Office Of Congressional Ethics

The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who has come under scrutiny because of her husband's ties to a bank that received federal bailout funds. The panel's chairwoman and ranking member announced the committee was extending by 45 days a determination on whether it would conduct a more thorough review of Waters' conduct, but they declined to say what was being investigated. Waters, one of Los Angeles' most enduring liberal politicians, also declined to comment.

The House Ethics Committee is conducting a review of a matter involving Rep. Shelley Berkley of Nevada, posing a potential challenge for the Las Vegas Democrat running for Senate this fall in a closely-watched race that could determine which party controls the chamber. The Ethics Committee acknowledged its work in a brief statement Friday as it said it would extend its inquiry into the matter that had been transmitted in February from the Office of Congressional Ethics. The committee did not disclose details and said the probe does not amount to a violation of ethics rules.

Sure, the weather has been a bit on the cool side, but I can't remember a more enjoyable summer than the one we're having this year. Everywhere you look, public officials are setting the table for a lovely feast, prompting criminal and ethical investigations from Bell to Sacramento to Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Toyota keeps making headlines for all the wrong reasons, and if the good folks at BP thought radioactive waste were an effective oil...

U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson's rundown Sacramento house, which became the scourge of the neighborhood and a sore point with an investor who thought he had bought it out of foreclosure, has drawn the interest of a House ethics panel. The Office of Congressional Ethics contacted real estate investor James York, who bought Richardson's house at a foreclosure auction last year, only to have Washington Mutual take it back after he had recorded the deed and return the house to the congresswoman.

A congressional ethics watchdog has asked for a further probe of campaign fundraising appeals to Wall Street firms by Rep. John Campbell (R-Irvine) and two other House members before lawmakers voted on financial regulatory overhaul legislation. Campbell confirmed the Office of Congressional Ethics' referral to the House Ethics Committee but denied wrongdoing. "I am perplexed by OCE's decision, as they have presented no evidence that would suggest wrongdoing," he said in a statement Tuesday.

Rep. Spencer Bachus, chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, is facing an investigation into possible violations of insider-trading laws, the Washington Post reported . The Office of Congressional Ethics opened a probe of the Alabama Republican last year based on what the Post described as "numerous suspicious trades" from Bachus' financial disclosure forms. Bachus, the Post reported, made numerous trades, some coinciding with major policy announcements by the federal government and industries that his committee oversees.

WASHINGTON -  The House  Ethics Committee has found no wrongdoing by Rep. Vern Buchanan in one review - concluding that his failure to accurately disclose income and holdings in several businesses was not much different from many similar omissions by other lawmakers - but continues a separate probe of the Florida Republican. Tuesday's report resolves only some of the ethics questions surrounding Buchanan, a three-term congressman from the Sarasota area. As he seeks reelection in November, Democrats have used the ethics questions in attack ads against Buchanan, who is a rising force in GOP fundraising circles.

Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) confirmed Wednesday that he is the subject of a preliminary inquiry from a congressional ethics board looking into his attempts to be appointed to the Senate seat vacated by President Obama. In addition, federal authorities in Illinois have questioned an aide to former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich about a fundraiser that a Jackson associate held for the Democratic governor in December.

Stepping up her fight against ethics charges, Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Los Angeles) asked the House Ethics Committee on Wednesday to make public the details of the case against her and expedite her trial. Waters has come under scrutiny for her actions involving a bank with ties to her husband that received federal bailout funds. But the Ethics Committee has not revealed the charges against her or the findings of its investigation. Although a report released this week found "substantial reason" to believe that Waters may have violated ethics rules, the committee is not due to make public the charges or release the findings of its investigative subcommittee until Congress returns from its summer recess in September.

Republicans are gleeful over the possibility that two prominent Democratic members of Congress, Reps. Charles B. Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, could face high-profile ethics "trials" this fall, just in time for the November elections. The party line was summed up on "Fox News Sunday" by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner: "[House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi said four years ago that it was time to drain the swamp…. But the fact is, she has not kept her promise.