NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles filed 11 amendments to his campaign finance reports Wednesday, acknowledging that his claims for the last two years to have loaned $320,000 to his campaign were not true.
This comes less than six months after an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation that questioned whether the Maury County Republican's campaign reports were accurate. Despite having reported making the $320,000 personal loan, Ogles' personal financial disclosures did not show any substantial investments — not even a savings account.
Watch my report in the player above. I explain how we got here and what just happened with Ogles' campaign finance.
On the 11 amendments filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, revising reports dating back to April 2022, Ogles says that he actually loaned his campaign $20,000, instead of the $320,000 that he had previously claimed.
"It's a huge deal in the political world for political observers and for campaign types. Sort of fudging your numbers is highly frowned upon in those circles," said Erik Schelzig, editor of the respected political newsletter The Tennessee Journal.
Why would Ogles report a loan that he never made?
"That's an open question," Schelzig told NewsChannel 5 Investigates. "You know, this $320,000 loan is something that has been sort of floating around since almost the minute that he joined the campaign."
Schelzig noted that Ogles originally told reporters he had lots of cash with no loans — at a time when he was trying to portray himself as a serious, well-funded candidate.
"At that point, he was able to send signals to outside groups and others to (a) back him or (b) stay out of the race and not back other candidates because he was likely to win."
In January, a nonpartisan watchdog group, the Campaign Legal Center (CLC), filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), citing NewsChannel 5's reporting and comparing Ogles' conduct to disgraced New York Congressman George Santos.
Danielle Caputo, the CLC's legal counsel for ethics, said Ogles' latest amendments could be related to that investigation.
"I think the fact that Congressman Ogles went from $320,000 in a loan to his campaign to $20,000 is very odd," Caputo said.
Santos is now facing a criminal indictment that accuses him of reporting non-existent personal loans to his campaign in order to be eligible for other campaign contributions.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked Caputo, "At what point does this go from being a regulatory concern to something potentially much more serious, potentially criminal?"
"Right now, these amended reports raise so many more questions," she responded.
"If it does appear that this is intentional, and he is attempting to mislead the public or he is purposefully lying on these forms, then I think we definitely may be getting into less of a regulatory issue and more of a potential criminal issue, but that is just pure speculation."
Since NewsChannel 5 first broke the story, Ogles had told other outlets that he "mistakingly included" the extra $300,000 that he was prepared to spend.
Two years ago, Andy Ogles reported that he had $283,338 "cash on hand."
— Phil Williams (@NC5PhilWilliams) May 23, 2024
Now, he says it was really $2,462.
How do you look at your bank accounts and "mistakenly include" cash you don't have? 2/ pic.twitter.com/6wQnMfwZJb
Ogles' GOP opponent, Metro Council member Courtney Johnston, issued a statement Thursday condemning the incumbent's actions.
"Andy Ogles lied to the federal government and got caught. Normal folks get in big trouble for lying to the feds about money, but Andy is a politician who thinks he deserves a free pass and two more years of a taxpayer salary," Johnston said.
"If Andy Ogles is willing to lie about his own money, what won’t he lie about? We deserve a representative we can trust."
Democratic candidate Maryam Abolfazli tweeted: "I can't imagine the hubris one possesses to lie on those documents. You've got to be living in a different reality to think you can say you have $300,000 and then come back later and say you don't. It reminds me of the new extremist GOP in general: like dictators, they believe the law is simply a tool to manipulate for their own personal gain."
This development follows NewsChannel 5's revelations that Ogles misrepresented his educational and professional credentials, including his claims to be an economist, a trained law enforcement officer and an expert in "international sex crimes."
Our investigation discovered that he had used the stillborn death of a child to raise nearly $25,000 for a children's burial garden that was never built. Ogles has refused to provide evidence of what he did with the money.
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