U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz smirks from the stage at a 2019 event hosted by conservative group Turning Point USA. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore

The chairman of the federal commission looking into an ethics complaint about U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s controversial podcast syndication deal once worked for the Texas Republican, raising concerns about his ability to be impartial in the case.

Sean J. Cooksey, a Trump appointee who chairs the Federal Election Commission, served as Cruz’s deputy chief counsel in 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. From 2019 until joining the FEC in 2020, Cooksey served as general counsel for U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri.

Earlier this week, a pair of watchdog groups complained to the FEC that financial details surrounding a deal Cruz has with San Antonio-based media conglomerate iHeartMedia to distribute his podcast, The Verdict With Ted Cruz, violate federal campaign finance laws.

iHeartMedia has paid some $630,000 derived from the program’s ad revenue into a super PAC whose primary goal is to ensure Cruz’s reelection. The groups that initiated the complaint, End Citizens United and the Campaign Legal Center, said the arrangement is a likely violation of laws barring corporations from spending unlimited cash in direct support of candidates.

Cooksey didn’t respond to the Current‘s emailed inquiry on whether he’ll recuse himself. An FEC spokeswoman confirmed that commissioners sometimes sit out decisions but added that the rules governing recusals aren’t publicly available.

End Citizens United officials said Cooksey’s prior work for Cruz should disqualify him from hearing a matter involving his former boss. However, the Campaign Legal Center declined comment on the matter.

“Chairman Cooksey, who used to work for Sen. Cruz, clearly has a conflict of interest and should recuse himself from this matter,” Jonas Edwards-Jenks, End Citizens United’s communications director said in an emailed statement. “For too long Sen. Cruz has made a mockery of campaign finance laws and it’s past time he’s held accountable.”

Critics have long accused Cruz of waging a no-holds-barred fight to allow more corporate money to flow into the political process.

Cooksey is one of three Republicans on the six-member FEC, which is equally divided between the two major parties. That means his recusal could mean the matter being decided by a majority-Democrat panel or ending in a 3-3 deadlock.

Since Trump’s appointment of Cooksey and the FEC’s other two Republican members, the commission has increasingly ended up deadlocked along party lines on campaign finance decisions, observers said.

Brett Kappel, a Washington, D.C., attorney who’s represented candidates of both parties on campaign finance issues, said Cooksey could argue that his work for Cruz was years ago and won’t cloud his judgment. Indeed, the chairman chose not to recuse himself when the FEC deliberated on a 2022 campaign finance complaint involving the senator.

Even so, Kappel said a recusal would be a good way for Cooksey to signal that FEC’s work is fair and impartial.

“I think a lot people would say it doesn’t look good for a former senior staffer to sit in judgement of his former boss,” the attorney said. “I mean, they only need four votes to make a decision. He could sit this one out.”

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