Confidential House ethics probe gets out

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House ethics committee announced Thursday it is investigating two California Democratic lawmakers, but its embarrassed leaders then had to explain that other members — named in a confidential memo that leaked out — may have committed no wrongdoing.

The committee said it is investigating whether Rep. Maxine Waters used her influence to help a bank in which her husband owned stock, and whether the couple benefited as a result. Separately, the panel is investigating whether Rep. Laura Richardson failed to disclose required information on her financial disclosure forms and received special treatment from a lender.

As the House was conducting scheduled votes Thursday, ethics chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., went to the microphone to announce that a confidential weekly report of the committee from July had leaked out in a case of “cyber-hacking.”

A committee statement said its security was breached through “peer to peer file sharing software” by a junior employee who was working from home. The staff member was fired.

The July report contains a summary of the committee’s work at the time, but Lofgren said no inferences should be made about anyone whose name is mentioned.

The committee makes a public announcement when it begins an investigation of potential rule-breaking, which is conducted by an investigative subcommittee whose members also are made public.

However, the weekly reports include a summary of the committee’s work at an earlier stage, when its members and staff scrutinize lawmakers to see whether an investigation is warranted.

The Washington Post reported in its online edition Thursday that the document was disclosed on a publicly accessible computer network and made available to the newspaper by a source familiar with such networks.

The Post reported that nearly half the members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee were under scrutiny.

The previously disclosed inquiry involves lawmakers who steered appropriations to clients of a now-defunct lobbying firm and received campaign contributions from the firm and its clients.

The names included three lawmakers previously identified in the inquiry: the chairman of the defense subcommittee, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; and Reps. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and James Moran, D-Va.

The Post said others whose names were in the report included Reps. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.

The committee, however, has not announced an investigation of any of these lawmakers.

Waters is the No. 3 Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and chairwoman of its subcommittee on housing. She has been an influential voice in the committee’s work to overhaul financial regulations.

Waters came under scrutiny after former Treasury Department officials said she helped arrange a meeting between regulators and executives at OneUnited Bank last year without mentioning her husband’s financial ties to the institution.

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