Office Of Congressional Ethics Says Steve Stockman May Have Broken The Law

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) speaks on Fox News in July 2013.
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Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) may have violated federal law and House rules when he accepted campaign donations from two of his congressional staffers, the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) said Wednesday.

OCE announced in a press release that it had sent a referral in March to the House Ethics Committee recommending further investigate a number of allegations, including that Stockman made false statements and “endeavored to impede” OCE’s investigation.

According to OCE, Stockman accepted campaign contributions from two congressional staff members in February 2013. The campaign’s subsequent campaign finance reports identified the donors as family members of the employees. Stockman also allegedly was paying those two staff members full-time salaries when they were only doing part-time work.

Earlier this year, Stockman lost a longshot primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). He has announced that he won’t seek reelection in the fall, and in April he disclosed that he was facing an ethics probe, though he chalked it up to an “FEC reporting error.”

“My office is aware of and is cooperating fully with the Ethics Committee’s preliminary inquiry into an FEC reporting error,” Stockman said at the time. “I thus join 34 of my colleagues who have also been the subject of an [Office of Congressional Ethics] review in the 113th Congress, and am confident the Ethics Committee will ultimately dismiss the matter after it completes a careful review.”

On Wednesday, the House Ethics Committee issued a statement acknowledging that it had received OCE’s referral.

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Notable Replies

  1. Now there is a oxymoron. Ethics and Republican in the same sentence, same page, same chapter or the same book.

  2. Not surprising. No one liked that asshole and the ethics committee is made up of both Ds and Rs that have no love lost for this doofus. That’s one way to make sure he never comes back…hit him where it hurts.

  3. Well, Steverino, this liberal is crying no tears over your predicament. You’ll just have to lubricate your guns with something else. Douche.

  4. If anybody will scream ‘liberal media,’ it will be the Texas Bigmouth.

  5. “This is a clear attempt by a lawless White House to aid and abet voter fraud. Whether it is blocking the prosecution of voter intimidation in Philadelphia, illegally running guns to Mexican drug lords or assisting voter fraud in Texas Barack Obama has decided the rule of law takes a back seat to ‘Rules for Radicals.’

    He can fabricate any number of instances of malfeasance as long as he ascribes them to the President, but when he blatantly breaks the law himself, it’s just a “reporting error”

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