Lincoln Project files ethics complaint against Abbott

The Lincoln Project said on Friday that it would be filing an ethics complaint against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for allegedly taking part in a Breitbart News interview this month at a university football stadium.

The anti-Trump organization claimed that the University of Texas at Austin allowed conservative news outlet Breitbart News to conduct an interview with Abbott this month at their football stadium.

The Lincoln Project said that one month earlier, they were allegedly told by the university that an ad critical of Abbott’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was supposed to air on ESPN during a university football game, could not air due to “an undisclosed policy against running political advertisements.”

The Lincoln Project said in a statement they would be filing an ethics complaint with Texas Ethics Commission against the Republican governor “for misuse of official time and resources in furtherance of his re-election campaign.”

The organization also said in their announcement that they had filed FOIA requests with both parties over whether there was any communication over the PAC’s ad.

“As his approval continues to sink, Greg Abbott has become more and more extreme in his use of state power to achieve his political goals,” Reed Galen, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, said in a statement. “We aren’t surprised he would deny free speech to his opponents. We’re also not surprised that Abbott, a former Supreme Court justice and Texas Attorney General, would so flagrantly violate state law by using the Longhorns’ hallowed ground for his venal and cynical political purposes.”

Earlier this year, The Lincoln Project saw itself mired in a similar controversy, claiming that an ad that was critical of Fox News amid the COVID-19 pandemic was not aired by Comcast.

The Hill has reached out to Abbott’s office and the university for comment.