An ethics complaint accusing Rep. Lauren Boebert of affairs with three staffers and a hush-money payment is falling apart, which is good for Boebert and bad for the Democratic operative behind it and the outlets that ran with it.

• The complaint, filed with the House Ethics Committee, claims Boebert had sexual relationships with three aides starting in 2021 and arranged a $200,000 payment to keep one of them from filing her own complaint.
• The filer is David Wheeler, who runs a Democratic super PAC called American Muckrakers, not a news outlet, and the two older news stories he cites as evidence make no claims about inappropriate relationships.
• Wheeler's group has a track record of false attacks on Boebert, including a 2022 site claiming she worked as an escort and had abortions, which CNN fact-checked and Wheeler admitted was sloppy and inaccurate.
• Boebert and the main named staffer, a former Colorado state lawmaker, both flatly deny the claims, and Boebert points out House rules bar the committee from accepting complaints within 60 days of an election.
• The staffers named in the complaint are being dragged into the story publicly with no evidence against them.

Outlook: The complaint is unlikely to go anywhere at the Ethics Committee, and Boebert is threatening to sue Wheeler, so the fight may move to court.