SCOOP: Liberal city mayor hit with ethics complaint over alleged lavish gifts

FIRST ON FOX: A nonpartisan government watchdog filed an ethics complaint against Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday morning. 

The complaint by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) requests the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability investigate Bowser for allegedly accepting illegal travel and hospitality gifts on high-profile trips to Doha, Qatar, for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, and trips to Dubai, Las Vegas, Miami and Mar-a-Lago.

“The basic standard for elected officials is honest transparency, which means following all disclosure laws and willingly answering the public’s questions. The mayor’s unwillingness to provide basic information about numerous high-profile trips is unacceptable,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, shared first with Fox News Digital. 

FACT cited WJLA’s investigation into missing records from Bowser’s prominent trips, in which they discovered Qatar paid Bowser and four staff members $61,930 to fly to the Middle East in 2023.

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Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on March 10, 2024. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

“It is not simply the Qatar trip, but a troubling pattern from Mar-A-Lago to Doha to Augusta National – the District has no record of who paid for these trips or what public purpose they served, if there was one at all,” Arnold said. “The ethics rules exist to protect against corruption, and when they are ignored, the public’s trust erodes. I urge the Board to investigate and enforce the law without delay.”

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While the Middle East trip should have been disclosed in order to be accepted as a legal donation to the District of Columbia, FACT said in the complaint that there is no record of who paid for the trip. 

“When questioned by the press, initially the mayor’s office said the trip was paid for by the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber said that was not true. Then, the mayor’s office said the trip was paid for by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That was also false,” FACT claimed. 

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Monday, March 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Then, in February 2025, the mayor’s office requested the trip’s expense breakdown, labeled it an “in-kind donation” and sought a “retroactive donation agreement,” despite the two years that passed, according to FACT.

“Yet, unbelievably, it wasn’t until a reporter’s Freedom of Information Act request in March 2025 that this information was publicly revealed—more specifically that Qatar paid more than $61,930 for the trip the mayor’s office was now attempting to retroactively describe as an ‘in-kind donation.’ As of May 2025, the District still does not have a record of Qatar paying for Bowser’s 2023 trip,” according to the complaint. 

Again, citing WJLA’s investigative reporting, FACT said the District of Columbia has no expense records for several more trips, including to the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, and trips to Las Vegas, Miami and Mar-a-Lago.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser speaks at a press conference after testifying for hours before the D.C. City Council outlining the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2024. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

FACT accused Bowser of violating a “fundamental ethics principle” that prevents corruption and discourages elected officials from accepting bribes and donations. 

Under Washington, D.C., law, government officials cannot accept certain gifts, including trips, lodging and transportation. The law allows donations to the district itself if the government entity “uses the gift or donation to carry out its authorized functions or duties.” 

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In that case, detailed and accurate records must be available for “audit and public inspection.” Those donations to the district must be “recorded and approved before the donation is used.” 

“Clearly Mayor Bowser’s trip to Qatar qualifies as a gift, and one that elected officials are personally prohibited from accepting. Additionally, this gift would not qualify as a donation made to the District because the donation was not recorded and approved before the donation was used. The District still does not even have a record of it,” FACT concluded in the complaint.