Jason E. Chaffetz (born March 26, 1967) is an American retired politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2009 until his resignation in 2017. He chaired the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2015 until 2017.
Chaffetz came to prominence in 2015 for his extensive investigations into Hillary Clinton. He rescinded his endorsement of Donald Trump in early October 2016 but expressed his intent to vote for him three weeks later. Having investigated Clinton and the Obama administration extensively, Chaffetz drew criticism after the 2016 election for declining to investigate potential conflicts of interest relating to President Donald Trump, and that of other individuals involved in his 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent presidential administration.
He resigned from office in 2017, six months into his fifth Congressional term, and has since been a commentator, Fox News contributor, and author. In 2021 Chaffetz joined the Government Accountability Institute.
Early life and education
Chaffetz was born in Los Gatos, California, and raised in
California,
, and
Colorado.
His father, John A. Chaffetz (1935–2012),
was a businessman,
and his mother, Margaret "Peggy"
A. Wood (1942–1995),
was a Christian Scientist who later became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and ran a photography business.
In the late 1970s, his father became involved with the ownership group of the Los Angeles Aztecs, a professional soccer team.
His father later wrote
Gay Reality: The Team Guido Story, a book about a gay couple who competed on
The Amazing Race.
His younger brother, Alex, runs a Colorado-based media consulting firm.
Chaffetz's father was Jewish, and his paternal grandfather Maxwell (Max) Chaffetz (1909–1986), the son of immigrants from Russia, was an FBI Special Agent.
Chaffetz's father's first wife had been Kitty Dukakis, who later married Michael Dukakis, future Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee.[According to the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905–1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. Searchable at http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/39461 ] Following Dickson's marriage to Dukakis, that son was adopted at age five by his stepfather, later deciding to change his surname to Dukakis when he was 18. While in college, Chaffetz worked as a Utah co-chairman of Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential campaign. It was reported in 2009 and again in 2015 that Chaffetz remained close to his half-brother and the Dukakis family.
Chaffetz attended high school in California[" Jason Chaffetz". BYU Cougars. Brigham Young University. Retrieved March 7, 2017.] As of 2011, he still held the school's individual records for most attempted in a game, most extra points made in a game, and most consecutive extra points made in a game.
Raised Jewish, Chaffetz joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during his college years.[Bierman, Noah (October 6, 2015). " Conservative GOP leader has unexpected Democratic fan: Michael Dukakis". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 14, 2017. "Later, Chaffetz, who was raised Jewish, would convert his religion and his politics, becoming a Mormon Republican."] In 1989, he met his future wife Julie Johnson at a wedding in Arizona when he was a senior and Julie was a junior at Brigham Young University. They married in February 1991.
Early political career
Chaffetz became a Republican after meeting
Ronald Reagan in 1990, when Reagan visited Chaffetz's employer, Nu Skin, as a motivational speaker. However, his political views had been drifting more to the right even while working for Dukakis.
In 2003, Chaffetz applied to be an agent in the United States Secret Service but was not accepted because "better qualified applicants existed". In 2015, the Secret Service Inspector General found that agents illegally accessed Chaffetz's personnel file that included that information after Chaffetz began heading investigations into the Secret Service.
In 2004, Chaffetz was the campaign manager for Utah gubernatorial candidate Jon Huntsman. Huntsman won the race, and when he took office in January 2005, Chaffetz became Huntsman's chief of staff.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2008
On January 1, 2007, before the 110th Congress was sworn in, Jason Chaffetz announced that he was "testing the waters" for a Congressional run against six-term incumbent
Chris Cannon, for the Republican nomination in the 3rd District.
Nine months later, on October 1, 2007, Chaffetz formally entered the race for the Republican nomination. That same day, David Leavitt issued a press release announcing his campaign had raised $100,000 to challenge Cannon.
Leavitt, brother to popular three-term Utah governor and Bush Administration cabinet member
Mike Leavitt, more than doubled Chaffetz in fundraising for that quarter.
