Marshall’s payments from leadership PAC to top aide violate federal law, new ethics complaint says

Marshall’s payments from leadership PAC to top aide violate federal law, new ethics complaint says

TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall may have violated federal campaign finance law when he paid a top aide with funds from a leadership PAC, which can’t be used to finance a candidate’s own campaign, according to a complaint filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission.

End Citizens United, a campaign finance watchdog, sent the nine-page complaint to the FEC and the Senate Ethics Committee. It was the group’s second complaint against Marshall in eight days. The initial complaint said Marshall improperly used taxpayer funds to travel to political and personal events and, referencing a Kansas Reflector-MS NOW investigation, found that Marshall has no paid campaign staff. It requested the ethics committee investigate Marshall.

The second complaint went a step further, alleging Marshall broke federal campaign finance law by making payments from his leadership PAC to his chief of staff, Brent Robertson. Marshall’s campaign maintains he follows all applicable laws.

Robertson hasn’t been paid by Marshall’s campaign since 2021, despite being described at one point as the head of campaign operations. He previously told Kansas Reflector he had been paid through one of Marshall’s affiliated PAC’s and worked as a campaign volunteer.

The Marshall-affiliated Defend Our Conservative Senate PAC, or Doc’s PAC, paid Robertson three times in the past two years.

“Federal candidates may not use their leadership PACs to finance their own campaigns,” the complaint said, citing federal law. “A leadership PAC may not donate or otherwise provide more than $5,000 in goods and services per election to the Federal candidate with whom it is associated.”

Leadership PACs exist, in part, to boost other candidates’ campaigns and build party alliances, but federal law prohibits them from being used to directly fund the officeholder’s own reelection campaign.

“Senator Marshall operates in full compliance with all applicable rules and laws,” said Steve Roberts, a lawyer for Marshall’s campaign, in an emailed statement.

It is unclear what part Robertson plays in the Marshall campaign or in his office. The campaign declined to respond to Kansas Reflector’s questions about staff and the heightened scrutiny of Marshall’s campaign finance records.

Federal campaign finance records show that Doc’s PAC is the only PAC to pay Robertson during the 2025-2026 election cycle. Campaign finance records show three payments from Doc’s PAC to Robertson: $30,000 for “strategic consulting” on Jan. 17, 2025; $3,200 on July 18, 2025; and $33,000 for “strategic consulting” on Jan. 28, 2026.

“The scale of these payments is especially striking because they bear little apparent relationship to DOC’s PAC’s actual political activity,” the complaint said.

Records show the PAC contributed $105,000 to 10 federal committees in a two-year period. For comparison, the leadership PAC of Kansas’ other Republican senator, Jerry Moran, contributed $515,000 during the same two-year period to at least 25 state and federal committees, according to FEC records. 

Marshall said recently on FOX4KC that the claim he has no paid, full-time campaign staff are “false accusations” and “a lie.”

“When FOX4 asked Marshall one final time whether campaign staff payments would appear in future FEC filings, he responded, ‘Oh my gosh, yes,’ ” the TV station reported Thursday.

Bawadden Sayed, a spokesperson for End Citizens United, said the Senate Ethics Committee and the FEC ought to be the judges of the merit of the complaints.

“It’s certainly in Roger Marshall’s best interest to deny any wrongdoing,” Sayed said. “Unfortunately for him, the facts tell a different story.”

The Kansas U.S. Senate race has made this election cycle the most expensive in state history. End Citizens United has endorsed Marshall’s Democratic opponent, the Rev. Adam Hamilton.

As of Oct. 14, Marshall’s campaign still had no full-time campaign staff — only $11,500 in payments to consultants who also work — or formerly worked — for his office. Abbi Enders, Payton Fuller and Aimee Titus each recently received payments for “campaign consulting,” ranging from $2,000 to $5,000.

“And these are the only people the Campaign has paid for any work since mid-July,” the End Citizens United complaint said. “Notably, the two largest payments came on October 14, five days after the Kansas Reflector and MS NOW published their investigation.” 

The basis for both complaints relied on a joint investigation from Kansas Reflector and MS NOW, which obtained audio, video, photos, calendar items and screenshots of more than 200 text messages involving Marshall and his staff from 2020, when he first ran for Senate. Legal and ethics experts said the records appear to show Marshall and his top aide repeatedly crossed the line in terms of using congressional staff and government resources for a campaign.

Kansas Reflector and MS NOW also reviewed campaign finance reports, expenses and financial disclosures, and talked to multiple former staffers who recounted instances where the taxpayer-funded Senate office functioned more as an arm of the campaign.

Enders was with Marshall on Oct. 23 in his official capacity as a U.S. Senator during a visit to a manufacturing facility in Topeka with U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, and on Oct. 26 at a campaign rally headlined by Vice President JD Vance. Fuller hasn’t responded to emails from Kansas Reflector in recent weeks and ceased regular posting on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Fuller, like Robertson, previously said she was volunteering for Marshall’s campaign.

The complaint, signed by End Citizens United president Tiffany Muller, demanded an immediate and thorough investigation of Marshall, his campaign, his affiliated PAC and his treasurer, Chris Marston.

Muller said federal law “expressly prohibits” the arrangement. She said calling Robertson’s work volunteer work doesn’t change anything, and she thanked Robertson “for bringing this serious matter to our attention.”

“We couldn’t have done it without him,” she said.

She added: “Roger Marshall might want to spend less time worrying about his reelection campaign and more time finding a good lawyer. His own chief of staff exposed what appears to be an illegal scheme by Marshall to use the leadership PAC to subsidize his reelection campaign.”