This would be a violation of federal election law, which counts money borrowed from other people and then loaned to the campaign as an individual contribution — and individual contributions cannot exceed $2,700 a cycle.

The House Ethics Committee initially opened an investigation, but is now deferring to the DOJ.