Issa’s campaign finance reports make no mention of any in-kind donations from DEI or Greene Properties, nor has Issa ever paid DEI, Directed Electronics or Greene Properties from his campaign accounts for website management.
Issa spokesman Seamus Kraft said Tuesday: “The dei.com URL is a personal asset of Mr. Issa’s that was retained by him when he sold Directed Electronics prior to his election to Congress. With respect to a disclaimer, it was included on the page out of an abundance of caution. Congressman Issa would rather over-disclaim than potentially leave a disclaimer off something that legally required one. After reviewing the site with the [Federal Election Commission], it was determined the disclaimer was not necessary and it has been removed.”
As to the appearance of the DEI brand name on Oversight Committee videos, Kraft said that tag is generally used to differentiate Issa’s personal office videos from his committee videos, but sometimes the two end up co-mingled.
“Videos produced primarily for use on Congressman Issa’s personal office YouTube page — youtube.com/repdarrellissa — often contain a DEI Productions and Issa.house.gov tag at the end to give the viewer a website to visit for more information on the video’s subject matter,” Kraft said. “Videos produced primarily for use on the Oversight Committee YouTube page — youtube.com/oversightandreform — often contain an Oversight Productions and oversight.house.gov tag at the end to give the viewer a website to visit for more information on the video’s subject matter. Occasionally, videos produced for one page are cross-posted on the other.”
Roll Call reported last fall that Issa’s office was posting videos that were more overtly political than the language generally allowed in written material produced with taxpayer dollars. Since Issa has become chairman of the committee, the videos posted on the committee’s site and YouTube page have appeared to be less partisan, mostly detailing the committee’s agenda or providing clips of testimony of Members’ television appearances.
Alex Knott and Mackenzie Weinger contributed to this report.
Rep. Bill Cassidy has his blood drawn by Alesha Barbour during a free hepatitis screening in the Rayburn House Office Building hosted by the Congressional Viral Hepatitis Caucus to recognize "National Viral Hepatitis Testing Day."
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