A March 2008
Deseret News/KSL TV poll by Dan Jones & Associates released two days before the party caucuses showed Chaffetz with 4% support.
After the nearly 1200 3rd District delegates to the state Republican convention were elected on March 25, 2008, Chaffetz sent a mailer announcing that he would run a different kind of campaign. He would have no paid staff, no campaign office, no free meals for delegates, no campaign debt and no polling. He committed to spend between $70 and $80 per delegate, telling voters, "How you run your campaign is indicative of how you're going to be in office."
Although Cannon was one of the most conservative members of the House, Chaffetz ran to his right. He said that Cannon "has failed us for not instituting conservative principles", consistently calling for a return to the core conservative principles of fiscal discipline, limited government, accountability and a strong national defense. He campaigned on stronger measures to fix legal immigration and remove the incentives for illegal immigration, an issue he continued to press throughout the campaign.
At the May 10, 2008, state convention, Chaffetz won 59% of the 3rd District's delegates to Cannon's 41%. He came a few hundred votes short of ending Cannon's career; had he tallied 60% of the delegates, he would have won the nomination without a primary.
Chaffetz faced Democrat Bennion Spencer in the 2008 general election, along with Jim Noorlander of the Constitution Party. Chaffetz's firm position against asking for earmarks created some controversy during the general election campaign.
Chaffetz announced at the start of the congressional term, in 2009, that he would be sleeping on a cot in his office, rather than renting a Washington, D.C., apartment.
2010
Chaffetz won reelection to a second term, gaining 72% of the vote and defeating Democratic nominee Karen Hyer.
endorsed him in the race, writing "U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, has delivered as advertised for Utah's 3rd District."
2012
In early 2012 Chaffetz worked as a representative of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign during primary season, shadowing the campaign of rival Republican candidate
Newt Gingrich to offer rebuttals to reporters following Gingrich speeches.
[Shawna Shepherd (January 27, 2012), Romney surrogates shadow Gingrich campaign , CNN.][Jane Musgrave (January 27, 2012), Republican Jewish Coalition turns out in force for Gingrich in Delray, The Palm Beach Post] He refused to endorse Haitian-American candidate
Mia Love, who ran against incumbent 2nd District congressman Jim Matheson, for the newly created 4th District seat. Nationally, Love had received campaign support from 2012 Republican presidential nominee
Mitt Romney, House Budget Committee Chairman and 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee
Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House
John Boehner, and House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor.
In his own 2012 election, Chaffetz won election to a third term, gaining 76% of the vote and defeating Democratic nominee Soren Simonsen, an architect and chairman of the Salt Lake City Council. The campaign was a "low-key" race in which Chaffetz was heavily favored.[ Utah election results 2012: Hatch wins seventh term in Senate; Rep. Chaffetz reelected to House, Washington Post (November 6, 2012).][Billy Hesterman, Chaffetz quietly moving toward re-election , Daily Herald (October 21, 2012).]
2014
In the 2014 election, Chaffetz won election to a fourth term in a race in which he was again heavily favored.
[ Jason Chaffetz wins race for Utah's 3rd Congressional District, KSTU (November 5, 2014).][Whittney Evans, Brian Wonnacott Struggles In His Effort to Unseat Incumbent Jason Chaffetz, KEUR (October 16, 2014).] He received about 72% of the vote,
defeating Democratic nominee, Brian Wonnacott.
2016
In the 2016 election, Chaffetz won a fifth term, defeating Democratic nominee Stephen Tryon, a former Overstock.com executive, with about 74% of the vote.
[Genelle Pugmire, Voters hand Jason Chaffetz fifth term in 3rd Congressional District race , Daily Herald (November 8, 2016).]
Committee assignments
-
Committee on the Judiciary
-
Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet
-
Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
-
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (chairman)
-
Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy
-
Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations (chairman)
-
Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform
Caucus memberships
-
House Baltic Caucus
-
Congressional Arts Caucus
-
Congressional Constitution Caucus
Chairmanship, House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, 2014–2017
In November 2014, Chaffetz won a four-way race to become the chairman of the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was only the fifth Member of Congress in 89 years to become a full chairman after just three terms.
