Ethics watchdog: Top aide to Georgia's Mike Collins improperly hired girlfriend as intern

ATLANTA (AP) — A congressional ethics watchdog said in a report released Monday that there's substantial reason to believe the former chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Mike Collins hired his girlfriend as an office intern and that she “did not perform duties commensurate with her compensation.”

The former chief of staff, Brandon Phillips, is now working for Collins' Senate campaign.

Collins is one of three leading GOP contenders seeking to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia this year. The other top Republicans include U.S. Rep Buddy Carter and former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley.

Russell Duncan, a lawyer for Collins, recommended that the Office of Congressional Conduct dismiss the matter. He said that the claims came from “two disgruntled, former members of Congressman Collins' staff.”

“The evidence is this hiring was proper and done to assist the office in serving the interests of the district,” Duncan wrote in a Dec. 31 letter. “Mr. Phillips' decision to hire this intern was well within his discretion in managing the congressman's office.”

The House Ethics Committee, which received the report, said it is extending its review of the complaint, which was first received in October.

The Office of Congressional Conduct found that the woman was paid $5,044 in November and December 2023 and $5,244.44 in October, November and December 2024 for work in Collins' district office in Georgia. Witnesses said they never saw the woman work in the office. Duncan said those payments were for “valuable assistance” on communications and other work the woman did throughout 2023 and 2025 and into 2025.

“There is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Collins used congressional resources for unofficial or otherwise unauthorized purposes,” the office wrote.

The six board members of the Office of Congressional Conduct voted unanimously to adopt the report. They include two former Republican members of Congress from Georgia — Lynn Westmoreland and Jody Hice. Collins succeeded Hice in representing Georgia's 10th Congressional District, which runs from the eastern Atlanta suburbs through Athens.

The report said the investigators had also received accusations that Phillips misused congressional travel funds and may have performed campaign work while drawing a salary for congressional work. But the office said it hadn’t been able to determine if those claims were true.

The woman hired as an intern didn’t respond to investigators’ requests. The watchdog recommended that the House Ethics Committee subpoena Collins, Phillips, the woman and three other current and former Collins staffers. None of them cooperated with the investigation.

“This bogus complaint is a sad attempt to derail one of Georgia’s most effective conservative legislators in Congress,” Collins’ office said in a statement. “Rep. Collins looks forward to providing the House Ethics Committee all factual information and putting these meritless allegations to rest.”

Phillips is a longtime Republican political operative. He was Donald Trump's state director in 2016 until he resigned when news outlets reported he had been charged with battery and felony criminal damage in 2008. Phillips pleaded guilty to lesser criminal trespassing and battery charges after admitting he destroyed one person’s laptop and slashed another person’s tires.

Collins' rivals are already taking aim.

“These are serious allegations and Collins has some explaining to do to the people of Georgia,” said Harley Adsit, a spokesperson for Carter. “One thing is now clear: Collins as the Republican nominee would be a gift to Jon Ossoff, one Georgians can't afford to give.”

Citing Phillips' history, the Democrats Senate Majority PAC said Phillips' employment was a blot on Collins.

“Why did Mike Collins put someone with this record in charge of his office — and why did he keep him there?” the PAC wrote in a social media post.

FILE - Ga. Rep. Mike Collins speaks during Turning Point USA's AmericaFest 2025, on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin,File)

CAIRO (AP) — A council fighting against Yemen’s Houthi rebels said Wednesday it had expelled the leader of a separatist movement and charged him with treason after he reportedly declined to travel to Saudi Arabia for talks.

The statement carried by SABA news agency controlled by anti-Houthi forces is the latest escalation between Saudi-backed forces and the Southern Transitional Council, which had been backed by the United Arab Emirates. It also further complicates the future of Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country riven by one of the Mideast's worst conflicts for over a decade.

The whereabouts of STC leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi were not immediately known.

The statement from SABA accused al-Zubaidi of “damaging the republic’s military, political and economic standing,” as well as “forming an armed gang and committing the murder of officers and soldiers of the armed forces.”

The STC has not commented on the decision of the anti-Houthi leadership group, known as the Presidential Leadership Council. That council formed in April 2022 after President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen's internationally recognized government stepped down.

But its members all had competing interests and backers, with their forces never taking the fight to the Houthis even after both the United States and Israel launched massive bombing campaigns targeting the rebels. An uneasy ceasefire between the combatants on the ground in Yemen has held for years.

In late December, tensions began over the STC's advances in the governorates of Hadramout and Mahra, which were once held by Saudi-backed forces.

An earlier statement Wednesday from Maj. Gen, Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said al-Zubaidi, had been due to take a flight to Saudi Arabia but did not take the flight with other council officials.

“The legitimate government and the coalition received intelligence indicating that al-Zubaidi had moved a large force —including armored vehicles, combat vehicles, heavy and light weapons, and ammunition,” al-Malki said. Al-Zubaidi “fled to an unknown location.”

Saudi Arabia in recent weeks has bombed STC positions and struck what is said was a shipment of Emirati weapons. After Saudi pressure and an ultimatum from anti-Houthi forces to withdraw from Yemen, the UAE said Saturday it had withdrawn its forces.

The tensions in Yemen have further strained ties between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, neighbors on the Arabian Peninsula that have competed over economic issues and regional politics.

Ostensibly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have shared the coalition’s professed goal of fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since 2014.

Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula off East Africa, borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The war there has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

The Houthis, meanwhile, have launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, disrupting regional shipping. The U.S., which earlier praised Saudi-Emirati efforts to end the crisis over the separatists, has launched airstrikes against the rebels under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

FILE - The president of the Yemen's Southern Transitional Council Aidarous Al-Zubaidi sits for an interview, Sept. 22, 2023, in New York, while attending the United Nations General Assembly's annual high-level meeting of world leaders. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)