This morning, an independent ethics office recommended the further investigation of Representative John Campbell (R-Newport Beach) and two other congressmen for possible wrongdoing because they raised funds from financial lobbyists around the time in December 2009 the House voted on a sweeping overhaul of financial regulation.
But this afternoon, the Republican-chaired House Ethics Committee released a report that basically said, “Nothing to see here, folks!”
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“That's the take-away of the House Ethics Committee's 616-page report,” according to Talking Point Memo's Ryan J. Reilly. (Read the committee report here.)
The Office of
Congressional Ethics had recommended the House Ethics Committee continue with the probe, but the committee's report essentially indicated there was nothing improper about the events geared toward
financial lobbyists that were held by Campbell and Representatives Tom Price
(R-Georgia) and Joseph Crowley (D-New York).
“An independent investigation of the relevant facts and
surrounding circumstances in all three matters demonstrated that each member's fund-raising activities raised no appearances of impropriety,” states the report from the committee chaired by Representative Jo Bonner (R-Alabama).
Let the influence-peddlin' continue!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.