LegiStorm: Transparency's Sidekick

A confidential report of the House ethics committee, detailing inquiries into possible ethics violations by dozens of lawmakers and their staffers, has made its way into the Washington Post this morning. The leak represents a rare opportunity to look at the deliberations of a committee that has been accustomed to operating in total privacy.

According to the report, the committee has interviewed Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and some of the people around him in regard to the ongoing investigation into information surrounding his finances and a trip he took to St. Martin. Rangel has been under fire for failing to pay taxes on assets and income, and for leaving information out of his personal financial disclosures.

According to the report, however, he isn't the only one who may have omitted information from his disclosures. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) has been under scrutiny since 2006 for having failed to reveal portions of his stake in real estate. According to the Post, the ethics committee report seems to indicate that the Justice Department may have taken over that investigation. Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) may also have omitted "property, income and liabilities" from her disclosures, according to the Post.

Others named in the report include subjects of a previously-known investigation into lawmakers associated with a lobbying firm that broke up after its offices were raided by the FBI early this year. PMA Group has been the subject of a federal investigation into earmarks and "pay-to-play" activities.

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The man who has led the Republican charge against the House Ways and Means chairman over the accuracy of the powerful lawmaker's personal financial disclosures has acknowledged errors on his own disclosures.

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) has been the target of an ongoing ethics investigation over errors on his financial disclosure forms. Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) has said that allowing Rangel to remain as chairman of the Ways and Means committee is "the same as allowing a confessed bank robber to serve as chairman of the Banking Committee." Carter has attacked Rangel for leaving information about income and hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets out of his financial disclosures - information that, when it was brought to light, resulted in the New York congressman having to pay nearly $10,000 in back taxes.

Now, according to Roll Call, Carter has acknowledged errors of omission in his own financial disclosures. The omissions relate to his ownership of at least $1 million in Exxon Mobil Corp. stock. Carter's disclosures reveal the ownership of the stock and a partial sale of the assets in 2006 and 2007. But his filings fail to mention his profits, as required.

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The House ethics committee has expanded its existing investigation of Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) to include possible improprieties related to financial disclosure amendments he filed in August, The Associated Press reported this afternoon.

Those amendments revealed several assets that had previously been undisclosed, including a previously undisclosed account valued at least $250,000 with the Congressional Federal Credit Union.

Rangel was already the subject of two separate House ethics subcommittee investigations. Among other things, Rangel has been accused of improperly maintaining multiple rent-controlled apartments in New York, failing to report rental income to the IRS and taking part in a trip to St. Maarten that may have been paid for by companies which employ lobbyists, a potential violation of House rules.

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Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) is already the subject of two ethics committee investigations, and an amendment to his 2008 personal financial disclosure this month has raised more questions.

The amendment by Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has at least a dozen differences from the original, according to CQ Politics. Among them are a previously undisclosed account valued at least $250,000 with the Congressional Federal Credit Union, holdings in PepsiCo and land in Glassboro, N.J. (listed as "empty lots").

Two separate House ethics subcommittees are already looking at Rangel, who among other things has been accused of improperly maintaining multiple rent-controlled apartments in New York, failing to report rental income to the IRS and taking part in a trip to St. Maarten that may have been paid for by companies which employ lobbyists, a violation of House rules.

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The House ethics committee is looking into whether Reps. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) violated congressional rules when the Linda Sanchez took some of her sister's employees on her own payroll in late 2006, according to a story in Roll Call Wednesday.

Loretta Sanchez was going to be unable to meet payroll obligations within her budget due to embezzlement by an aide, so her sister Linda moved three of Loretta's employees onto her own payroll.

The aide, Caroline Valdez, pleaded guilty Monday to charges she stole between $5,000 and $10,000 in early 2006. The theft led to Linda Sanchez paying three of Loretta's employees in the final months of 2006. According to LegiStorm's salary records, the three employees appear to be Shane Skinner, Edward Steiner and Andrew Stephenson, all of whom appear on Linda Sanchez' payroll in November or December of 2006.

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Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)'s personal financial disclosures show she has owned stock in OneUnited Bank and her husband has been a director there, but that hasn't stopped her from using her official position to go to bat for the company in several instances.

The Wall Street Journal broke the story about her actions and her self-reported stake in the company exceeding $250,000.

If the House ethics committee decides to investigate the matter, Waters could find herself trying to explain why she didn't recuse herself from the matter.