Rep. Lauren Boebert is fighting a sworn House Ethics complaint alleging relationships with three staffers and a $200,000 payment, calling the claims false and politically driven.
A sworn ethics complaint filed with the House Committee on Ethics accuses Rep. Lauren Boebert of carrying on sexual relationships with three members of her congressional staff, allegations the Colorado Republican rejects outright as fabricated. The complaint, submitted September 17 under penalty of perjury, also claims Boebert arranged a roughly $200,000 payment to a former district director who had allegedly threatened to file an ethics grievance of her own. Both Boebert and the aide deny the claims, and no evidence supporting the core allegations has been made public. The filing asks the committee to open a formal investigation and to refer possible campaign-finance and criminal violations to the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission.
The complaint places the congresswoman at the center of the kind of staff-conduct fight that has repeatedly reshaped how the House polices its own members. It arrives with no committee action to date, no charges, and no independently verified proof beyond the sworn assertions of a single outside activist.
The filing was submitted by David B. Wheeler of American Muckrakers, a group that has spent years pursuing officials in both parties. It names three current and former senior aides: Clarice Navarro, Boebert's district director from January 2021 to January 2025; Raven Finegan, her current district chief of staff; and Jeffrey Small, her former chief of staff.
The centerpiece is the alleged relationship with Navarro, a former Colorado state representative and Trump administration appointee at the Department of Agriculture. The complaint claims the relationship ran from 2021 through January 2025 and that Navarro received roughly $30,650 in year-end bonuses drawn from House funds, plus a $5,000 campaign payment described as "fundraising consulting."
The most serious allegation concerns money. Wheeler asserts Boebert arranged an approximately $200,000 payment to Navarro in 2025 after Navarro allegedly threatened to file her own ethics complaint. American Muckrakers characterizes the transfer as a hush payment. That claim has not been independently established, and no documentation of the transaction has been publicly produced.
The complaint argues the alleged conduct violated House Rule XXIII, which flatly prohibits members from engaging in sexual relationships with employees under their supervision. That prohibition was adopted as part of the chamber's post-#MeToo reforms and applies regardless of whether a relationship is described as consensual.
Navarro denied the allegations in blunt terms when reached by reporters. "These allegations regarding me are entirely false, defamatory, and beyond ridiculous," she said. "There is absolutely no truth to any part of this claim."
Boebert was equally direct. "Well, I'm not a lesbian or bisexual, and I have never, ever been in any inappropriate relationship, nor have I ever been sexually involved with any staff," she told Sources Say News. Asked about an added claim that she and Navarro took part in an encounter with former Rep. Matt Gaetz, she dismissed it with a shrug: "Creative, I'll give him that!"
Gaetz challenged anyone holding proof to publish it. "I am requesting that anyone with video of me in this alleged 'threesome' release said evidence IMMEDIATELY!" he wrote on X. "Unedited, please."
Boebert's ex-husband, Jayson Boebert, also pushed back. He described the claims involving Navarro as "a fairy tale made up propaganda" and accused the group of leaning on bad sources.
Boebert's office did not respond to a request for comment on the complaint. Earlier this year, the congresswoman publicly offered to help congressional staffers of either party who believe they have been mistreated by their bosses.
Wheeler is a familiar figure in Colorado politics, and his history with Boebert cuts against the weight of the new filing. In June 2022, he launched a website claiming she had previously worked as a paid escort. The site featured a photograph of a woman who was not Boebert, one of several errors Wheeler later acknowledged and described as "sloppy," even as he stood by his underlying claim.
Boebert threatened to sue over the accusation. She never did. Wheeler instead filed a defamation lawsuit against her over the public threats, a case that was settled in 2024 on undisclosed terms.
The complaint also leans on two prior Colorado news stories that never alleged any improper relationship. One covered a 2022 trip to Mar-a-Lago that included Navarro, then a staff member. The other described extended holiday closures at Boebert's district offices. Neither supports the sexual-misconduct claims now at issue.
The dispute is unfolding alongside other congressional conduct fights. Earlier this year the House voted 413-2 to censure Chuck Edwards over his treatment of female staffers, a sign that the chamber's ethics machinery is already moving on questions of how members treat the people who work for them.
Ethics complaints are cheap to file and expensive to resolve. The committee is not obligated to act on an outside filing, and it routinely declines to pursue allegations that lack corroboration. If it does open a review, the process typically runs for months, largely out of public view, before any finding is released.
The referrals Wheeler requests -- to the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission -- carry steep thresholds of their own. Federal prosecutors would need evidence of a specific violation, and campaign-finance regulators would need records showing the reported payments were misreported or unlawful. So far, none of that has surfaced publicly.
For Boebert, the immediate stakes are political as much as legal. She has built a national profile as a combative conservative, and a drawn-out ethics fight would keep her name in circulation heading into a midterm cycle where control of the House is on the line. Her allies have moved quickly to frame the complaint as an opposition stunt rather than a serious legal document.
What readers should watch is whether the committee acknowledges the filing at all. A public statement of review would signal real trouble. Silence, the committee's default, would leave the allegations exactly where they stand now: sworn claims, flat denials, and no evidence the public can examine.
Rep. Lauren Boebert is fighting a sworn House Ethics complaint alleging relationships with three staffers and a $200,000 payment, calling the claims false and politically driven.
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