Marshall’s Corruption Scandals Stack Up: Reports Reveal He Abused Taxpayer Dollars to Boost Campaign, Benefit Personal Property

Kansas Reflector: “[A]udio recordings, photos, videos, screenshots of text messages and calendar items […] appear to show the senator and his top aide repeatedly using congressional staff and government resources in ways that experts say likely crossed the line”

Associated Press: “[Marshall] requested a $4.2 million earmark [and] did not mention another interest that stood to benefit from the project: his own Rattlesnake Ranch, which borders the preserve”

Following bombshell reporting that floundering GOP Sen. Roger Marshall’s “office seemed to function more as a campaign arm than a taxpayer-funded Senate office,” new investigations have revealed numerous instances that “appear to show the senator and his top aide repeatedly using congressional staff and government resources in ways that experts say likely crossed the line,” including keeping a handwritten “shit list” of “companies and PACs that wouldn’t donate to the campaign” and refusing to meet with Kansas teachers it deemed politically adversarial.

Another report from The Associated Press found that, despite Marshall’s “strong opposition to earmarks,” which he has called a waste of taxpayer money and “not American,” he abused his office by pushing an earmark he sought in the Senate that would directly benefit his own property. Ethics experts call the arrangement a “conflict of interest” that “will increase the value of [Marshall’s] land.”

See for yourself: 

Kansas Reflector: Adam Hamilton says Reporting on Roger Marshall’s Use of Taxpayer Dollars Warrants Ethics Inquiry

• Democrat Adam Hamilton says reporting by Kansas Reflector and MS NOW warrants an ethics investigation into whether his opponent, U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, misused government resources to support his campaign.
• The reporting looked at audio recordings, photos, videos, screenshots of text messages and calendar items from 2020 — when Marshall first ran for his Senate seat — that appear to show the senator and his top aide repeatedly using congressional staff and government resources in questionable ways. Legal and ethics experts said a mandatory all-staff meeting called by Marshall and the use of taxpayer funding during campaign trips violated federal rules.
• “They’ve been willing to play loose with laws and rules, at least it seems like to me,” Hamilton said during a campaign stop Monday in Lawrence. “When you start using taxpayer money for your campaign in a way that’s not in keeping with the election laws, that should be looked into. I think they’re doing some things that are inconsistent with election laws, and that points again to questions about how you see ethics and how you see what’s right and wrong.”
• Hamilton, as the leader of the nation’s largest Methodist church, presents a unique challenge to Marshall in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932. Marshall has made himself vulnerable by avoiding public appearances, owning a house in Florida, being loyal to President Donald Trump and defending his history of suing patients at his medical practice over unpaid debt.
• But in the most obvious sign that the race is close, national Democrats and Republicans have poured millions of dollars into the campaigns within the past week. And President Donald Trump is heading to Kansas for a rally Monday in Wichita.
• Six years ago, Marshall also faced a competitive race that required national Republicans to invest heavily in Kansas. 
• Marshall’s staff didn’t respond to renewed questions this week from Kansas Reflector about the records from 2020.
• Among them is a June 1, 2020, audio recording of a conversation between Marshall’s chief of staff, Brent Robertson, and another congressional staffer at Marshall’s D.C. office. Robertson said in the recording that the National Republican Senate Committee would have to spend money in Kansas to help Marshall — known to his staff as Doc — “whether they hate me or not.”
• “They don’t like me, and they don’t like Doc,” Robertson said. “Period. Period. Like, I’ve seen it. We’ve had enough in-person meetings. I mean, they hate each other. And Doc cannot stand them.
• “So there comes a point where it’s just like, OK, I can grovel, and then we all just still hate each other, and they all just mistreat Doc. It doesn’t matter. They’re going to try to screw with us whether we’re nice to them or not. And they’re going to end up having to spend money whether they want to or not, if it came down to it.”
• Three months before the 2020 election, Robertson made a handwritten list of companies and PACs that wouldn’t donate to the campaign. He titled it “THE S*** LIST.” A photo shows the list — which included Amazon, Dr. Pepper, Keurig, RJ Reynolds and the American Beverage Association — on congressional stationery sitting on Robertson’s desk in the D.C. office.
• Other photos taken throughout 2020 show campaign mailers and donation checks on Robertson’s desk in Marshall’s Senate office.
• As Marshall’s chief of staff, Robertson’s involvement in campaign issues raises questions about the line between Marshall’s campaign and his taxpayer-funded Senate office. The records obtained by Kansas Reflector and MS NOW show Robertson repeatedly telling staff to use taxpayer money for travel and meals during trips that included campaign meetings.
• During one text exchange, after staff questioned Robertson on whether the primary purpose of a trip was official or campaign, the chief of staff wrote: “Primary purpose is what we say it is.”
• Experts challenged Robertson’s interpretation of ethics rules. They also faulted Marshall for calling a mandatory meeting for all campaign and congressional staff in October 2020. Video of the meeting shows both staffs talking about the campaign.
• After the meeting, one staff member texted another: “Sending this message as a reference that we objected to this illegal (activity) and that I raised it with our superiors and noted that it is not permissible per the above ethics statute.”
• A week earlier, on Oct. 8, 2020, Robertson texted campaign staff with orders to cancel a meeting between Marshall and the Kansas National Education Association, a union representing teachers.
• “It’s a setup. They will record, topics are absurd,” Robertson wrote, and noted the organization was “openly supporting” Bollier.
• Marshall intervened.
• “I want to play a game with them,” he responded.
• Instead of canceling, Marshall suggested they delay the meeting for a couple of weeks and “then punt again.”
• Robertson’s response: “Punt two weeks. Punt again. Punt until 2026,” followed by a smiley face emoji with sunglasses.
• Sherri Schwanz, KNEA president, said the organization believes in “open and honest dialogue” with the state’s congressional delegation. Congress provides funding for special education, high-poverty schools, and schools serving military families, she said.
• “Kansas needs a senator who will fight for that funding and engage with the educators, students and families it serves,” Schwanz said. “We’re disappointed Sen. Marshall would rather play games than meet with an organization representing more than 20,000 of his constituents simply because he disagreed with our recommendation in the 2020 election. The education of Kansas students is not a game.”
• Bollier, who now lives in Colorado, said she pities Marshall.
• “He will go to his grave thinking he was just fine,” she said. “He’s one of those people that if you put him on a lie detector test, he would pass because he really believes in what he’s doing. He believes it’s fine. But I kept my integrity, and I will hold onto that until my deathbed.”

