California Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu is under scrutiny for two $25,000 payments he made to Stanford University years before his son was accepted to the school.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show that Lieu made donations totaling $51,046 to his alma-mater between February 2016 and June 2018. This includes two donations of the substantial sum of $25,000, one in September 2017 and one in June 2018.

According to his Instagram bio, one of Lieu's sons is about to start college as a freshman at Stanford, due to graduate in 2025. 

The fact that Lieu suddenly gave so generously to the school in the years before his son was accepted has a student has raised questions about the motivation for his donations. 

Lieu's donations were first reported by conservative news site Red State in May 2019.

Its managing editor, Jennifer Van Laar, wrote about the donations and picked out pages from the FEC filings showing a $25,000 donation by Lieu dated June 29, 2018, and a second $25,000 gift dated September 11, 2017

Republican political consultant Luke Thompson noted that a Twitter account that tweeted about the the payments, referencing the infamous Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, was last week suspended. 

Thompson himself tweeted: 'Uh. This is very bizarre. The account that tweeted about @tedlieu making contributions to Stanford out of his campaign account - and Lieu's son now attending Stanford - has been suspended.'

It is unclear what prompted the account's suspension.