He ran on a promise to emphasize reform, telling
Politico that "the pitch I made to the steering committee is we really have to triangulate the problem if we're actually going to get to reform. In order to fix the problem long term, we can't just be the highlighter pen. We do a good job highlighting things, but we don't do a great job of fixing things."
Town hall protests in February 2017
Chaffetz faced protests and jeering at a town hall meeting in February 2017. Attendees questioned Chaffetz about his political positions and whether he would hold President Trump to account.
Chaffetz later accused the crowd of being paid protesters,
[Robert Gehrke, Town hall anger didn't singe Chaffetz, needs direction before it burns down the house, Salt Lake Tribune (February 11, 2017): "Chaffetz says he was the focus of a coordinated national effort, claiming paid operatives were brought into Utah to help inflame opponents and are doing the same to disrupt town halls across the country. He offered no evidence of this."][Mallory Shelbourne, Chaffetz: Crowd used 'bullying and intimidation' at town hall, The Hill (February 11, 2017)" "Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) says the protesters who disrupted his Thursday town hall were 'a paid attempt to bully and intimidate.' ... Chaffetz offered no evidence that attendees were paid to be there."] and said that he may now avoid providing a venue "for these radicals to further intimidate."
Chaffetz's unsubstantiated claim attracted scorn and anger from the town-hall attendees, some of whom sent mocking "invoices" to Chaffetz.
2017 resignation
On April 19, 2017, Chaffetz abruptly announced that he would neither seek reelection to the United States House of Representatives nor run for any other elected office in 2018. At the time, he also implied that he might not finish out the current term.
[Fox, Lauren; Walsh, Deidre. " Rep. Jason Chaffetz is not running for re-election". CNN. April 19, 2017.] He took a three-week leave of absence from Congress to recuperate from foot surgery.
Chaffetz announced his retirement from the House on May 18 effective June 30, six months into the two-year term.
His resignation triggered the first Congressional special election in Utah in 87 years,
which was won by Provo mayor
John Curtis.
Government Accountability Institute
In 2021 he joined the Government Accountability Institute,
a conservative think tank, as a distinguished fellow.
The group was founded by
Peter Schweizer and former Trump chief strategist
Steve Bannon. The group says it exposes corruption, misuse of taxpayer funds, and crony capitalism within the Democratic Party.
Post-congressional career
After leaving office Chaffetz became a commentator and author. On July 1, 2017, the day following his official resignation from Congress, Chaffetz became a contributor to
Fox News where he serves as a regular guest/host on a variety of programs including
Fox & Friends,
America's Newsroom,
The Faulkner Focus, Outnumbered, America Reports, The Five, The Ingraham Angle, Hannity, The Big Weekend Show, Fox & Friends Weekend, Fox News Sunday and
Sunday Morning Futures.
He was a 2017 visiting fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics (IOP)
He is the author of several books published since leaving office. His first book, The Deep State: How an Army of Bureaucrats Protected Barack Obama and Is Working to Destroy the Trump Agenda was published in September 2018 and became a New York Times bestseller.
He witnessed the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a political activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, during an event hosted by the organization at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
Political positions
Affordable Care Act
Chaffetz has repeatedly voted in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act.
In March 2017 Chaffetz drew criticism for and later walked back on a statement comparing the cost of healthcare coverage to the cost of purchasing an iPhone. In an interview with CNN he said, "So rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care."
Budget and taxation
Chaffetz described Obama's attempts to introduce an inheritance tax on value over $5 million as "one of the most immoral things you can do".
District of Columbia legislation
Marijuana
In February 2015, Chaffetz threatened D.C. mayor
Muriel Bowser with possible jail time if she implemented Initiative 71. The ballot initiative would legalize small amounts of cannabis in the district and was approved by about 64.87 percent of the voters in 2014.
