GOP’s Lauren Boebert caught up in new ethics scandal after review of her mileage expenses

Ethics experts are asking questions about the more than $22,000 in mileage reimbursements Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) paid herself from her campaign last year, The Denver Post reports.

The Colorado GOP lawmaker wrote two checks totaling $22,259 from her campaign accounts for mileage between January and mid-November.

"To justify those reimbursements, Boebert would have had to drive 38,712 miles while campaigning, despite having no publicly advertised campaign events in March, April or July, and only one in May," the Denver Post reports. "Furthermore, because the reimbursements came in two payments — a modest $1,060 at the end of March and $21,200 on Nov. 11 — Boebert would have had to drive 36,870 miles in just over seven months between April 1 and Nov. 11 to justify the second payment."

Former investigator for the Office of Congressional Ethics, Kedric Payne, told the Post that the "highly unusual" amount of mileage raises red flags that Boebert's campaign should provide answers for. So far, she has declined to provide evidence that she drove 39,000 miles last year. In a statement, her campaign said that the grassroots nature of her campaign required her to travel often.

"She traveled to every nook and cranny of the district to speak with and hear from the people about their concerns. They say showing up is 90% of the battle and Lauren always showed up. Her aggressive travel schedule is a big reason she won," the statement said.

Analyzing all 80 events Boebert hosted by looking at the Events tab on her Facebook page -- along with the use of global positioning software to calculate the distance driven to, from and between them -- the Post determined that she drove 17,623 miles between public events last year. But Boebert's campaign responded that the Post's analysis didn't include every "meeting, fundraiser or campaign event."