Hickenlooper Admits to Freeby Flights on Private Corporate Jets
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
11/30/2018
Jet-set John attempts to shoe-horn his illegal activity into existing ethics exemptions
Denver, CO - Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper submitted his written response to the formal ethics complaint filed in October by the non-partisan Public Trust Institute. After review of Hickenlooper’s written response, PTI found multiple inconsistencies in the Governor’s claimed defenses and other tortured statements that reinforce PTI’s initial complaint to the Ethics Commission that Governor Hickenlooper demonstrated a pattern of illegal activity where he accepted gifts and travel in violation of Colorado’s ethics laws.
“John Hickenlooper did what any guilty person would have done, he attacked us for bringing his illegal activities to light and attempted to bury them under paperwork and false claims of defense,” observed Frank McNulty, former Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives and Director with the Public Trust Institute. “Hickenlooper’s response shows how guilty he really is. He cannot show that he paid for his corporate travel aboard multimillion-dollar jets or fancy Italian conference, so he tries to pull the wool over the eyes of Coloradans in the hopes that he’ll get away with it.”
At question is whether Governor Hickenlooper violated Colorado’s strict ethics laws, commonly known as Amendment 41 by accepting gifts and private jet travel in excess of legal limits. In one case where Hickenlooper accepted illegal private jet travel, his claimed defense was that the private jet was heading to the same place, had an empty seat, and because of these things, his private jet travel fit into the “special occasion” exemption under the law.
“Travelling to the same place does not create special occasion – Hickenlooper should be embarrassed that he even tried to make such an outlandish claim,” McNulty said. “Taken together, the misrepresentations and false claims of defense in his response demonstrate a politician who thinks he’s above the law. Instead of admitting that he was wrong, Hickenlooper continues to lie to the people of Colorado. His response shows just how out of touch Jet-set John really is.”
In some cases, the Governor provided receipts and statements showing that he had paid for certain travel expenses, for other gifts and travel he claimed to have paid for himself, like the Bilderberg conference in Italy, the Governor offered no similar evidence of personal payment.
“If the Colorado Ethics Commission accepts Hickenlooper’s tortured response, they will have opened a bus sized hole in Colorado’s ethics and transparency laws and made Amendment 41 meaningless.” McNulty concluded.
The Public Trust Institute identified another private jet trip since the initial complaint was filed. The new violation has been flagged for the Ethics Commission in an additional complaint filed this week.
PTI Rebuttal Link
PTI Second Complaint Link
About the Public Trust Institute: The Public Trust Institute (PTI) was founded to help restore the public trust in American leadership. PTI monitors federal and state activities and holds public officials accountable for ethical abuses.