Posted on 09/21/2012 10:28:23 AM PDT by crosshairs
The House Ethics Committee has completed a report clearing Rep. Maxine Waters of all ethics charges after nearly three years of investigating the California Democrat.
At a rare public hearing for Waters on Friday, members of the secretive Ethics panel said they were prepared to issue a report finding the lawmaker innocent of allegations that she tried to secure federal money during the financial crisis for a bank in which her husband owned stock.
Waters cannot be formally cleared until the panel concludes its hearing and votes on its report.
The panel is also considering the fate of Waters’s chief of staff and grandson, Mikael Moore. The committee is threatening to sanction the staff member with a letter of reproval for using his position to assist One United Bank, where Waters’s husband owned $350,000 in stock. The letter would reprove Moore for allegedly using his office for personal gain, dispensing favors and bringing discredit against the House.
After nearly three hours of questioning Moore, the committee moved into a private executive session to discuss his testimony and likely vote on whether to issue him a letter of reproval.
Waters, who sat immediately behind Moore for the entire hearing, told reporters as she left the hearing room that she was waiting to comment on the morning's events until after the committee had voted.
Moore had been grilled in questioning by committee members Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Donna Edwards (D-Md.) about whether he went against Waters’s request to not take any action on behalf of One United Bank because of the potential conflict of interest.
Latourette asked Moore whether he would prefer to have the committee launch an investigative subcommittee into the allegations against him rather than move forward with a letter of reproval. The formality of an investigative subcommittee would give Moore a chance to have an official trial, but could lead to a more serious punishment if he is found guilty.
Moore said that despite how badly he wanted to fight the case, he would opt to accept the letter of reproval over the launching of an investigative subcommittee.
“My heavy heart is around the idea that, whether it’s a letter of reproval or someone saying that I knowingly and intentionally used the congresswoman’s office for personal gain [and] that I disrespected the House, is a very difficult pill to swallow,” said Moore.
“And as you can probably tell, the way that I’ve been trained…would tell you that in normal circumstances I would fight tooth and nail to the end. But in this circumstance, I would say no.”
Latourette said he wasn’t taking the issue lightly when considering how to vote.
“This is a big deal,” he said. “We’re talking about your reputation. We’re talking about your members’ reputation.”
During a break in the proceedings, Moore’s lawyer Andrew Herman told reporters he was encouraged by the substance of the hearing, saying that his client was being treated fairly.
If Waters is cleared, it would all but guarantee that the veteran lawmaker will take over next year as the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.), who has been the top Democrat there, is retiring.
Waters has maintained her innocence all along and balked at the lengthy ethics process, which has been bogged down by a series of allegations that the committee’s staff acted in politically biased manner.
After accepting a recommendation from the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate the matter in 2009, the ethics panel moved to hold a trial for Waters in late 2010. But before the trial began, it halted its work abruptly and placed two of its lead attorneys on administrative leave. Shortly afterward, the committee’s chief counsel stepped down.
The first half of 2011 was spent in a flurry of firing and reorganizing among the panel’s investigative and legal staff, which included the hiring of a new chief counsel.
Charges of improprieties led the panel to hire outside counsel Billy Martin, who after a year-long, nearly $1 million investigation found the committee acted fairly and that Waters’ rights were not violated.
Martin’s report was unable to firmly determine when Waters told Moore not to take any specific action to help One United Bank. And Moore argues in part that because the committee can’t nail down when he was told not to interfere, he may have taken the actions he’s accused of without knowing that Waters wanted him to refrain.
The committee has not made Martin’s entire report public, despite multiple pleas from Waters, her House colleagues, and watchdog groups, who have also complained about the unusually long time it has taken the secretive panel to complete its investigation of the California Democrat.
Waters has maintained that she deserved to have the same “speedy trial” guaranteed in the criminal judicial process under the Sixth Amendment. But the committee said the amendment does not apply to its proceedings and that lawmakers under investigation by the panel do not have the same rights as a criminal defendant.
I just vomited.
A letter of reproval! Woooooooooo
Her grandson - Chief of Staff
Waters - Head of the Finance Committee
Not guilty.
It’s sad that when I’m reading these article more times than not I have to scroll back up to to the top to see if it’s satire.
It’s official. There is only one party in Washington and they’re all getting rich and looking out for themselves. And as far as I’m concerned, if they don’t say anything in public, they’re just as guilty even if they’re not cashing in.
And, this is a surprise to whom??
It’s just too bad we’re past the days of tar and feathers and run out of town on a rail. But we still have charges, trials, convictions and jail time. Why are politicians exempt from what the rest of us are not?
They drag this stuff out as long as they can hoping that anyone who knows what it is about has lost interest or been put down by an Obamacare Death Panel.
The Senate and House treat themselves as royalty.
This would be par for the course if the Democrats controlled the House. But they don’t. Evidently the Republicans on the committee fear the race card more than they fear corruptly aiding and abetting a criminal enemy.
The House Ethics Committee LOL.The esster bunny is real too.
“Time to build gallows on the National Mall.”
I’ve saying for years that when the SHTF, I want the ox cart franchise.
She’s a guilty bitch.
Actually, I think it’s very plausible that Waters did nothing wrong. She’s not smart enough to pull off any significant fraud. She may have tried and failed, but didn’t get very far.
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