Just days after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) twice attacked Donald Trump on the floor of the U.S. Senate, the offices of several GOP Senators declined to tell The Stream whether the retiring Democrat should retract his statement or be investigated for possibly breaking the law.

Last week, and again on Tuesday, Reid attacked Trump on the Senate floor about his taxes and character. According to The Stream Senior Editor Rachel Alexander, this may violate a law requiring the formal separation of taxpayer-funded work and campaigning:

His speech likely violated Senate ethics rules. Members of both the Senate and the House are prohibited from conducting political campaign activity in a federal building. The applicable ethics rule states, “The General Appropriations statute, 31 U.S.C § 1301, provides that official funds are to be used only for the purposes for which they were appropriated.  No official resources may be used to conduct campaign activities.”

One senator’s office told The Stream to contact the Senate Ethics Committee, which did not respond to a request for comment, and the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell’s office directed The Stream to a press conference held by Senate Republicans yesterday, where McConnell said “it’s been my custom not to run the presidential campaign from the floor of the Senate. So I don’t think I have any response to what Senator Reid [inaudible].”

The Trump attacks are the second time Reid has used the Senate floor to attack the GOP nominee for President. In 2012, he accused Mitt Romney of not paying taxes, citing an unnamed source. GOP aides said at the time that Reid broke the law, though he was never investigated, and last year Reid told CNN’s Dana Bash that he didn’t regret the Romney smear. “Romney didn’t win, did he?” he asked.

Reid isn’t the first politician to be accused of using the taxpayer-funded floor of a chamber of Congress for campaigning. Earlier this year, House Democrats used a gun control sit-in for fundraising purposes, and Craig Holman, Ph.D., of the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen, accused Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz of doing the same.

“Campaign speech from the senate floor has long been considered violating the decorum of the senate and its proceedings, and used to be more or less followed,” Holman told The Stream. “However, as we have seen Congress as a whole break down into sharply divided partisan camps, this decorum is often no longer respected.”

“Through the course of the 2016 campaign alone, we have seen campaign speeches given on the floor by Sens. Cruz as well as Reid, and the entire legislative process is now often used for partisan campaign purposes, with amendments and riders and even entire legislative proposals introduced to embarrass the presidential and congressional candidates of the opposing party.”

According to Holman, “Reid violated the decorum of the senate floor, but such practice has become fairly commonplace today and no enforcement actions should be expected.”

Regular Reid critic Guy Benson of Townhall.com was more blunt, calling Reid a “smear artist and a confirmed liar.”

“My understanding is that Senate rules generally protect members’ ability to be a complete jerk with impunity on the floor — of which Harry Reid has taken full advantage over the years,” Benson told The Stream. “Politically, the ship has probably sailed on litigating Reid’s 2012 slanders against Mitt Romney — and the chances of Hillary Clinton demanding any sort of corrective action on a years-old smear are close to zero.”

Both the Donald Trump campaign and the Hillary Clinton campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment about whether Reid should retract his comments, or face an investigation. Arizona Republican Rep. David Schweikert, however, said Reid “is playing rope-a-dope” with Republicans, who are letting him have his way. He explained to The Stream:

“Reid does this year after year,” said Schweikert. “It’s not just McConnell’s fault; he has a bunch of members who won’t stand up, either. McConnell is just the voice of his conference; he’s not the only one in the room doing negotiations.

“It’s time for the Senate to toughen up and do its job. Reid is conning us. For him, it’s all about winning the next election.”

Editor’s Note: Read The Stream Senior Editor Rachel Alexander’s analysis of how Senator Reid broke the law here.