The House Ethics Committee has announced it will press ahead with an investigation into Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins’ office after a report alleged the congressman’s chief of staff, Brandon Phillips, paid an intern with whom he was romantically involved for work she may not have completed.
An Office of Congressional Conduct report from last September referred to the panel, alleging that Phillips paid a woman named Caroline Craze more than $10,000 for services rendered as a “District Office Paid Intern” in late 2023 and early 2024.
However, former and current members of Collins’ offices told the OCC that Craze did not work for the congressman in Washington, D.C., and that some claimed Phillips had been involved with her at the time.
“Although several witnesses indicated that Ms Craze may have had a limited role supporting some work carried out by Rep. Collins’s staff in 2023 and 2024, current and former staffers who worked in his Washington, D.C., office while Ms Craze was on Rep. Collins’s payroll told the OCC that she never served as a D.C. intern – which, like the District Intern position, was an in-person position,” the OCC report said.
It concluded that there was “substantial reason to believe” that Collins and Phillips had “used congressional resources for unofficial or otherwise unauthorized purposes” and “discriminated unfairly by dispensing special favors or privileges by retaining an employee with whom Mr Phillips had a personal relationship.”
The House committee has stressed that its decision to extend its investigation does not imply wrongdoing.
“This bogus complaint is a sad attempt to derail one of Georgia’s most effective conservative legislators in Congress,” Collins’s office said in a statement in response to the development.
“Rep. Collins looks forward to providing the House Ethics Committee all factual information and putting these meritless allegations to rest.”
The Independent has contacted Collins’ office for further comment.
Attorney Russell Duncan wrote to the committee on New Year’s Eve on behalf of Collins and Phillips, urging it to dismiss the investigation and saying the allegations had been made by “two disgruntled, former members of Congressman Collins’ staff.”
He continued: “The evidence is that this temporary hiring was proper and done to assist the office in serving the interests of the district. Mr Phillips’s decision to hire this intern was well within his discretion in managing the congressman’s office.
“This intern provided valuable assistance to the office throughout both years regarding communications and other work of the office.”
Collins, who owns a trucking business and is the son of former Congressman Mac Collins, represents the Peach State’s 10th congressional district.
He is known for supporting President Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, for calling for the impeachment of Joe Biden and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and for authoring the Laken Riley Act, named after the University of Georgia nursing student who was murdered in 2024 by undocumented migrant Jose Ibarra, whom federal officials said was in the U.S. illegally.
The act requires the detention, without bond, of non-citizens arrested for, charged with, or admitted to committing certain crimes.
Collins is currently one of four Republicans competing for the chance to unseat Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and has emphasized his ties to Trump as part of his appeal to local voters.
Fellow Rep. Buddy Carter, ex-football coach Derek Dooley, and businessman Reagan Box are also in contention as part of the GOP primary.
The Hill describes Phillips as a “longtime GOP operative in Georgia who worked on President Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns in the state.”
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