House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) met privately on Wednesday with Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY), who is under investigation on fraud charges connected to a restaurant he owned and ran before becoming a congressman.
A Cantor spokesperson confirmed the meeting but declined to provide a readout or say what the No. 2 House Republican told his second-term colleague.
Grimm has said he won’t leave Congress over the charges but recently stepped down from his post on the Financial Services Committee, which Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) office said was appropriate. He has reportedly surrendered to the FBI.
Boehner and Cantor were part of the leadership team in 2006 when Republicans suffered huge losses in the mid-term election amid a swath of scandals. In recent years they’ve been determined to quietly snuff out members with ethical problems in order to protect their House majority.