Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) was the subject of an ethics complaint last month accusing him of steering legislation that proved beneficial to his wife’s consulting business and clients.
Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee urging them to investigate Whitehouse for potential conflicts of interest connected to his wife Sandra Whitehouse’s consulting business.
“There is strong evidence that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse may have violated Senate ethics conflicts of interest rules. The Senate Ethics Committee should immediately investigate this serious issue,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
“Senator Whitehouse seems to have stepped over the line of standard environmental legislative advocacy and used his Senate office to advance his and his wife’s personal and financial interests.”
A proponent of overhauling the Supreme Court, Whitehouse is leading Senate Democrats’ “ethics” investigation into the Supreme Court concerning the influence of “dark money” on conservative justices.
“The problem is that those very powerful rightwing billionaires got sloppy, and their gift program to take care of certain Supreme Court Justices started breaking gift and disclosure rules — very likely tax rules, as well, with a few of the amenable Supreme Court Justices whom they were rewarding with lavish entertainments,” Whitehouse said in December.
His comments refer to the left-wing outlet ProPublica’s campaign against Clarence Thomas for accepting gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow. The outlet is bankrolled by the Sandler Foundation, a patron of left-wing activist groups seeking to undermine the Supreme Court.
Senator Whitehouse’s wife, Sandra Whitehouse, is the president of Ocean Wonks LLC, a Rhode Island-based consulting firm whose clients have received millions from legislation supported by Senator Whitehouse, the ethics complaint states.
The ethics issues involving Senator Whitehouse began in 2009 when offshore wind company Deepwater Wind received a $22.3 million grant after he pushed the Obama administration’s transportation department to approve the federal funding, local media reported at the time. Deepwater Wind reportedly hired Sandra Whitehouse less than three weeks after her husband pushed for the grant, but Whitehouse’s office denied the hiring took place.
Since then, Whitehouse has repeatedly celebrated Deepwater’s offshore wind projects backed by federal contracts. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed by President Biden in 2022 contained a 30 percent tax credit for an offshore-wind project Deepwater began in 2016.
Ocean Conservancy, a DC-based environmental nonprofit, has paid Sandra Whitehouse $2.6 million since 2009, according to Influence Watch. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allocated $1.4 billion for an ocean exploration program that directly benefits Ocean Conservancy, the ethics complaint says.
The nonprofit supported a provision in the 2015 budget bill establishing a subagency for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an Ocean Conservancy partner, to dole out grants for the protection of coastal infrastructure. The National Coastal Resilience Fund has given $466 million in grants since it was established.
AltaSea, a California-based aquatic agriculture nonprofit, paid Sandra Whitehouse $490,000 for consulting work from 2015-18, tax filings show. The Commerce Department also supplied the firm with a $3 million grant during the time it compensated her, the ethics complaint documents.
“Given Senator Whitehouse’s longstanding practice of sponsoring or cosponsoring legislation that directly benefits his wife and/or her clients, we urge the Senate Ethics Committee to conduct a preliminary investigation to disinter the full extent of Mrs. Whitehouse’s consulting activities, with both for-profit and nonprofit entities, that may create a reasonable appearance of a conflict of interest with Senator Whitehouse’s official duties” the ethics complaint concludes.
Senator Whitehouse co-founded the Senate Ocean Caucus in 2011 and supported at least 24 bills that benefitted his wife’s clients, the Daily Caller previously reported.
“This is the latest in a long string of erroneous conspiracy theories peddled by the dark-money Judicial Watch, going back to the group’s claims that Vince Foster was murdered,” a Whitehouse spokesperson told the New York Post. Whitehouse’s office did not respond to a request for additional comment.