Manhattan and Brooklyn Rep. Daniel Goldman got in hot water Friday after he retweeted a post from his official government account onto his campaign profile where followers are encouraged to donate — a breach of House ethics rules, according to a government watchdog.
The 47-year-old freshman Democrat crossed the line to promote his Thursday cameo at a House select subcommittee hearing on the “Twitter Files” — during which he and other liberal lawmakers derided journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, suggesting that the reporters were under the thumb of billionaire Twitter CEO Elon Musk and out for personal profit.
Goldman shared his appearance at the GOP-controlled Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government with his campaign account‘s more than 450,000 Twitter followers. The representative’s official account only has around 50,000 followers.
The campaign account bio also includes a link to Goldman’s page on ActBlue, a donation platform that has generated billions of dollars for Democratic candidates in recent elections.
“The 1st Am[endment] prevents the government — not private co[mpany]’s — from prohibiting lawful speech. GOP officials around the country are banning books. Donald Trump literally jailed his former attorney to keep him quiet,” Goldman had tweeted. “And yet Republicans are wasting our time talking about Twitter.”
“House ethics rules prohibit members from using official resources for political purposes, and one official resource is official social media accounts,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, told The Post. “This protects both taxpayer funds and the integrity of the office.”
The ethics breach was first pointed out by State Freedom Caucus Network director Greg Price.
“Rep. Daniel Goldman is retweeting his government account from his campaign account with his ActBlue link in the bio,” Price said on Twitter. “That’s a violation of House Ethics rules on prohibition of official resources being used for a campaign.”
Goldman first gained national prominence as the lead counsel for the House Intelligence Committee during the hearings that led to former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
After an abortive campaign for New York attorney general, Goldman decided to run for Congress in the Empire State’s redrawn 10th Congressional District, which covers Lower Manhattan and much of brownstone Brooklyn.
Goldman, whose net worth exceeds $250 million and is the heir to the immense Levi Strauss & Co. blue jeans fortune, squeaked through a hotly contested primary despite receiving just 25.8% of the vote.
“Dan Goldman is known for his larger than life arrogance and his deep love of lecturing Members of Congress that ‘no one is above the law,’” a senior member of New York’s delegation told The Post. “Meanwhile he breaks the most basic ethics rules for Members of Congress.”
“Dan must have been too busy addressing his 80+ parking and speeding tickets to read up on ethics rules,” the pol added. “There’s a running joke among the entire NY delegation about how this guy is going to have an inevitable and painful fall as he gets burned by his burning quest of the limelight.”
Goldman’s breach is similar to one committed by another House Democrat in 2021. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) retweeted political advertisements and information about fundraisers on his congressional social media account, prompting a complaint from FACT.
“At times, ethical rules that members of Congress have to follow are somewhat complicated — this is not one of those times,” Arnold told The Washington Free Beacon at the time. “A member simply cannot share any campaign or political-related messages on their official, taxpayer-provided social media accounts. In this case, Rep. Davis has done just that.”
Goldman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.