Cites Emert campaign’s discovery of mileage reimbursement fraud as motivation
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Less than a day ago, Jason Emert’s congressional campaign released records revealing a longstanding pattern of reimbursing mileage to and from political and personal events by Mayor Tim Burchett. Today, a member of the Republican State Executive Committee, Ken Gross, announced on Facebook that he has filed a complaint of fraud with the Tennessee Comptroller against Mayor Burchett.
The Mayor’s Office coincidentally refused to release these reports until after early voting had already begun, despite having received the request months ago, and presumably hoped that any reaction would be too little, too late. However, the Emert campaign continues and renews our call on Mayor Burchett to refund the taxpayers of Knox County and to release the entirety of his expense reports, as well as renewing our call for the Knox County Commission to open an investigation of these expenses.
Campaign spokesman Chris Olmstead released the following statement from the Emert campaign:
“For eight years the taxpayers of Knox County have been footing the bill for Mayor Burchett to galavant around the state to various political functions and personal engagements without any accountability whatsoever. A public statement ackowledging the existence of an investigation of Mayor Burchett by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office is long overdue. The citizens of Knox County demand to know if the Comptroller is taking the various allegations filed against the Mayor seriously, or if they are going to let a member of the good ol’ boy’s club slide away scot-free.”
To recap from yesterday’s press release:
It is the Emert campaign’s estimation that nearly 18% ($6,057 of $33,783) of Mayor Burchett’s mileage reimbursements have been improper, fraudulent, and equate to embezzlement. These include:
90 Campaign events (2,848 miles)
17 Political/campaign meetings (528 miles)
46 Donor/political meals (473 miles)
113 Personal meals (1,577 miles)
124 funerals (3,339 miles)
94 Non-mayoral events (2,605 miles)
2 Non-mayoral meetings (24 miles)
The entirety of the reports released by the Mayor’s office, as well as selected excerpts of the improperly reimbursed mileage can be found HERE or at: bit.ly/BurchettMiles
Another felony fraud committed by Tim Burchett. The ghost employee was a felony that was never investigated. Will this felony be investigated? How many felonies will the Knox County DA look away from? You cannot trust Tim Burchett.