Jennifer-Ruth Green, a former Republican congressional candidate, used her campaign finance funds in her brief run for Indiana’s First Congressional District to pay for legal fees in her state ethics investigation.
Green’s campaign report filed Jan. 31 shows The Committee To Elect Jennifer-Ruth Green paid $13,400 to Jennifer Lukemeyer, the attorney who represented Green in her ethics investigation. Lukemeyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Gov. Mike Braun hired Green to be Secretary of Public Safety, but she resigned Sept. 5 amid code of ethics violations for political activity, ghost employment, misuse of state property and prohibition against retaliation.
The Indiana State Ethics Commission and Green reached an agreement in December where Green agreed to pay the state a $10,000 fine.
“Jennifer-Ruth Green’s congressional campaign paid legal bills fighting off a vindictive smear campaign by a politically compromised inspector general solely designed to sabotage her campaign for U.S. Congress and destroy her reputation,” said Tim Edson, Green’s spokesman.
Edson told the Post-Tribune that Green paid the $10,000 fine with her personal funds.
Green announced her second candidacy for the First Congressional District in October, one day after Braun called for a special session to address mid-census redistricting. Ultimately, Green pulled out of the race Feb. 1, stating her decision to do so stemmed from the legislature not approving mid-census redistricting.
“Having been through it once, I understand the harsh reality: to win this seat, there is no margin for error. We will only win when we are unified in our vision as Republicans. We are in a midterm environment that history tells us will be challenging,” Green said in a statement.
Green violated the political activity and ghost employment rules for asking employees to generate content and proofread posts on her “Elect Jennifer-Ruth Green” Facebook page, according to the complaint.
Additionally, Green violated the political activity rule when she had a meeting with a National Republican Congressional Committee political director during work hours. She violated the misuse of state property rule when she met with the NRCC director in a conference room on state property, according to the complaint.
Green violated the ghost employment rule when she asked employees to perform personal tasks for her on state time on multiple occasions, including retrieving her assigned state vehicle from Crown Point, according to the complaint.
Further, Green violated the misuse of state property rule when she included her state title on her Battle-Proven Leadership website, where she promotes training seminars and her book, according to the complaint.
Green violated the misuse of state property rule when she used and required an employee to use her state vehicle for her personal use, according to the complaint.
After learning that an employee reported her, Green violated the prohibition against retaliation when she threatened the employee with demotion or termination and “made derogatory comments” toward the employee, according to the complaint.
Under federal law, campaign finance funds can’t be used for personal use. Using campaign finances for legal fees falls under a gray area, said Indiana University Northwest associate professor of political science Marie Eisenstein.
When determining if campaign finance funds could be used to pay a legal fee, Eisenstein said campaign funds could be used if the legal fees relate to the run for office. In Green’s case, Eisenstein said Green could use the campaign finance money to pay for legal fees because portions of the ethics investigation related to her campaign.
“She is technically allowed to use it,” Eisenstein said. “The devil is always in the details, but as a general rule, as long as the expense is something that would not exist but for the fact that she was a candidate for federal office, then it is allowed to be used.”
Eisenstein said it’s likely the public will respond cynically to a candidate using campaign finance funds to pay for legal fees.
“The rest of us would be funding this out of pocket. You get to use donations. I don’t think it would be viewed favorably. They may not think that she’s committed some heinous legal breach, but there’s certainly going to be some cynicism,” Eisenstein said.
Julia Vaughn, executive director of Common Cause Indiana, said she thought it “was a bold move” of Green to use campaign funds to pay for legal fees.
“There’s a lot of gray area when it comes to legal expenses, but for the campaign to claim that they needed to spend this money on an attorney because this was a political attack, it just doesn’t hold water,” Vaughn said.
When Green was investigated for ethics violations, it was by an administration of the same political party as hers, Vaughn said. Green reached an agreement where she admitted to the violations, Vaughn said.
“She’s painting a very different picture now to defend her campaign finance expenditures than she did when she was settling this case with the state,” Vaughn said.
The Federal Election Commission hasn’t been “functioning for quite some time,” which has emboldened candidates to file reports with questionable expenses because “they know there’s no enforcement,” Vaughn said.
“I believe it’s a primarily personal expense that if we had a Federal Election Commission with some teeth and the ability to regulate the law, that a complaint against her for this would be successful,” Vaughn said.
Green was a state employee and not a candidate when she was investigated for unethical behavior, Vaughn said.
“These legal expenses were generated because of her behavior as a state employee. It didn’t have anything to do with her status as a candidate. In fact, she wasn’t a candidate when she committed the acts that were found to be unethical.”
Vaughn said she found it interesting that Green didn’t pay the fine with the campaign funds. Both the fine and the legal fees should’ve been paid with personal funds, she said.
“The people who did contribute to her campaign contributed to help her get elected to Congress, not to help her get out of trouble with her job in state government,” Vaughn said.
akukulka@post-trib.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/02/14/jennifer-ruth-green-campaign-funds-ethics-investigation/
