Lauren Boebert rejects ethics complaint alleging sex with three staffers and a $200,000 hush money payment

From the Newshound archive · first published 21 September 2026 · last updated 22 September 2026.

Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert has denied a House Ethics Committee complaint — alleging affairs with three staffers, both current and former — calling it "utterly false" and "politically motivated." Activist David Wheeler filed the complaint on 17 September, claiming Boebert paid senior staffer Clarice Navarro Ratzlaff $200,000 after a four-year affair ended and Ratzlaff threatened to lodge her own ethics complaint. In an angry video filmed on her porch, Boebert branded Wheeler a "sloppy, desperate, obsessive hack" and accused the journalists who covered the story of falling for a "scam."

Wheeler says his supporting evidence includes texts, bank records, court documents and recorded conversations, all of which Boebert's office flatly rejects.

The complaint was not formally filed with the House Ethics Committee, and no official body has independently verified or established the allegations as fact.

'If it was only about me, I would have brushed this off,' Boebert said, explaining she spoke out because her staff members were also named.