Boebert's rough month gets rougher as overdue finances suggest she's 'broke': reporter
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) finally filed her overdue financial disclosure this week, capping a rough stretch for the Colorado Republican, and one veteran money-and-politics reporter says it shows she's "broke."
Boebert filed the report Thursday, two days after The Washington Sun reported she had missed her deadline. It lists no assets and a single liability: a personal loan of between $10,000 and $15,000 from Congressional Credit Union, taken out in January 2024. Members of Congress earn a base salary of $174,000.
"It indicates she's broke," investigative journalist Dave Levinthal wrote on X. Denver 9NEWS anchor Kyle Clark reshared the post.
The report, which Boebert certified as "true, complete, and correct," also lists her as representing Colorado's 3rd District, the seat she left in January 2025 for the 4th District.
The filing comes about a week after a sworn complaint to the House Ethics Committee accused Boebert of relationships with three staffers she supervised, which House rules prohibit. The complaint also alleged that one of those staffers received a payment of about $200,000 in March 2025 after telling Boebert she planned to file her own ethics complaint. The complaint's author, David Wheeler of the political action committee American Muckrakers, said the source of the money is unknown to him.
Boebert herself has demanded transparency about lawmakers paying staffers for their silence. Discussing taxpayer-funded congressional settlements last year, she asked, "What were they covering up? What were they paying off?" The payment alleged in the complaint is not one of those settlements.
A Boebert spokesperson called the allegations "utterly false," and the former staffer, Clarice Navarro Ratzlaff, called them "entirely false, defamatory, and beyond ridiculous." In a video Sunday, Boebert blasted reporters for covering the complaint, and she has argued that House rules bar the Ethics Committee from acting on such complaints within 60 days of an election.
The complaint landed a week after a Colorado judge sentenced her son, Tyler Boebert, to 20 days in jail despite her personal plea for "mercy." He had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child abuse and neglect.
Boebert, whose congressional website advertises the House's financial disclosure rules, had requested a 60-day extension that pushed her disclosure deadline to July 14. She missed it and didn't file until after the Sun's story was published. Her office did not respond to the outlet's requests for comment.
She was one of three House Republicans the Sun reported had failed to file annual disclosures for 2025, even after each received an extension. Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Michael McCaul of Texas both had until Aug. 13 and had not filed as of Tuesday. McCaul's office blamed a staff change. Crenshaw, who is leaving Congress in January after losing his primary, did not respond to the Sun's requests for comment.
Because the reports were more than 30 days late, each lawmaker faces a $200 fine.