After a New York Democratic congressman introduced a resolution on Wednesday to censure North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik for her support of Jan. 6 insurrectionists, Stefanik spokesman Alex DeGrasse is going on the offensive, calling the motion “baseless” and dredging up all sorts of allegations against the downstate Dem who made the resolution — mostly involving numerous ethics complaints made about his campaign and personal finances.

The resolution seeks to censure Stefanik, the GOP House Conference Chair, for her statements calling the rioters arrested for the violent Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the nation’s capitol “hostages” in a recent interview. It also alleges that she is attempting to obstruct the prosecution of these prisoners and allegedly contributed to the inciting of the violent attack.

Manhattan Rep. Dan Goldman’s censure movement has been introduced, but he has not yet taken the steps to force it to a vote in a House with a Republican majority. He said he won’t fast-track it unless the GOP don’t rein in “rhetoric” like that of Stefanik’s in his resolution.

In an interview with Meet the Press on Jan. 7, Stefanik called the Trump supporters charged with numerous crimes for invading the Capitol on Jan. 6 and attempting to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the new president — a riot which killed one police officer and four others — “hostages.” DeGrasse did not respond when asked why she calls them that.

Goldman accuses Stefanik of obstructing the investigation into these people, as she filed an ethics complaint against a judge who has been overseeing these cases and has called the committee’s investigating the attack a “witch hunt.” DeGrasse and Stefanik did not respond when asked to explain why they feel these investigations into an attack are a “witch hunt” rather than a normal investigation.

Goldman even accuses Stefanik of contributing to the incitement of the violent attack. He points to her statements in the weeks leading up to the insurrection. Stefanik said that Democrats were attempting their own “permanent election insurrection” by expanding pathways for undocumented immigrants to become American citizens. She also made unsupported claims that a quarter of votes in Fulton County, Georgia were made by underage, deceased or unauthorized voters.

DeGrasse and Stefanik did not respond when asked if she stands by her statements, or whether or not she believes they contributed to the incitement of the riot.

They also did not respond to when asked if the government should investigate those who jump fences, beat police and attempt to obstruct Congress from performing its duties, as Jan. 6 rioters did.

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Goldman’s ethics complaints

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In response to Goldman’s resolution, DeGrasse said Stefanik is “one of the most effective members of congress.” Effectiveness in this case is counted in days spent “exposing Democrats and Joe Biden’s corruption and lies.”

“Failed Far Left House Democrats are in absolute desperate free fall,” DeGrasse said in a statement. “Elise has never been more supported in her district.”

Meanwhile, he said Goldman is “a corrupt radical New York Democrat” who “unethically traded tens of millions of dollars in stocks while failing to pay rent, took money from a Jeff Epstein associate, funds terrorist groups like Hamas through his family foundation, launders millions through his family foundation to attack Republican Members of Congress, and supports radicals like Tish James who are engaging in witchhunts against President Trump while releasing violent criminals on our streets.”

Some of these accusations are true, some are exaggerations, some selectively present the truth and some are unfounded.

Last year, Goldman apparently breached House ethics rules when he shared a donation link from his official government Twitter page. He was never officially punished for this outside of government watchdogs pointing it out.

Citing stats from the website Capitol Trades, DeGrasse pointed to Goldman, an heir of the Levi Strauss jean fortune, making hundreds of stock trades worth nearly $60 million while in office. This is legal, but is becoming an increasing issue as insider trading among legislators is exposed. Goldman’s trades include the selling of $15,000 in stocks for a banking company days before the Senate Finance Committee said that company was violating a plea deal by concealing hundreds of millions of dollars, allowing the wealthy to evade taxes.

Last year, a Goldman spokesman told the New York Times his stock portfolio is allegedly “managed by a third party without his knowledge.”

Stefanik herself does not trade stocks, according to Capitol Trades data.

Goldman sits on the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating the Biden family’s foreign business dealings.

His family foundation also donates to a consulting firm that manages a fund which pays for the liberal Congressional Integrity Project. Fox News accuses this group of “working behind the scenes with Democrats in attempts to smother the Biden investigations by Goldman’s GOP colleagues on the Oversight Committee.”

DeGrasse claims Goldman “funds terrorist groups like Hamas through his family foundation.” This is false. His family foundation donated $1 million to a fund which gave $280,000 to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. A Washington Free Beacon article he links to describes this organization as an “organization linked to Palestinian terrorism.” Samidoun is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group, but it is not recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S.

Goldman is Jewish and pro-Israel. His ties to this funding are remote, as he served on the board of a foundation numerous steps removed from a terrorist organization, but one which is not Hamas.

Goldman did accept donations from an associate of Jeffery Epstein, which his campaign later refunded.

Goldman did, as DeGrasse included, say former President Donald Trump “has to be eliminated” in a TV interview. He apologized later after this was condemned as a violent threat.

DeGrasse also accused Goldman of being an “election denier” himself. In 2020, Goldman tweeted that “the GOP stole the governorship in Georgia” in 2018.

DeGrasse also included a 2020 Goldman retweet of a 2018 article about how Georgia’s Secretary of State removed 340,134 people from the state’s voter rolls, on which Goldman wrote “THIS is ‘voter fraud.'”

DeGrasse changed the language of the tweet in his description of it, though, removing language that described the purge as “improper” and described how the secretary of state claimed the voters moved even though they still lived at their registered addresses.