Making Bank: How Raphael Warnock Got Rich in the Senate

Since Raphael Warnock won a seat in the Senate, his financial situation has dramatically improved. Before he took office, Warnock reported earning $222,000 — but during his first year in the Senate, his income increased by 140 percent to $533,000.

Washington Free Beacon: Warnock disclosed a total income of $532,781 in 2021, a significant bump from the $221,602 he earned in the year before his election. Less than half of his income last year came from his Senate salary, which was $164,816. Ebenezer Baptist Church paid him an additional $120,964, including a $7,417-per-month housing allowance. Penguin Random House also paid him $243,750 as an advance on his memoir that was published in June, and he received $5,750 in speaking fees.

Usually, Senators are prohibited from accepting more than 15 percent of their annual salaries from outside employment. Warnock and the church he works for, however, dodge the rule by classifying the payments as a housing allowance. Ethics experts described the situation as “unusual.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ethics rules limit how much U.S. senators can earn in addition to their $174,000 government salary. But the housing payments — the campaign calls it a “personal parsonage allowance” — are not subject to that cap, the Senate Ethics Committee said. Warnock’s disclosure form includes a footnote that says the committee staff reviewed the parsonage benefit and signed off on it. . .

Warnock received $120,964.59 in salary and benefits during 2021. The housing allowance amounts to $89,000 of that, his campaign said.

Further questions have been raised about Warnock’s financial situation. In March 2021, Warnock cast the deciding vote for a massive Covid-19 relief bill. A nonprofit he and his church are closely linked to — and which he may have been CEO of until April 2021 — received $75,000 in relief aid from the same bill.

Washington Free Beacon: The funding raises questions about whether Warnock or his employers used Warnock’s position as a senator to benefit from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that some leading economists have blamed for skyrocketing inflation. Americans for Public Trust, an ethics watchdog group, said the federal relief funding adds to concerns that Warnock’s outside work poses a financial conflict. . .

“It’s not a great look to learn that a U.S. senator cast the key vote that awarded his former nonprofit tens of thousands of dollars,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust. “And now that it’s been revealed that Warnock is receiving a housing allowance from Ebenezer, this arrangement seems rife with potential conflicts of interest.”

Warnock has also used his campaign account to cover personal expenses. He used donor dollars to defend himself in a lawsuit relating to his time as a church minister in 2005. Additionally, he has spent more than $60,000 of campaign money on childcare since 2020.

Bottom Line: While Warnock got rich in the Senate, his constituents earned less and paid more because of the massive inflation that Warnock helped cause by voting for the American Rescue Plan.