The House ethics committee is investigating whether Rep. Mike Honda violated the rules by improperly using his congressional staff to conduct campaign business.

In a statement released Monday, the ethics panel said it had decided "to extend the matter" regarding Honda, a California Democrat, until Sept. 3.

The complaint against Honda was sent to the House committee in June by an outside ethics watchdog group appointed by Congress.

Accusations against Honda first surfaced in 2014 in the publication San Jose Inside, which obtained emails from a former Honda aide that seemed to show his chief of staff, Jennifer Van der Heide, collaborating with Honda's re-election campaign on finding participants to an event at the State Department. That would violate House rules barring House-paid staffers from conducting campaign work.

"The goal, according to the emails," San Diego Inside reported, "was to target influential South Asian donors for campaign contributions."

The initial complaint against Honda was filed by Ro Khanna, a fellow Democrat who tried to unseat Honda in the 2014 election.

In a statement, the committee said that the investigation "does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred or reflect any judgement on behalf of the committee."