Senate Ethics Committee dismisses complaint against Sen. Ruben Gallego


Writer Ross Barkan sits for a podcast interview The Honest Broker.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., walks out of the Senate chamber on Oct. 1, 2025.
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The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed a complaint brought against Sen. Ruben Gallego involving allegations of campaign finance violations and potential sexual misconduct.
The allegations against the Arizona Democrat were brought to the committee in April by a fellow member of Congress, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla. But in a letter to Gallego dated June 26, the committee said it had uncovered no wrongdoing.
"Based on the investigation of the Committee, the Committee did not find evidence that your actions violated Federal law, Senate rules, or related standards of conduct," the panel wrote.
The panel also said it appreciated Gallego's "full cooperation" throughout the investigation.
Gallego welcomed the findings, saying in a statement that the dismissal "reaffirms what I have said about these accusations from the beginning: they were right-wing conspiracies peddled by far-right activists like Anna Paulina Luna, the White House, and their allies."
"I look forward to an apology from Rep. Luna for weaponizing the ethics process while refusing to investigate historic corruption that's making life harder for families," he continued.
Whispers about potential misconduct by Gallego began to circulate in April following the resignation of Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. Swalwell stepped down in response to a swell of sexual assault and misconduct allegations. NPR has not independently verified the allegations against Swalwell, but he has adamantly denied them.
Swalwell and Gallego were close friends, and during Swalwell's short-lived 2020 presidential campaign, it was Gallego who served as campaign chair.
In the immediate aftermath of Swalwell's resignation, Gallego denied knowledge of any alleged history of sexual misconduct, though he acknowledged to reporters that their close friendship may have made it difficult for him to accept rumors about Swalwell and his behavior toward women.
"My friendship with him, our family's friendship together with him, clouded my judgment, and I was wrong — I deeply, deeply regret that," Gallego said.
Within days of the resignation, a cryptic post on social media by Luna sparked speculation about Gallego.
"It's seems like the Senate has its own trash to take out. @LeaderJohnThune You need to look into the allegations against one of your Senators, it's very disturbing. My chief will be contacting your chief," she wrote.
The following day, Luna confirmed to CBS News she was referring specifically to Gallego.
Despite the dismissal by the ethics panel, Luna shot back at Gallego on Monday, writing on social media, "These are not conspiracy theories."
"The good news about DC is everyone talks, and eventually the reporters come forward with your texts," she said.
The allegations against Swalwell earlier this year brought on a fresh reckoning in Congress over the behavior of some of its male members — some 10 years after the #MeToo movement reshaped the conversation around sexual assault. Shortly after Swalwell resigned, so too did Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, who had previously admitted to an affair with a former staffer who later died by suicide.
Writer Ross Barkan sits for a podcast interview The Honest Broker.
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New York Magazine is examining the past work of one of its writers who has been accused of plagiarism after publishing at least three stories with striking similarities to other published work.
Ross Barkan, who is a contract writer for the magazine, first attracted critical scrutiny when one of his stories earlier this week on the conservative influencer Ben Shapiro appeared to copy another piece on Shapiro published days before in The Washington Post.
When this was pointed out on social media, the magazine updated Barkan's story to directly quote the Post writer, Drew Harwell, whose opening paragraphs Barkan lifted nearly wholesale.
After this, NPR found at least two other instances in which Barkan apparently pulled partial paragraphs from other stories that appeared in the publications the Intercept and Compact Magazine.
The paragraphs in question are summarizing the historical background or context of the stories, with some instances containing the same 30 words in a row, or near identical passages with a word or phrase slightly tweaked.
"We are conducting a review of the writer's prior work," New York Magazine spokesperson Lauren Starke told NPR.
Matthew Schmitz, the editor of Compact Magazine, wrote on X condemning what he described as Barkan's "heavily plagiarized" article, saying he has called on the magazine to address the pilfered sections.
Barkan did not deny relying on other writers' work. Instead, he defended his methods by arguing that he included a hyperlink to the pieces that inspired his own, or named the author whose words he replicated in his own writing.
"I am allowed, as a columnist building on his reporting, to cite facts. Especially when he's credited," Barkan wrote on X about writer Juan David Rojas, whose story Barkan copied in several instances in one of his own pieces.
It is not uncommon for journalists writing about the same subject to use comparable turns of phrase, or to summarize events similarly. But when significant chunks of someone's writing appears word-for-word without quotation marks, it is generally considered plagiarism, according to Edward Wasserman, a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.
"This kind of laziness is a real embarrassment to the publication," Wasserman said of Barkan. "You need to always acknowledge the debt that you owe to an originating source, and when you're taking from someone else and not making it plain to the reader, you've got a real problem."
In an emailed statement, Barkan said, "this is all quite ridiculous." He said inserting hyperlinks in his columns to writers he was pulling from, and, in the case of the Compact Magazine piece, naming the writer, was enough acknowledgement that he was leaning on another journalist's reporting.
"I have written hundreds upon hundreds of columns, essays, and pieces of journalism in my career," Barkan said. "I stand by my record."
In 2018, Barkan, 36, ran for a New York state senate seat and lost in the Democratic primary.
Since then, he has been a remarkably prolific writer.
In addition to being a contributor to New York Magazine, he also writes for Crain's New York, The New York Times and other publications.
Last year, he published two books, a novel and a book on political disorder.
He has a forthcoming book, due out in October, on the rise of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
And last month, he published a novel entitled "Colossus." Its description says its protagonist is a man who "has it all," including a life that "gleams with virtue and success." But his past comes to haunt him and "the once-sturdy walls of his world begin to fall."
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