More than 30 lawmakers in House investigated: leaked report

Nearly half the members of a House panel in control of Pentagon spending are facing a probe by Congressional ethics investigators, the Washington Post reported.

The revelations came in a cyber-hacked confidential report leaked to the newspaper and reported in its Web site.

Two House ethics offices are probing whether Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, and six other lawmakers funneled millions in federal funds to clients of an influential lobbying firm in exchange for campaign contributions, the paper reported.

The lobbying outfit, PMA Group, founded by a former Capitol Hill aide, has been under criminal investigation by the Justice Department, the newspaper said.

Details of the House ethics probes were contained in a confidential House report prepared in July that indicated more than 30 lawmakers and several aides are under scrutiny in probes of defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling.

Members of the ethics committee and their staffs sign oaths not to disclose details of past or present investigations. But the 22-page report was accidentally released by a low-level staffer who was working from home via a file-sharing network, committee chairman Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cal.) told The Post.

The staff member was fired, Lofgren said.

"No inference to any misconduct can be made from the fact that a matter is simply before the committee," Lofgren said.

Besides Murtha, two lawmakers previously identified in the inquiry, Reps. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and James Moran (D-Va.), were named in the report.

Also named were: Reps. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), Marcy Kaptur, (D-Ohio), C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), and Todd Tiahrt, (R-Kan.). The committee has not issued a formal announcement that they are under investigation.

The committee, which announces when it begins a formal investigation, said it is probing whether Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Cal.) used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock.

Separately, the panel is also investigating whether Rep. Laura Richardson failed to disclose required information on her financial disclosure forms and received special treatment from a lender.

Waters, third highest ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and chairwoman of its subcommittee on housing, came under scrutiny after former Treasury Department officials said she helped arrange a meeting between regulators and executives at One United Bank last year without mentioning husband Sidney William's financial ties to the institution.

Williams, holds at least $250,000 in the bank's stock and previously had served on its board. Waters' spokesman, Michael Levin, said Williams was no longer on the board when the meeting was arranged.

The committee's probe of Richardson will determine if she violated House rules by failing to disclose property, income and liabilities on her financial disclosure forms.

The committee is also looking into whether she received an impermissible gift or preferential treatment from a lender, "relating to the foreclosure, recession of the foreclosure sale or loan modification agreement" for her property in Sacramento.

Richardson said she has been subjected to "premature judgments, speculation and baseless distractions that will finally be addressed in a fair, unbiased, bipartisan evaluation of the facts."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/10/30/2009-10-30_congressional_defense_appropriations_panel_rocked_by_ethics_probe_leaked_by_hack.html#ixzz0VQoJ8PQI

Maxine Waters Wants Tea Party Racist Probes

Maxine Waters wants TEA parties, conservative rallies and similar functions probed by the media in an effort to find and confront racists. She may have to put her racist witch hunt on sold since she's under investigation by the House Ethics panel over her husband's ties to a bank that received federal bailout funds.

Richard Simon with the LATimes writes:

Reporting from Washington - The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who has come under scrutiny because of her husband's ties to a bank that received federal bailout funds.

The panel's chairwoman and ranking member announced the committee was extending by 45 days a determination on whether it would conduct a more thorough review of Waters' conduct, but they declined to say what was being investigated. Waters, one of Los Angeles' most enduring liberal politicians, also declined to comment.

Word of the investigation came as the committee announced that it was delaying an inquiry into whether Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) or his representatives tried to secure the Senate seat vacated by President Obama by promising to raise campaign cash for disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich. The panel cited an ongoing federal investigation in Chicago.

Both matters were referred to the committee, evenly divided between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, by the Office of Congressional Ethics, created by the House last year in response to criticism that lawmakers have been reluctant to vigorously investigate their own. The new office -- which can initiate reviews of alleged misconduct on its own or in response to allegations brought to its attention by the public -- refers matters to the committee if it determines they warrant further investigation.

Waters was in the spotlight earlier this year because Massachusetts-based OneUnited Bank received $12 million in bailout funds, three months after the congresswoman, a senior member of the congressional committee that oversees banking, helped arrange a meeting between officials of the bank and other minority-owned financial institutions and Treasury Department representatives.

Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, served on the bank board until early last year and held at least $350,000 in investments in the bank last year, according to the congresswoman's most recent financial disclosure report.

Waters defended her efforts as in keeping with her longtime work to promote opportunity for minority-owned businesses and lending in underserved communities. She said that OneUnited received bailout funds based on the merits of its request, not political influence, and she said that she had disclosed her husband's ties to the bank.

In its announcement on Jackson, the ethics panel made public for the first time allegations that he used his congressional staff in Chicago and Washington to mount a "public campaign" for the open seat in possible violation of federal law and House rules.

The Justice Department asked the committee to hold off from pursuing a full-blown inquiry of Jackson until after Blagojevich's trial, scheduled for next year, saying it would "pose a significant risk of interfering with the pending criminal proceedings and ongoing investigation."

Blagojevich was indicted on federal corruption charges in April. Jackson's name first surfaced in December after Blagojevich's arrest, with the then-governor secretly recorded saying that an emissary from Jackson had offered to raise $1 million for Blagojevich's reelection campaign if he appointed Jackson to the Senate seat that eventually went to Roland W. Burris.