House Ethics panel extends review of allegations into Collins, top aide
The House Ethics Committee announced Monday that it’s extending a review of allegations against Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) and Brandon Phillips, Collins’s chief of staff who transitioned to the congressman’s Senate campaign, releasing a report from the Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC) that raised allegations over the hiring of a past intern in the congressman’s office.
The OCC report alleges that Collins’s office paid a woman named Caroline Craze once in late 2023 and again in late 2024 as a “District Office Paid Intern” for a total of more than $10,000. Former and current members of the congressman’s office alleged she had not served as an intern in the congressman’s district or Washington, D.C., offices during those periods, with some indicating that Phillips had a personal relationship with Craze. Several witnesses also suggested that Phillips had been involved in Craze’s hiring.
“Although several witnesses indicated that Ms. Craze may have had a limited role supporting some work carried out by Rep. Collins’s staff in 2023 and 2024, current and former staffers who worked in his Washington, D.C. Office while Ms. Craze was on Rep. Collins’s payroll told the OCC that she never served as a D.C. intern—which, like the District Intern position, was an in-person position,” the OCC report said.
The OCC report also included several complaints pertaining to Phillips’s House salary and travel expenses. However, the OCC said in the latter cases that the OCC “was not able to reach a determination at this time on whether there is a substantial reason to believe the additional allegations.”
The report said there was “substantial reason to believe” that Collins and Phillips “used congressional resources for unofficial or otherwise unauthorized purposes” and “discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges by retaining an employee with whom” Phillips had a personal relationship. The report pertaining to Collins also said, “There is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Collins retained an employee who did not perform duties commensurate with the compensation the employee received.”
The House Ethics Committee noted in both their press releases that an extension of their investigation does not mean there was any wrongdoing done or that it offers a judgement from the committee.
“This bogus complaint is a sad attempt to derail one of Georgia’s most effective conservative legislators in Congress,” Collins’s office said in a statement responding to the news. “Rep. Collins looks forward to providing the House Ethics Committee all factual information and putting these meritless allegations to rest.”
The House Ethics Committee previously announced it was investigating a complaint into Collins and Phillips, though the OCC report marks the first time allegations have been outlined publicly.
Collins is running in the GOP primary to take on Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) this year and is seen as a top contender for the Republican nod. Phillips is a longtime GOP operative in Georgia who worked on President Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns in the state.
An attorney representing Collins and Phillips asked the House Ethics Committee’s chief counsel to dismiss the investigation into the two men in a letter dated Dec. 31 , saying the referrals came from “two disgruntled, former members of Congressman Collins staff.”
Attorney Russell Duncan pointed out that in its letter the committee indicated it wasn’t able to determine whether there was “substantial reason” to believe some of the concerns raised around Phillips’s travel expenses or his House salary, urging the House Ethics Committee to “take no further action” regarding those issues.
The lawyers also defended Phillips’s decision to hire Craze, saying “the evidence is that this temporary hiring was proper and done to assist the Office in serving the interests of the District. Mr. Phillips’s decision to hire this intern was well within his discretion in managing the Congressman’s office.”
“This intern provided valuable assistance to the Office throughout both years regarding communications and other work of the Office,” Duncan added.
Updated at 8:17 p.m. EST
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