House Ethics Committee Investigates 2 Lawmakers
WASHINGTON â€" Representative Aaron Schock, Republican of Illinois, may have improperly solicited a $25,000 donation last year from the House majority leader for a political group seeking to oust incumbent Republicans, an ethics report released Wednesday says.
The House ethics committee disclosed on Wednesday that it was continuing to investigate Mr. Schock’s March 2012 appeal for money to Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican leader.
At the same time, the ethics committee disclosed a second investigation, into whether Representative Bill Owens, Democrat of New York, improperly accepted a trip to Taiwan that may indirectly have been paid for by the government of Taiwan, in violation of a House rule that prohibits lawmakers from, in most cases, from taking gifts from foreign governments.
The ethics committee has not reached a conclusion on either of the allegations. But it released lengthy investigative reports into both cases that had been prepared by the quasi-independent Office of Congressional Ethics, which serves as sort of a grand jury of sorts for ethics matters in the House.
The inquiry into Mr. Schock relates to a request he made to Mr. Cantor to consider donating $25,000 to a “super PAC†known as Campaign for Primary Accountability, which was then working to help defeat certain incumbent House members, including Representative Donald Manzullo, a 10-term Illinois Republican.
Mr. Cantor ultimately did make the contribution, using his own political action committee, and the donation elicited controversy because the majority leader was supporting a conservative group that sought to oust incumbent Republicans.
Mr. Cantor’s aides explained at the time that the majority leader made the contribution because redistricting in Illinois had forced a primary between Mr. Manzullo and a second Illinois Republican, Representative Adam Kinzinger, a favorite of Mr. Cantor and Mr. Schock.
The ethics violation may have occurred because the Federal Election Commission only allows lawmakers to solicit contributions for up to $5,000 by independent expenditure groups. It is an odd rule because the provision does not explicitly prohibit donations that exceed this amount.
Lawyers for Mr. Schock acknowledged that the Illinois lawmaker had appealed to Mr. Cantor for help in defeating Mr. Manzullo. But his lawyers argued that he had no way of knowing how Mr. Cantor might come up with the requested $25,000 â€" including possibly collecting the money from several different campaign accounts, meaning he had solicited individual donations that would have been under the $5,000 limit.
Mr. Schock’s lawyers disclosed that the matter is also being investigated separately by the Federal Election Commission, and urged the ethics committee to drop the matter, as this was a campaign finance question, not an ethics question. The ethics committee has not indicated if it will formally issue a ruling on this case, only that it is still reviewing the matter.
The investigation into Mr. Owens involved a trip the lawmaker and his wife took to Taiwan in December 2011 that was supposedly paid for by Chinese Culture University, based in Taipei. The trip was already the focus on scrutiny because lobbyists hired the government of Taiwan â€" a firm led by former Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato of New York â€" had helped coordinate arrangements for the trip, perhaps a violation of rules that limit lawmakers from accepting privately sponsored travel that is arranged by a lobbyist.
The Office of Congressional Ethics report says that it appears â€" but it could not determine for sure â€" that the government of Taiwan reimbursed the Chinese Culture University for the $22,000 cost of the trip, luxury hotels, first-class airfare and expensive meals. There is also evidence, in the form of e-mails, that Park Strategies, the lobbying firm run by Mr. D’Amato, helped arrange the trip by Mr. Owens, apparently a rules violation. Details of the trip were first reported by ProPublica in May 2012.
Lawyers for Mr. Owens said that the evidence suggesting the government of Taiwan actually paid for the trip was inconclusive and that Mr. Owens, after questions were first raised about the involvement of Park Strategies in arranging the trip, repaid Chinese Culture University for the full cost of the travel. Mr. Owens’s lawyers also argued that the trip was approved by the ethics committee before it took place, as is standard practice for privately sponsored travel.
Courtesy of Damon Stewart, via Associated Press Hadiya Pendleton in an undated family photo.
