DCCC chair in hot seat, reportedly shelled out thousands in donor funds for hubby’s personal trainer

There are calls for an ethics probe into Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee over the use of thousands of dollars in taxpayer and donor funds to pay a personal trainer for his husband.

The New York Democrat, who won the August primary against his Ocasio-Cortez-backed challenger, is drawing criticism for shelling out more than $7,000 for the services of the trainer to work out with Randy Florke, who is married to the openly gay congressman.

“Records filed with the House chief administrative officer show that Maloney’s congressional office made a total of $2,609 in payments to trainer Erick Ramos between April 8 and May 17, 2021,” the New York Post reported, citing records filed with the Federal Election Commission.

“In addition, Maloney’s campaign paid Ramos a total of $3,468 between March 31 and May 31, 2020, and another $928 between Sept. 30 and Oct. 15, 2021,” the outlet reported. “Maloney identified Ramos, 29, of Beacon, in the filings as a ‘part-time employee’ and ‘administrative’ worker, respectively.”

Florke has made repeated references to Ramos in posts on Instagram including one from June 2021 showing him shirtless in black shorts in a scenic setting overlooking the Hudson River.

(Image: Screengrab/The Daily Mail)

“Good days start with good decisions! Hiked Mt. Beacon with my trainer @3rick_ramos1993 this morning instead of our normal workout,” wrote Florke.

“Using taxpayer funds to hire a personal trainer is outrageous. Sean Patrick Maloney should face an ethics investigation,” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Samantha Bullock.

Rep. Maloney’s Republican opponent in the upcoming election for the redrawn 17th Congressional District in Westchester blasted the Democrat for “outrageous” expenditures and accused his foe and his hubby of  “treating taxpayer dollars like a personal slush fund,” according to the New York Post.

“What really burns me up is that he’s doing this while Hudson Valley families are putting items back on grocery store shelves because they can’t afford them,” Lawler said of the five-term incumbent. “Talk about the Washington elite being out of touch.”

Lawler’s campaign also criticized what it called an “unusual financial arrangement” in a statement to the Daily Mail.

“The Erick Ramos controversy stinks to high heaven, but Sean Maloney seems to think that ethics rules don’t apply to him,” said campaign spokesperson Bill O’Reilly. “That’s what happens when you’ve been a Washington-insider for too long. The more Mr. Maloney tries to run from this, the more questions arise.”

A spokesperson for Maloney blasted the scrutiny over the payments to Ramos as “blatant homophobia and another baseless attack on a person of color who worked for Rep. Maloney,” according to the New York Post.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Maloney spoke out about the perception of his party being elitist, “I think that most of the voters that we ask about this think that we’re out of touch, they think we’re elitist, we think we are better than they are. And they don’t like it.”

“I mean, the fact is, is that if you listen to the way people speak on our cable news channels — I love Chris Hayes — but the point is, if you listen to the way we talk and communicate, it is not the way my voters talk. It’s not the way my neighbors talk, it’s not the way my family talks,” Maloney said. “If I’m talking to a sheet metal worker in Pine Bush, he doesn’t talk about communities of color, he doesn’t use the word ‘rubric.’ He doesn’t talk about — the first-generation folks working in Newburgh don’t use the word ‘Latinx.’ Most people don’t understand who are cisgender, why they need to put pronouns on their email signature.”

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