In a letter, Chaffetz asserted that D.C. officials who implemented the initiative would violate the Antideficiency Act (an 1884 act that bars government agencies from spending funds that have not been appropriated by Congress) because Congress had passed a Republican-supported appropriations rider providing that "none of the funds contained in this act may be used to enact any law, rule or regulation" to legalize or lessen the criminal penalty "for any Schedule I drug, including marijuana."
[Benjamin Freed, Jason Chaffetz Is Powerless to Stop DC's Marijuana Legalization, Washingtonian (February 25, 2015).][Jonathan Topaz, Bowser: D.C. won't back down in Chaffetz pot showdown, Politico (February 25, 2017).] Chaffetz's statement was rejected by Mayor Bowser, D.C. Attorney General
Karl Racine, and D.C. police chief
Cathy Lanier, who stated that I-71 was the law and implemented it as scheduled.
Other positions
In 2017, Chaffetz stated that he planned to seek a congressional vote to overturn D.C. legislation allowing terminally ill individuals to end their life.
Local organizations decried Chaffetz's move, and District political leaders considered it an attack on the principle of District of Columbia home rule.
[ Chaffetz also led the charge in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the District of Columbia's legalization of same-sex marriage in 2009.][Thomas Burr, Chaffetz seeks to nix gay marriage in D.C., Salt Lake Tribune (May 6, 2009).]
Energy and environment
Chaffetz has expressed his support for "an all-of-the-above energy strategy".
Chaffetz rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.
Chaffetz advocates for the sale of millions of acres of publicly owned land to the highest bidder.
Chaffetz has opposed federal protection for Utah's resident greater-sage grouse, a bird whose population has shrunk from 16 million 100 years ago to about 200,000 today. In 2007, a court ruled that political tampering by Julie A. MacDonald, then-deputy assistant secretary for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, had "tainted" the bird's assessment, and a new review was ordered. In March 2010, U.S. interior secretary Ken Salazar assigned the bird "warranted but precluded" status, paving the way for its future protection.
Chaffetz scored 0% in 2015, and 3% lifetime, on the National Environmental Scorecard of the League of Conservation Voters.
Foreign and defense policy
Afghanistan
Chaffetz criticized the surge of 30,000 troops President Obama authorized for the war in Afghanistan, saying that the United States does not have a clear policy or exit strategy.
Benghazi attack
Chaffetz has been vocal against the White House and State Department's handling of the September 11, 2012, attacks on the US Consulate compound in Benghazi. The Administration first stated the attacks were sparked by a spontaneous protest, then later stated the violence was a planned terrorist attack.
He criticized United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice's initial comments calling them "somewhere between an outrageous lie and total falsehood."
Chaffetz has been criticized for politicizing the Benghazi incident, acknowledging in an interview with CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien that he had "voted to cut the funding for embassy security" and that House Republicans had consciously voted to reduce the funds allocated to the State Department for embassy security since winning the majority in 2010. "Absolutely," he said. "Look, we have to make priorities and choices in this country."
Homeland security
In December 2009, Chaffetz championed legislation to limit the use of full-body imaging scanners at airports unless a metal detector first indicated a need for more screening. The images have come under intense scrutiny from privacy groups for allegedly letting security administrators view images of undressed passengers.
Chaffetz and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have had a rocky relationship since he joined Congress. In his freshman year, in what critics have described as political grandstanding, he accused TSA agents at his hometown airport in Salt Lake City of unfairly targeting him to pass through a full-body scanning machine—a device Chaffetz believes is invasive. The Republican lawmaker said he believed he was targeted partially for his opposition to granting TSA screeners collective bargaining rights. A FOIA request by the Deseret News for video of the incident showed it to be a "tame and rather civilized exchange between the two."
