Rep. Andy Ogles Owes $120K to Several D.C. Firms

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District has accrued more than $120,000 in unpaid legal bills since October, continuing the money woes that have dogged the Republican congressman since he took office in 2022. The bills, owed to four separate D.C.-area law firms, are ledger items on a special-purpose account opened by Ogles on Oct. 1, 2024, under congressional rules and governed by Tennessee law. 

The House of Representatives’ Ethics Committee allows for legal defense funds where members can fundraise and spend for matters related to legal costs incurred by their office. Ogles has faced FEC violations and investigations into campaign finances since being elected.

Last summer, during the previous presidential administration, the FBI executed a search warrant against Ogles. Federal prosecutors dropped their investigation into Ogles in January, days after the second inauguration of President Donald Trump. Early this year, a House Congressional Ethics panel further questioned a personal loan declared by Ogles on prior Federal Election Commission filings. 

Ogles’ newly minted fund, the “Andy Ogles Legal Expense Trust,” accumulated $120,498.75 in legal bills between Oct. 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, all of which remains unpaid as of the most recent publicly available financial documents. The account owes $88,290 to firm Earth & Water Law LLC; $6,932.50 to Compass Legal Group; $5,376.25 to Holtzman Vogel; and $17,000 to Secil Law. Transaction details indicate Ogles solicited legal counsel from Holtzman Vogel and Secil Law on back-to-back days in May. An additional $3,000 is owed to political strategist and former Maryland Republican Party comptroller James Appel’s GOP Compliance.

Records show Ogles initially sought to create a legal defense trust as early as May 2024. Ogles formally requested approval for the trust on Aug. 19, 2024, amid an FBI investigation that included the confiscation of communication records and his cellphone. Ogles named Appel as the account’s trustee last year. 

“The report’s public, so you can see the numbers right there,” Appel tells the Scene in a brief phone call in which he confirms his position as trustee of Ogles’ account. 

Appel explains further that, as trustee, he is in an accounting role and not responsible for raising money or providing funds for the trust.

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While Ogles’ trust documents are public record, legal defense trusts are among the few government records not available online. Instead, they must be obtained in person in Washington, D.C. The Scene received copies of the trust records, transaction details and an incomplete trust agreement signed between Ogles and Appel, and independently verified the documents through an additional source. In both cases, Ogles’ trust agreement on file — initially signed in October 2024 and revised on Dec. 3, 2024 — includes only odd-numbered pages, indicating a possible filing error from his office that additionally violates reporting requirements. 

“I understand that I will be bound by the Committee’s Legal Expense Fund Regulations, effective May 1, 2024, and that while the Trustee will oversee the Trust, I bear ultimate responsibility for the proper administration of the Trust,” reads Ogles’ request to Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi and ranking member Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania. 

Ogles joins Florida’s embattled Rep. Kat Cammack, a fellow Republican, as the only members of Congress who opened such accounts this session.