CREW Prepares Complaint Against Rep. Bob Ney; Searching for House Member

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CREW Prepares Complaint Against Rep. Bob Ney; Searching for House Member to File With Ethics Committee

5/16/2005 11:26:00 AM


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To: National Desk

Contact: Naomi Seligman of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 202-588-5565

WASHINGTON, May 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) announced today that it has prepared an ethics complaint against Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio). CREW is releasing the complaint in the hopes of finding a Member of the House of Representatives willing to certify that the allegations are made in good faith and to forward the complaint to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for consideration.

CREW drafted the complaint, filed by then Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas), for which Tom DeLay was admonished last year.

CREW is not filing the complaint directly with the Committee because only Members of the House can do so. Any Member of the House can, however, certify that CREW's complaint has a good faith basis and forward the complaint to the Ethics Committee, stating that the complaint merits the Committee's consideration.

Historically Members in the House have been unwilling to file complaints against other Members. Up until last June, there had been a 7-year "truce" under which Members agreed not to file complaints against Members of the other party. When outside ethics watchdog groups argued that the ethics rules should be changed to permit outsiders to file complaints since Members were so unwilling to do so, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi insisted that "outside groups have an avenue." Pelosi claimed that outsiders could "give (a complaint) to a Member of Congress...if they have a complaint that meets the criteria of a complaint for the ethics committee. I don't know why they just don't hand it over to a Member of Congress to file for them." (Damon Chappie, Watchdogs: Pelosi Wrong on Ethic, Roll Call, March 8, 2004).

CREW has asked several Members to forward its complaint to the Ethics Committee, but no one would agree to do so.

"CREW is now publicly asking Members of the House to consider forwarding the complaint against Representative Bob Ney to the Ethics Committee because Mr. Ney has committed serious, unethical and possibly illegal acts," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today. "Representative Ney needs to be held accountable for his unethical conduct," Sloan said.

"The complaint against Rep. Ney is based on his conduct with regard to the Tigua Indians of El Paso, Texas, a tribe represented by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is known to be close to Ney," Sloan said today. "The complaint is based on e-mails made public by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, sworn testimony before the Indian Affairs Committee, tax records, and Mr. Ney's campaign committee and political action committee Federal Election Commission filings."

A review of the evidence suggests that Ney may have broken criminal statutes as well as House rules. First, a contribution to a political campaign can constitute a bribe if a quid pro quo can be demonstrated. Here, within days of lobbyist Jack Abramoff's initial meeting with Ney to discuss the Tigua's situation, Abramoff advised Marc Schwartz, the Tigua's political consultant, to have the Tigua prepare and Federal Express three checks to Rep. Ney's political committees, totaling $32,000. The apparent exchange of campaign contributions in return for Ney's support of an amendment to reopen the Speaking Rock Casino could constitute bribery.

Second, Ney may have illegally solicited a gratuity. The illegal gratuity statute prohibits a public official from directly or indirectly, demanding, seeking, receiving, accepting or agreeing to accept anything of value personally for or because of any official act performed or to be performed by such official. E- mail exchanges between Abramoff and Schwartz indicate that Rep. Ney solicited the Tigua to pay for part of a 2002 golf trip to Scotland. Solicitation of travel is specifically prohibited by House Rules and by the Ethics in Government Act.

In addition, shortly after Ney returned from Scotland, he was scheduled to met with members of the Tigua tribal council. Prior to that meeting, Abramoff sent Schwartz an e-mail reminding him that "for obvious reasons" the golf trip would not be mentioned at the meeting, but that Mr. Ney was appreciative and would show his appreciation "in other ways," which was, Abramoff pointed out, just what the tribe wanted. This demonstrates the statutorily required tie between legislative action and the trip.

Rep. Ney may have violated clause 3 of House Rule XXIII which provides that a Member cannot "receive compensation and may not permit compensation to accrue to his beneficial interest from any source, the receipt of which would occur by virtue of influence improperly exerted from his position in the Congress." By accepting $32,000 in campaign donations at the same time as he agreed to push the legislation benefiting the Tigua, and by soliciting funding for a golf trip to Scotland, Rep. Ney likely violated Rule XXIII.

Rep. Ney may have also violated several provisions of the gift and travel rules by participating in travel not for an official purpose, by accepting recreational travel and by failing to disclose the true source of the trip's funding on his travel disclosure forms. "We are hopeful that at least one Member of Congress will recognize the Mr. Ney's conduct merits an investigation by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct and have the courage and integrity to forward this complaint to the Ethics Committee," Sloan said today.

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