"Substantial reason to believe" allegations against Rep. McMorris Rodgers

ABC New is reporting:

The onetime employee was Todd Winer, a former spokesman for McMorris Rodgers who told the ethics office that he wrote campaign speeches for her on his work computer during business hours, and that he and other staffers frequently wrote news releases and did other work for the campaign on government time. …. Winer, in lengthy testimony to the ethics office, said he and several staffers attended a debate prep session at the congresswoman’s office in the Rayburn building on a weekday in October 2012, in apparent violation of House rules. Staffers also traveled to a debate in Spokane, Wash., later that month and attended other campaign events over several days, all on official time, Winer said. Such actions would violate House rules that require campaign activities be separated from official duties.

Winer told investigators that he was uncomfortable performing campaign work on staff time, but was told by the congresswoman’s former chief of staff, Jeremy Deutsch, that he “wanted to keep down costs” for the campaign so McMorris Rodgers would have more money to contribute to other GOP candidates and build support for her race for GOP leadership.