Ethics Panel Puts Off Jackson Probe, Citing Justice Department Request

The House ethics committee said Wednesday that it has put off investigating whether Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. or his surrogates offered to raise money for former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich in return for being named to a vacant Senate seat.

The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- the ethics panel's formal name -- also announced that it had agreed to extend by 45 days its separate investigations of Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and Sam Graves, R-Mo.

The committee's action on Jackson, D-Ill., comes at the request of the Justice Department, which is prosecuting Blagojevich on federal charges that he sought financial benefits in return for the appointment to the Senate seat held by Barack Obama until Nov. 16, after his election as president. Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office this year.

"The committee, following precedent, unanimously voted to defer consideration of this matter at this time," the panel's statement said. "The committee will continue to monitor the situation and will consider pursuing avenues of inquiry that it concludes do not interfere with the activities of the Department of Justice."

In response, Jackson said in a statement that "I will continue to cooperate fully with the ongoing probe. . . . My efforts and actions were all public, ethical and legal."

The Jackson case had been referred to the panel by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), the outside office established by the House to vet ethics complaints.

In its report to the ethics committee, the OCE said it had learned that staff members in Jackson's Chicago and Washington offices were used "to mount a 'public campaign' to secure the representative's appointment to the U.S. Senate."

"In doing so, Representative Jackson may have violated federal law and House rules concerning the proper use of member's representational allowances," the report stated. Members are prohibited from using their office funds for political use.

The OCE report also notes that there are transcripts of recordings containing statements by Blagojevich that an "emissary" from Jackson's office had offered to raise money for the governor and provide "money up front" if he appointed Jackson to the seat.

Jackson previously confirmed that the OCE was investigating those contacts but said neither he nor anyone acting on his behalf had offered Blagojevich anything in return for a possible appointment.

The U.S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, filed a criminal indictment against Blagojevich on April 2 of this year.

In a Sept. 11 letter to ethics Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and ranking Republican Jo Bonner of Alabama, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch stated that an ethics investigation of Jackson would "pose a significant risk of interfering with the pending criminal proceedings and ongoing investigation.

"As a result, we respectfully request the committee defer further action on the OCE referral until the trial of Mr. Blagojevich and related investigations are completed," he wrote.

Waters, Graves Inquiries Extended In other matters, the ethics committee said it had extended its probe into whether Waters sought special favors last year for a Massachusetts-based bank, OneUnited. Her husband, Sidney Williams, owned OneUnited stock and had served on the bank's board.

Waters -- a senior member of the Financial Services Committee, which oversees banking issues -- requested a meeting last year between Treasury Department officials and representatives of minority-owned banks, including OneUnited.

At the September 2008 meeting, OneUnited executives asked for $50 million in economic bailout funds; the request was not granted. The bank eventually received $12 million in December through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (PL 110-343). Waters said she never advocated specifically for OneUnited, but lobbied for the meeting with the National Bankers Association, the umbrella group for minority-owned banks.

Waters said she followed up on the association's request and asked Henry M. Paulson Jr., who was Treasury secretary at the time, to schedule the meeting.

"I did not attend the meeting, and thus did not participate in the conversation," she said in a statement this year.

In its statement, the ethics committee said only that it was extending its investigation in the Waters matter by 45 days and would then announce its course of action.

A spokesman for Waters did not respond to a request for comment.

The panel also extended its investigation of Graves, the ranking Republican on the Small Business Committee. According to media reports, Graves invited Brooks Hurst, a friend and business partner of his wife, to testify at a committee hearing on renewable fuels last March, but he did not mention that his wife and Hurst are investors in a renewable fuels plant in Missouri.

In a statement, Graves said, "I look forward to a quick review of the facts and answering any questions that the committee may have. I believe that a speedy review will show that all the rules of the House concerning testimony in front of the Small Business Committee were followed."

The ethics committee suggested that there have been problems in the investigation of Graves. The OCE investigated the matter but did not find "a substantial reason to believe" there was any violation of House law or regulation, the ethics committee said in its statement. However, the OCE referred the matter to the committee for further review.

The ethics committee said it found that the OCE report and findings "may contain exculpatory evidence which the OCE never provided to Rep. Graves."