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Pelosi says she supports vote to refer Massa situation to ethics panel
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday she supported a House vote to refer a new investigation into a former lawmaker's actions to an ethics panel.
Pelosi said she supported an overwhelming House vote this afternoon which asked the House Ethics Committee to consider opening an investigation into Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), and their staffs for their handling of allegations of harassment against former Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.).
"Well, that was what we had voted on the floor, to refer it to the Ethics Committee, sure," Pelosi said when asked whether she supports an investigation into how she and other Democratic leaders handled allegations against Massa.
Reports had raised questions over when Pelosi and Hoyer's office first became aware of the allegations, as well as how they reacted in response.
Pelosi said during an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow to air Thursday evening that while her office may have become aware of information about Massa's conduct before an ethics investigation commenced in February, the nformation did not rise ot the level needed to take action.
"I’m now finding out that there had been a conversation earlier, but it had nothing to do -- to even come close to any kind of an allegation," the speaker said.
Pelosi maintained that she largely steers clear of the ethics committee in order to avoid any impression that she's trying to influence its work, and said that it was up to the Ethics Committee to decide how to proceed with an investigation into Massa, as well as an investigation into her or other Democrats' handling of the situation.
"The last thing we would have wanted then was any intervention from the Speaker’s office," Pelosi said, adding, that "there's an appropriate way for an allegation to be sent to the Ethics Committee, and it shouldn’t be something that is the Speaker’s office" territory to get mixed up in.
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