Tensions And Leaks On The Ethics Beat?

Back in May, USA Today carried a headline declaring that members of the U.S. House were “caught in [a] battle between House ethics cops.” That month The Washington Post disclosed details from a confidential Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) investigation into a 2013 trip House members took to Azerbaijan that turned out to be funded by that country’s government.

The OCE conducts preliminary investigations into ethics matters and refers information to the House Ethics Committee, which is the sole arbiter of declaring whether or not House members violated ethics rules.

According to The Washington Post, the House Ethics Committee requested that the OCE drop its investigation into the Azerbaijan trip, but the OCE refused.

An attorney who represents members of Congress in ethics cases said “It’s like we’ve generated two separate Ethics Committees and OCE has gone rogue.”

This week, the House Ethics Committee extended its own investigation into the Azerbaijan trip. In announcing the extension, the committee also criticized the leak of the OCE investigative report, saying in a statement “Such an unauthorized release may have violated House Rules and other standards of conduct. Moreover, the unauthorized disclosure of the materials has directly impacted the Committee’s investigation, which began well before OCE transmitted the materials to the Committee.”

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