Associated Press: Sen. Roger Marshall Sought Funding to Address a Water Shortage. The Project Could Benefit His Ranch

• U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall wanted to solve a water rights dispute in rural Kansas that pitted farmers against environmentalists and threatened the health of a cherished wildlife refuge.
• The avid outdoorsman requested a $4.2 million earmark, records show, to help finance improvements that would increase the flow of water into the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge.
• He did not mention another interest that stood to benefit from the project: his own Rattlesnake Ranch, which borders the preserve.
• For decades, hunters have flocked to Quivira and its surroundings, drawn by hundreds of thousands of waterfowl that descend on the area every fall. As agriculture expanded in the area, however, the water supply was taxed to irrigate more crops, diminishing the flow into the refuge.
• Marshall’s efforts in 2024 to secure the earmark sought to balance the needs of the refuge and farmers in his home state. But in doing so, he took action that experts said could boost his property’s value and posed a conflict of interest for the Republican senator. The measure also collided with Marshall’s strong opposition to earmarks, often called pork-barrel spending, to fund lawmakers’ pet projects. Marshall has voted four times to eliminate earmarks, calling such appropriations a waste of taxpayer money and “not American.”
• Under a federal plan, water will be pumped from a separate watershed, travel through a pipeline into Rattlesnake Creek, which is next to Marshall’s property, and flow into the refuge, records show.
• The funding came through as Marshall was gearing up for a reelection bid this November that had once appeared assured. President Donald Trump carried Kansas by 16%, and the state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.
• The race has tightened, so much so that Republican groups have poured millions of dollars into advertising to fend off Democrat Adam Hamilton, a former Republican who leads the nation’s largest United Methodist church.
• Marshall’s office declined to make the senator available to The Associated Press for an interview and did not respond to detailed questions about his property.
• A water rights expert and a government watchdog group have criticized the senator’s decision to seek the earmark as a conflict of interest.
• Burke Griggs, a former state water rights attorney, said waterfowl hunting is “big business” in Kansas and the federal funding will help “establish a steadier water supply than (the Quivira Refuge) has had since the 1970s.”
• “That will increase the value of the land,” said Griggs, a law professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, who has donated money to Democrats. “Think about it: If Quivira doesn’t have water, we don’t have as many ducks and waterfowl staying in that area for hunting season. That would absolutely diminish the value of the property.”
• Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist for Public Citizen, a nonprofit advocacy group that seeks greater government accountability, said Marshall “should not be involved in any legislative effort that provides a direct or substantial financial benefit to himself. He should have recused himself.”
• He had railed against such appropriations, said his colleagues should have to defend their earmark requests on the Senate floor and described a Democrat-sponsored spending bill as “full of so much pork” it was “dripping with grease.”
• “I’m going to do everything I can to blow up the process so that no one does earmarks,” he told reporters in 2021.
• Marshall and his family have deep ties to the region around the preserve. He at one point owned, or co-owned, more than 1,000 acres (405 hectares) near the Quivira Refuge and has described his land as a hunting “mecca.”
• The properties have provided a stream of income over the years through building rentals and oil and gas leases, according to his Senate financial disclosures.
• What remains is Rattlesnake Ranch, which is registered as a business in Kansas and listed as a commercial property with a building available for rent, according to records. Marshall owns a 20% stake in the ranch and serves as a company director, the records show.
• “As a property owner along Rattlesnake Creek for three decades,” he said in a statement issued at the time, “protecting our local agricultural communities and the environment is something I take very seriously.”