The House Office of Congressional Ethics found “substantial reason to believe” four congressmen—Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.), Mike Kelly (R-Penn.), Tom Malinowski (D-N. J.) and Alex Mooney (R-W. V.)—broke an assortment of ethics laws, according to documents released Thursday. The alleged offenses include misusing official funds, violating campaign-finance laws, misusing confidential information for personal gain and failing to properly report stock trades. Probes into the possible violations have moved on to the bipartisan House Committee on Ethics for further review. Unlike the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, that 10-member panel is empowered to subpoena and sanction House members. Here’s a review of the cases. The ethics office found that the two-term congressman may have misused official funds by hiring firms connected to two of his staffers. Those companies provided his office with mailing and design services but received unusually high compensation. After LegiStorm first reported the office’s spending in June 2020, Hagedorn fired his chief of staff and commissioned an internal review. The congressman also may have violated campaign-finance rules, according to the ethics office, when his campaign appeared to allow a donor to provide office space for free, an arrangement first reported by Politico. Rep. Hagedorn acted in a responsible and transparent manner as soon as he learned about the mailing issue, an attorney for the congressman said in a statement. “He self-reported the matter to the ethics committee and will continue to work with it to bring it to a conclusion. Moreover, he had no knowledge of the underlying issues and has acted in good faith throughout.”The six-term congressman may have misused confidential information for personal gain, the ethics office found. In April 2020, Kelly’s wife, Virginia, bought at least $15,000 of shares in Cleveland Cliffs, a steel producer. The purchase took place five days before the Department of Commerce announced an investigation into steel imports that stood to benefit the company. Kelly had advocated for the department’s probe, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. In addition to concluding that the trade was atypical for the Kellys, the ethics office found that information flowed from the commerce department to Cleveland Cliffs and then on to the congressman. Kelly reported that his wife sold at least some of her shares in Cleveland Cliffs this January. By then, their price was 248% higher than when she made the purchase. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 increased 29% over that same period.“Details published in news reports regarding those disclosures were found because the Congressman publicly reported his financial records,” Kelly’s press secretary, Matt Knoedler, said in a statement. “Both the congressman and Mrs. Kelly have been, and will continue to be, advocates and supporters of the Butler Works/Cleveland Cliffs plant in Butler, where they are lifelong residents.
All data is taken from the source: http://forbes.com
Article Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2021/10/21/house-ethics-office-substantial-reason-to-believe-four-congressmen-violated-laws/
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