Investigating the Investigators: How the House Ethics Committee Works
Tickle fights vs. groping. Salty language vs. sexual harassment. For those who've been following the media circus around ex-Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., there's been quite a lot to follow. Nonetheless, on Wednesday the House ethics committee closed its investigation into Massa, claiming his resignation rendered any findings “irrelevant” and put him “outside the reach of any punishment,” according [1] to The Washington Post.
This decision has only inflamed the partisan ethics battle within the House of Representatives. Republicans, wanting the probe to continue, criticized Democrats for failing to look into one of their own. Democrats have fired back [2], defending their record and pointing to a list of Republican members who have breached ethics rules.
All this comes after the same House ethics committee, in the weeks before, cleared seven lawmakers of wrongdoing in a defense-lobbying investigation [3] and “admonished” Rep. Charlie Rangel, [4] D-N.Y., for violating ethics rules against accepting gifts when he attended conferences in the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008. The investigation into other allegations against Rangel continues, but the committee's recent decisions have brought renewed criticism and attention to it.
The process of ethics investigations is opaque, to say the least, and the reporting around the ethics committee reflects this. So let's take a brief look into the timeline of events and some of the media coverage about the committee.
Massa took office in January 2009. “Not long after,” according to the Post [5], “several male staffers began to feel uncomfortable with the sexually loaded language their boss routinely used.” The Post's timeline continues:
As the months passed, rumors began to circulate in the office that the married New York Democrat had sexually propositioned young male staffers and interns — allegations, according to two sources with knowledge of the inquiry, that included Massa groping at least two aides.
None of this was reported to the committee until at least Feb. 8, 2010. Even as details continued to emerge, most news reports — the Post's aside — said the committee was investigating allegations that Massa harassed one aide, not several. The committee's one-line statement [6] last week didn't provide much illumination, confirming only that the panel was, in fact, investigating. No further details were provided.
via Investigating the Investigators: How the House Ethics Committee Works – ProPublica.
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