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More than four months after the original due date, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles has filed annual financial disclosures with the U.S. House Clerk — and corrected last year’s filing — revealing a never-before-disclosed bank account, line of credit, travel expenses paid by a group that supported his campaign, and investment property disclosures that do not align with Maury County property records.
Ogles is seeking reelection this year, having defeated GOP challenger Courtney Johnston in the primary last month. He faces Nashville Democrat Maryam Abolfazli in November.
Ogles has been required to file financial disclosures every year since being elected Maury County mayor in 2019. As in the past, Ogles’ newest filings are at odds with previous ones — and include several corrections to past disclosures.
Ogles filed for an extension to the original May 15 deadline, making the new deadline Aug. 13. The new filings squeaked in Friday, hours before a 30-day grace period expired — after which he would have been subject to a $200 late filing fee.
A correction to Ogles’ 2022 disclosure filed Friday reveals a never-before-disclosed First Horizon joint bank account that he claims is worth between $50,000 and $100,000. Earlier this year, he admitted that more than $300,000 he had reported as cash to the FEC for two years was in fact a “pledge” of funds for which the need never arose. Ogles had claimed that he could have loaned his 2022 campaign more than $300,000 but had not disclosed a personal bank account with that sum. The new filing reveals that while a previously undisclosed bank account exists, it does not contain the cash Ogles had claimed.
New disclosures also list two investment properties located in Columbia, Tennessee, but details do not align with Maury County property records.
The first investment property Ogles lists is valued between $100,000 and $250,000. The disclosure notes that the property was purchased in September 2022 — weeks after his primary victory — and sold in November 2022. Ogles discloses for the first time a line of credit with First Bank initiated in September 2022 worth $500,000 to $1 million, with which this property could have been purchased.
According to Maury County property records, Ogles purchased a home on Neeley Hollow Road near his family home for $660,000 in September 2022. He sold the home just over a year later in November 2023 at a $60,000 loss to his District Director James Amundsen, according to property records.
Ogles also discloses on both 2022 and 2023 filings another real estate investment in Maury County worth $500,000 to $1 million, which he claims brings in rent of between $5,000 and $15,000 per year.
There is no property of that description listed as owned by the Ogles in Maury County property records.
U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles addresses his supporters after winning the Republican nomination for a second term at an election night returns party at Ludlow & Prime in Franklin, Tenn., Thursday night, Aug. 1, 2024.
Ogles and his wife, Monica, own three properties in Maury County, all located on Neeley Hollow Road, according to Maury County property records.
Their family home is a 2,901 square foot home with a swimming pool built in 1988, appraised at the value of $559,000, which the Ogles purchased in 2015. Another property, purchased in 2016, contains a 1,666 square foot single family home built in 1954 and is valued at $157,100 — significantly less than the disclosed $500,000 to $1 million. The third parcel, purchased in September 2022, is 3.9 acres and contains no buildings.
The Ogles briefly owned a 1995 home on Neeley Hollow Road, sold in November 2023 as erroneously detailed on the disclosures.
New disclosures also reveal travel he took with expenses paid by outside groups.
According to the disclosures, Ogles traveled from Nashville to West Palm Beach, Florida, in March 2023 for a four-day trip, with lodging and food expenses paid by Club for Growth — a libertarian organization whose political action committee spent significantly to back his campaign.
He also traveled from Nashville to Orlando, Florida, for a four-day experience with lodging and food expenses paid by the Conservative Partnership Institute.
Corrected disclosures reveal significantly less in retirement savings than Ogles previously disclosed: He discloses two retirement accounts between $30,000 and $100,000, down from originally disclosed accounts worth $150,000 and $350,000.
Ogles' congressional office and campaign did not respond to questions seeking an explanation for the inconsistencies in the disclosures. Throughout the last year, neither Ogles' office nor his campaign has ever responded to questions from The Tennessean regarding errors and delays in his financial disclosures.
Ogles has had chronic problems with financial disclosures even before his bid for Congress in 2022. Ogles omitted multiple items on financial disclosures submitted to the State of Tennessee as Maury County Mayor. In 2022, his first Congressional campaign finance disclosures were filed weeks late. He was required to pay $5,750 in civil penalties for campaign finance violations after the 2022 cycle.
Since first filing for candidacy in 2022, every disclosure Ogles has filed with the Federal Election Commission has had to later be corrected.
Ogles’ cell phone was confiscated by FBI agents last month, the day after he defeated a Republican primary opponent, in a probe that he has said he believes is connected with incorrect campaign finance filings. In new filings, Ogles’ attorneys have claimed the freshman congressman is a “subject” not a “target” of the investigation and asserted that the investigation is politically motivated, pointing out that the seizure of his phone occurred shortly after Ogles introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Kamala Harris. Ogles introduced almost identical impeachment filings against Harris last year.
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com or on X @Vivian_E_Jones.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Late Ogles financial filings don't agree with county property records
