“The question the Senate must answer is not whether Senators Hawley and Cruz had the right to the object for voters, but whether senators failed”[p]total loyalty to the highest moral principles and to the country above loyalty to people, party or government department ‘or engaged in’ improper conduct reflecting in the Senate ‘in connection with the violence on January 6, “wrote the Democrats, citing the Code Ethics for Government Services and the Senate Ethics Manual.
In their letter to panel leaders, Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, the seven senators also asked the committee to offer disciplinary recommendations, “including even expulsion or censorship”.
In a statement on Thursday, Hawley called the complaint “a flagrant abuse of the Senate ethics process and a flagrant attempt at party revenge”.
A spokesman for Cruz accused the seven Democrats of “playing political games with frivolous ethical complaints against their colleagues”.
“Senator Cruz debated an issue of law and politics in the Senate floor, he did so expressly supported by 11 other senators and used a process to raise the objection that has been explicitly authorized by federal law for almost 150 years,” the spokesman said in a statement, adding that “Cruz immediately condemned the January 6 terrorist attack on the Capitol, asking that everyone who broke into the Capitol be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Hawley announced on December 30 that he would object during the Electoral College certification process, challenging Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. Almost a dozen other Republican lawmakers, including Cruz, later announced that they would also object. But some changed their minds after the January 6 noon violence – something the seven Democrats noted in their complaint.
“By continuing to object to voters after the violent attack, Senators Cruz and Hawley gave the crowd cause legitimacy and made future violence more likely,” wrote the Democratic senators.
The seven Democrats wrote on Thursday that “The Senate has the exclusive power to determine whether the actions (of Hawley and Cruz) violated its rules of ethics, to investigate new conduct that we may not be aware of that may have violated those rules. and to consider appropriate discipline. “
They asked investigators to investigate issues, including whether Hawley, Cruz or members of their offices or campaigns “were in contact or coordinated with the organizers of the demonstration”, “knew about the plans for the event” or “received funding from organizations or donors who also funded the demonstration. “
Whitehouse, one of the seven Democrats, told CNN on Thursday afternoon that he sent the letter because “we need to clarify exactly what happened”.
“The only place to do this effectively is in the Senate, because executive agencies cannot be trusted to carry out this investigation because they are on the wrong side of the separation of powers,” he added.
This story was updated with a statement by a spokesman for Senator Ted Cruz.
CNN’s Manu Raju, Ali Zaslav, Dan Merica, Paul LeBlanc, Katelyn Polantz and Rebecca Grandahl contributed to this report.