In 2014 and 2015, Chaffetz headed congressional hearings into United States Secret Service security failures in response to incidents at the time including a White House fence jumper, a CDC security guard being armed while riding an elevator with President Barack Obama, and agents crashing a car into a White House barricade. In a hearing on March 24, 2015, Chaffetz accused Joseph Clancy, then-director of the Secret Service, of "keeping Congress and the American public in the dark" by not allowing witnesses to testify regarding the car crash.
In June 2015, James Comey announced that the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had been the target of a data breach targeting the records of more than 18 million Americans.[ Jason Chaffetz says if you don't want to die, don't come to the U.S. "That should be the message. Don't make this journey. It will kill you.", Think Progress, Rebekah Entralgo, December 15, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2019.]
Chinese espionage
Beginning with his time as a Dublin, California city councilor, Eric Swalwell was targeted by a Chinese woman believed to be a clandestine officer of China's Ministry of State Security. Swalwell's general relationship with a suspected Chinese agent, Christine Fang, has been characterized as problematic, particularly given the high-profile role that he occupied – a member of the House Intelligence Committee – within the intelligence community.
LGBT issues
Chaffetz opposes same-sex marriage.
On the one-month anniversary of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Chaffetz chaired committee hearings on the First Amendment Defense Act, which would prevent the government from taking discriminatory action against people from taxpayer-funded entities and would protect tax exemption status of parochial organizations if they refused service to LGBT individuals on the basis of their religious beliefs.
Net neutrality
Chaffetz opposes net neutrality, the principle that Internet service providers should not be allowed to discriminate or charge differentially by user, content, website or platform.
Planned Parenthood hearings
In a September 2015 hearing, Chaffetz questioned Planned Parenthood's president Cecile Richards on her salary,
President Obama
In January 2010, Chaffetz was called upon to question Barack Obama when the president spoke to the House Republican Conference retreat in Baltimore.
Upon hearing that Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, Chaffetz said he had "lost all respect for the award" and that "it used to be one of distinction, but now it is hard to give it any credibility."
President Trump
2016 presidential election
Following the Donald Trump Access Hollywood controversy, on October 7, 2016, Chaffetz was the first Republican member of Congress to rescind his endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Oversight Committee chairmanship during the Trump administration
As chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (which is tasked with investigating "waste, fraud, and abuse" in the executive branch), Chaffetz has been criticized for showing a disinterest in investigating President Trump's conflicts of interest and for failing to criticize him for not resolving ethical questions.[
]
Some commentators criticized Chaffetz's perceived lack of interest in Trump administration oversight, especially in light of Chaffetz's zealous investigation of items such as the CDC's use of the Sid the Science Kid cartoon character as part of an anti-Zika virus campaign[Dana Milbank, While Trump scandals mount, Chaffetz decides to investigate... a cartoon character, Washington Post (February 13, 2017).] and a December 2016 tweet from Bryce Canyon National Park welcoming the designation of a new national monument.[
]
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Paulina Firozi, Chaffetz probing national park's tweet welcoming new monument, The Hill (February 22, 2017): "Chaffetz's probe comes amid criticism against the Oversight chairman for not aggressively investigating the Trump administration for potential conflicts of interest or collusion with Russia."
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Chris D'Angelo, Rep. Chaffetz Vows To Investigate Utah Park's Tweet Welcoming Bears Ears Monument, Huffington Post (February 21, 2017).
-
Becca Stanek, Rather than investigate ethics in the White House, Jason Chaffetz is probing a national park's Twitter account, The Week (February 22, 2017).
Chaffetz has also attacked those who have brought attention to Trump's conflicts of interest. In January 2017, Chaffetz threatened to investigate the independent Office of Government Ethics (OGE) after the Office had questioned Trump's commitment to resolve conflicts of interest.
Chaffetz said in January 2017 that he would continue his investigations into Hillary Clinton.
Michael T. Flynn
Chaffetz drew criticism again in January–February 2017 for his refusal to investigate White House National Security Adviser Michael T. Flynn's ties to Russia after it was revealed that U.S. counterintelligence agents were investigating him for his communications with Russian officials.
Notes
Further reading
External links
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