Maxine Waters and other members of Congress have been accused of abusing federal resources provided by the Air Marshal National Council.
According to the council, a VIP "concierge service" for members of Congress was essentially created, with some fearful lawmakers beginning to request security details after the 6th January Capitol riot.
A complaint, filed with the House Committee on Ethics, involved Democratic Representative Maxine Waters, who flew from Washington, DC, to Minneapolis to attend the Derek Chauvin trial.
"Congresswoman Maxine Waters utilised numerous government resources inappropriately," the complaint reads. "Federal Air Marshals were removed from a "High Risk" flight to cover Ms. Waters flight to Minnesota. The High-Risk flight took off with no armed law enforcement on board, leaving a gap in National Security."
Sonya Hightower LaBosco, executive director of the Air Marshal National Council said that air marshals can only be assigned to “high threat” flights, which have been deemed through a “vetted process” to have a security risk.
"Air marshals for Miss Waters' trip were assigned high-risk missions, they were removed from those missions and assigned to Miss Waters mission on top of her already armed security detail from the Capitol Police," Hightower said. "That was not an official business trip. We still don't have any justification as to why government resources were utilised to fly Miss Waters out to Minnesota."
David Londo, president of the Air Marshal National Council, previously complained to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General that “it has become akin to a type of extremely expensive concierge service for Congressional members.”
On 6 January, the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington in Trump’s support morphed into a riot, with dozens breaking into the Capitol building, which left 5 people dead. Trump was later accused of "inciting an insurrection" and impeached by the US House of Representatives but was later acquitted by the US Senate. The 45th US president, who called on supporters to oppose Joe Biden's nomination "peacefully" during the rally, denied any responsibility for the protests, saying that what he said had been "totally appropriate".