Public interest non-profits said Wednesday that the House Ethics Committee’s refusal to release Office of Congressional Ethics findings about an illicit 2013 junket to Azerbaijan set “a dangerous precedent.”
Groups including Public Citizen, Demand Progress, Common Cause, and Democracy 21 said the panel has never before kept the independent body’s findings under wraps “where the Members under investigation remain within the Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction.”
The organizations said in a joint letter that the committee has only twice before declined to publish OCE findings, but in those cases, the accused had already either left the House or decided to leave before the next Congress by the time their reports were complete. Former Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) became ineligible for reelection last year after an unsuccessful Senate bid. Ex-Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), now governor of Georgia, relinquished his House seat when running for the office.
“This decision is especially concerning because the Committee itself played a decisive role in approving the Members’ travel to Azerbaijan,” stated the groups’ letter to committee chair Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and ranking member Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.). “It is unknown whether the OCE’s findings shed any light of the role of the Committee in approving these trips.”
In late July, when the committee announced that it was not sanctioning the 10 members and 32 staffers who went on the trip, it also said it would not release the independent body’s findings because, it claimed, “OCE had no authority to send findings to the Committee.”
Under a rule invoked by the committee, the office was supposed to cease looking into the matter and turn over what it had found to the committee in March.
The public interest groups, however, claimed, that the committee’s use of the procedure violated House rules because an official Congressional probe had not been launched at the time.
“Without a majority vote by the Committee to investigate, it appears that the Committee has conflated ‘gathering additional information’ with what constitutes an actual ‘investigation,’” their letter said. “This distinction, while technical, is important because it is essential in drawing the line for when the Committee may issue a ‘cease and refer’ order to OCE.”
The trip itself violated House rules because it had been funded by a foreign government entity–the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). Members, however, appear to have been unaware of this because the finances were “funneled” through a series of non-profits.
Although no legislators or their staffers were adjudged by the Ethics Committee to be in the wrong, the panel wasn’t so sure about the trip’s organizers. In its report, the committee said key organizers invoked their Fifth Amendment rights after news of the OCE investigation was first reported in May by The Washington Post.
“The Committee is referring the matter of third parties apparently engaging in a criminal conspiracy to lie to Congress to the Department of Justice for such further action as it deems appropriate,” it said.
This month, SOCAR took a new tack in whatever overall influence peddling strategy it has. According to documents filed about two weeks ago under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the oil company hired a PR firm featuring former George W. Bush and Mitt Romney speechwriter Noam Nuesner. The outfit, 30 Point Strategies, was contracted to lobby Congress, “public officials,” and journalists.
30 Point Strategies has received negative publicity in the past. Its communications work for a widely-distributed film that compared Islam to Nazism before the 2008 presidential election has been lamented by observers. Its work countering a peaceful global boycott of Israel–to protest the occupation of Palestine–has also been controversial.
Nuesner has also attracted public criticism for his independent work for the Turkish government between 2008 and 2010. Among his tasks included lobbying against legislation that would have formally recognized the Armenian Genocide.
In 2013, SOCAR had solely employed the services of law firm Roberti White for its US lobbying needs.
When it hired 30 Point, SOCAR also hired Global Policy Initiatives to peddle influence. GPI is a consulting firm run mostly by former Obama and Clinton administration officials.
