washington <u+2014>two capitol hill panels that police the ethics of members of congress appear to be battling about which has authority over 10 lawmakers accused of unwittingly accepting improper travel and gifts from the state oil company of azerbaijan.









a washington post story published wednesday detailed the contents of a confidential office of congressional ethics (oce) investigation of a 2013 trip to azerbaijan, a former republic of the soviet union in central asia.









the oce was created in 2008 to vet ethics cases and recommend action to the ethics committee. the ethics committee retains sole authority to judge whether members have broken the rules and to mete out punishment. the committee apparently asked the oce to drop this case. there is no evidence the committee has ever made such a request before.









the oce report indicated that 10 members of congress had improperly accepted travel and gifts from the state-owned oil company of azerbaijan, which secretly paid for the trip and not the non-profit groups that purportedly sponsored it. the lawmakers said they had no idea the non-profits were not the true sponsors of the trip, and apparently neither did the ethics committee, which approved the members' travel in advance.









the report found no evidence that the lawmakers made any effort to aid an azeri pipeline project that the state-owned oil company was pushing at the time.









rep. gregory meeks, d-n.y. <u+2014> one of the lawmakers involved in the case <u+2014> said the ethics committee asked the oce to stop its investigation of the trip because the committee had started one of its own. oce declined, however, the post reported.









such a refusal is "pretty outrageous," said chris delacy, a partner at the law firm holland & knight who represents lawmakers in ethics cases. "it's like we've generated two separate ethics committees and oce has gone rogue."









the oce report indicates that meeks did not cooperate with its investigation, according to the post, but meeks' office says that is not true.









meeks gave oce "documents and other information in response to its request," said spokeswoman sophia lafargue, but oce did not tell him that the ethics committee had asked it to end its review despite house rules requiring it do so.









"this is why he would not be interviewed by oce, and this is why oce said in the leaked report that he 'declined to cooperate,' " lafargue said. "congressman meeks is committed to cooperate with the ethics committee in its review of this matter."









the 2008 house resolution that created the oce states that when it is notified that the ethics committee is investigating a case, "the board shall refer such matter to the committee and cease its preliminary or second-phase review ... and so notify any individual who is the subject of the review."









oce's own rules, however, state it will stop its investigation when the ethics committee starts "an investigatory subcommittee" <u+2014> the committee's rarely used formal investigative process. the committee makes a public announcement when it creates those subcommittees and has not announced one for the azerbaijan trip.









oce may "draw a lot of flak" for the azerbaijan case, but the process worked as it should except for the leak, said craig holman, government affairs lobbyist at the liberal-leaning watchdog group public citizen.









the oce investigated and reported to the committee, holman said, adding that if the committee "prevailed upon the oce to not do a report, (the case) probably would have been buried." the report shows a real concern, holman said: the use of bogus non-profits by a foreign government to circumvent congressional travel rules.









holman said the dispute between the two bodies is reminiscent of the early days of the oce, when the two publicly feuded repeatedly over jurisdiction and the rules of investigations. but he said, "i do not see it escalating to the point we saw in the very beginning."









the case also involves the first leak of a full oce report before its public release, which has led lawyers who defend lawmakers to call the entire process unfair.









there have been more ethics case since oce started, delacy said, a trend for which the office deserves some credit. but if the intent of the law was to spur for ethics committee investigations, and the committee has launched a probe in a case, there is no reason for oce to keep investigating.









earlier this year, the house changed its own rules to give lawmakers a new defense against ethics investigations. the language stated that the two ethics bodies "may not take any action that would deny any person any right or protection provided under the constitution of the united states," an apparent reference to long-simmering concerns that the oce does not allow the subjects of investigations to see the evidence against them. at the time, elliot berke, a lawyer who has defended several republicans in ethics cases, said, "from day one of the oce's existence, there have been serious concerns about lack of due process."









the oce report apparently found that the 10 members who traveled to azerbaijan <u+2014> meeks; jim bridenstine, r-okla.; yvette clarke, d-n.y.; danny davis, d-ill.; rub<u+00e9>n hinojosa, d-texas; sheila jackson lee, d-texas; leonard lance, r-n.j.; michelle lujan grisham, d-n.m.; ted poe, r-texas, and then-congressman steve stockman, r-texas <u+2014> were unaware that the trip was improperly funded by a foreign government. nevertheless, in similar past cases, the ethics committee has required lawmakers to pay back the costs of travel, which for this trip would total thousands of dollars for each traveler. in past cases, lawmakers have been allowed to use campaign money instead of their personal funds to pay these costs.









airfare for the members and their spouses totaled more than $110,000, the post reported.
lawmakers caught in battle between house ethics cops
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