Sen. Ron Johnson faces ethics complaint over $280,000 in gifts to former staffer and wife

When you look into the eyes of some Republicans, you see pure, unreconstructed evil. When you look into Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson’s eyes, you’re more likely to see all nine Ernest movies running on a continuous loop—but that doesn’t mean the evil isn’t there.

Rojo the Clown has played footsie with murderous dictator Vladimir Putin, likely killed people with his dopey vaccine skepticism, and allegedly tried to facilitate the overthrow of the legitimate government of the United States, but those are hardly the limits of his awfulness. And now—in a revelation that smacks of Donald Trump’s alleged off-the-book payments to his company’s ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg—Johnson is drawing criticism, as well as an ethics complaint, over $280,000 in cash gifts he made to his former chief of staff, Anthony Blando, and his wife.