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Dems to open ethics probe of Jefferson |
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By Mike Soraghan
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Posted: 06/06/07 09:07 PM [ET] |
The Democratic chairwoman of the House ethics committee announced Tuesday that the panel will re-open its dormant investigation of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) now that he has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 16 counts of bribery and corruption.
The announcement sought to undercut a move by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) to capitalize on the indictment by forcing a floor vote demanding an investigation.
Chairwoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) has yet to announce who will serve on the committee or why the investigation has been inactive since Democrats took power five months ago. She did, however, scold Republicans for trying to make political hay out of the Jefferson case.
“It is inappropriate for any other member to impose on these proceedings,” Tubbs Jones said. “As a committee, we will fulfill our responsibility to the House of Representatives. I refuse to allow these proceedings to be politicized by House Republican leadership.”
Unlike past ethics committee announcements, Tubbs Jones’s statement was not a joint statement with the ranking Republican member, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.). Tubbs Jones said she had contacted Hastings and that they agreed to form an investigative subcommittee to look into the Jefferson matter. Attempts to reach Hastings for confirmation were unsuccessful.
An investigative subcommittee of the ethics committee had been appointed to look into Jefferson’s activities. But it requires a vote to reauthorize an investigation when a new Congress takes over, which never happened.
Tubbs Jones said her committee was “in contact” with Justice Department to determine the status of their investigation on Sept. 26, 2006, June 9, 2006, and March 15, 2007. She gave no indication of what they discussed or why the investigation was not renewed.
Democrats were scrambling Tuesday to get off the defensive on the ethics issue as they wrestled with a detailed, 95-page indictment of one of their members.
In trying to reassert themselves on the issue, they ran into a split in their ranks because of the staunch support shown for Jefferson among his fellow members in the Congressional Black Caucus.
“Our Caucus has not nor will taken a position on this,” caucus Chairwoman Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) said.
Speaking as an individual lawmaker, Kilpatrick said, “This is a country of jurisprudence. There are very serious charges. … We stand by our members until proven guilty in a court of law.”
Republicans clearly enjoyed seeing their Democratic counterparts squirming over some of the same issues they faced as they went down to defeat last year.
“It is a superhuman criminal feat to pull off a caper like William Jefferson did,” the Republican Conference chairman, Rep. Adam Putnam (Fla.), said.
Republicans sought to stress that the Republican House had passed legislation blocking legislators convicted of felonies from drawing a congressional pension. But it was never signed into law.
Asked whether there should be hard-and-fast rules about removing or suspending lawmakers under indictment, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) replied, “I don’t know if a black-and-white rule is possible.”
The only public word out of Jefferson Tuesday was a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) relinquishing his remaining committee seat, on the Small Business panel, because of the indictment.
“I, of course, express no admission of guilt or culpability in that or any other matter that may be pending in any court or before the House of Representatives,” Jefferson wrote in a Tuesday letter to Pelosi. “I have supported every ethics and lobbying reform measure that you and our Democratic Majority have authored, and I make this request for leave to support the letter and the spirit of your leadership in this area.”
He said the leave would last until the “successful conclusion” of the case against him.
Jefferson already had been removed from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in the wake of FBI raids that located $90,000 in his freezer.
Kilpatrick said she strongly supported Jefferson’s decision to take leave from the committee.
Pelosi also took a step toward re-igniting the dormant investigation by appointing a “pool” of 10 Democrats available to serve on investigative subcommittees.
They are: Reps. Ron Kind (Wis.), Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), Keith Ellison (Minn.), Mike Honda (Calif.), Jay Inslee (Wash.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Grace Napolitano (Calif.), Steven Rothman (N.J.) and Vic Snyder (Ark.).
Boehner had appointed his 10 members of the pool on May 1.
Jonathan E. Kaplan and Jackie Kucinich contributed to this report. |
