Manhattan and Brooklyn Rep. Daniel Goldman got in hot water Friday after he retweeted a post from his official government account onto his campaign profile where followers are encouraged to donate — a breach of House ethics rules, in line with a government watchdog.
The 47-year-old freshman Democrat crossed the road to advertise his Thursday cameo at a House select subcommittee hearing on the “Twitter Files” — during which he and other liberal lawmakers derided journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, suggesting that the reporters were under the thumb of billionaire Twitter CEO Elon Musk and out for private profit.
Goldman shared his appearance on the GOP-controlled Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government with his campaign account‘s greater than 450,000 Twitter followers. The representative’s official account only has around 50,000 followers.
The campaign account bio also features a link to Goldman’s page on ActBlue, a donation platform that has generated billions of dollars for Democratic candidates in recent elections.
“The first Am[endment] prevents the federal government — not private co[mpany]’s — from prohibiting lawful speech. GOP officials across the country are banning books. Donald Trump literally jailed his former attorney to maintain him quiet,” Goldman had tweeted. “And yet Republicans are wasting our time talking about Twitter.”
“House ethics rules prohibit members from using official resources for political purposes, and one official resource is official social media accounts,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, told The Post. “This protects each taxpayer funds and the integrity of the office.”
The ethics breach was first identified by State Freedom Caucus Network director Greg Price.
“Rep. Daniel Goldman is retweeting his government account from his campaign account together with his ActBlue link within the bio,” Price said on Twitter. “That’s a violation of House Ethics rules on prohibition of official resources getting used for a campaign.”
Goldman first gained national prominence because the lead counsel for the House Intelligence Committee through the hearings that led to former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
After an abortive campaign for Latest York attorney general, Goldman decided to run for Congress within the Empire State’s redrawn tenth Congressional District, which covers Lower Manhattan and far of brownstone Brooklyn.
Goldman, whose net value exceeds $250 million and is the heir to the immense Levi Strauss & Co. blue jeans fortune, squeaked through a hotly contested primary despite receiving just 25.8% of the vote.
“Dan Goldman is thought for his larger than life arrogance and his deep love of lecturing Members of Congress that ‘nobody is above the law,’” a senior member of Latest York’s delegation told The Post. “Meanwhile he breaks probably the most basic ethics rules for Members of Congress.”
“Dan will need to have been too busy addressing his 80+ parking and speeding tickets to read up on ethics rules,” the pol added. “There’s a running joke amongst all the NY delegation about how this guy goes to have an inevitable and painful fall as he gets burned by his burning quest of the limelight.”
Goldman’s breach is analogous to at least one committed by one other House Democrat in 2021. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Sick.) retweeted political advertisements and knowledge about fundraisers on his congressional social media account, prompting a grievance from FACT.
“At times, ethical rules that members of Congress should follow are somewhat complicated — this will not be certainly one of those times,” Arnold told The Washington Free Beacon on the time. “A member simply cannot share any campaign or political-related messages on their official, taxpayer-provided social media accounts. On this case, Rep. Davis has done just that.”
Goldman’s office didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
