Ethics Panels Clash Over Graves Inquiry -- "A Substantive Violation May Have Occurred"
Roll Call and The Washington Post reported late this afternoon that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) and House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (SOOC, or House ethics panel) have distinctly different understandings of the Sam Graves ethics inquiry made public early today.
OCE Chairman David Skaggs and Co-Chairman Porter Goss (George W. Bush's Director of Central Intelligence) wrote today that the SOOC "mischaracterized" the OCE's referral of "the matter involving Representative Sam Graves."
We regret that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (SOOC) mischaracterized the Office of Congressional Ethics’ (OCE) August 6th referral of the matter involving Representative Sam Graves. The OCE Board did find substantial reason to believe that a substantive violation may have occurred. While the SOOC released a portion of the OCE referral, the complete disclosure as provided for in H. Res 895 will clearly demonstrate as much.
Earlier, the House ethics committee said the OCE “did not find a ‘substantial reason to believe’ that there was a substantive violation" of the law or House rules.
The OCE also "rebutted ethics committee allegations that the OCE failed to provide potentially ;exculpatory evidence'— information that could potentially clear Graves of the allegations — to the Missouri lawmaker during its own investigation." OCE officials:
The information the SOOC suggests “may” be exculpatory was either in Representative Graves’ possession directly or through his counsel, or was not pertinent. We respectfully note that documents in the referral to the SOOC make this clear. The OCE would never withhold exculpatory information from a subject of an investigation and did not in this instance.
As posted by The Washington Post, here is the full statement from the Office of Congressional Ethics:
STATEMENT OF THE CHAIR AND CO-CHAIRMAN OF THE OFFICE OF CONGRESSIONAL ETHICS REGARDING THE OCES’S REFERRAL OF REPRESENTATIVE SAM GRAVES TO THE COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS OF OFFICIAL CONDUCT
We regret that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct (SOOC) mischaracterized the Office of Congressional Ethics’ (OCE) August 6th referral of the matter involving Representative Sam Graves. The OCE Board did find substantial reason to believe that a substantive violation may have occurred. While the SOOC released a portion of the OCE referral, the complete disclosure as provided for in H. Res 895 will clearly demonstrate as much.
The information the SOOC suggests “may” be exculpatory was either in Representative Graves’ possession directly or through his counsel, or was not pertinent. We respectfully note that documents in the referral to the SOOC make this clear. The OCE would never withhold exculpatory information from a subject of an investigation and did not in this instance.
Congressional ethics inquires are by nature hard to follow, but this seems like more than a simple misunderstanding between lawyers and bureaucrats. Stay tuned.
Image credit: International Business Times
