Office of Congressional Ethics recommends investigation of Rep. Steve Stockman

[TexasTowelie]

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) will be going away at the end of his congressional term after failing to unseat Sen. John Cornyn in a peculiar primary challenge. He may be going even farther away than we thought.

A report released by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) Wednesday states that Stockman may have violated federal law by receiving illegal campaign contributions from congressional employees and then that “there is substantial reason to believe that Representative Stockman made false statements and endeavored to impede the OCE inquiry.” The report unanimously recommended that the House Ethics Committee further review the allegations.

At issue is a pair of curious donations from two of his own campaign staffers for a fat $7500 each; campaign finance laws (yes, we still have a few) say that's illegal. After running through a number of soon-discredited stories, Stockman settled on the claim that it wasn't illegal because those staffers weren't part of the campaign after all, at least not during that particular hour of that particular day. No, really:

In January, he said the staff members resigned on February 12 and presented him checks for $7,500 apiece. They were then promptly rehired on February 13. Forms showing that Dodd and Posey resigned and were then rehired were not filed with the Congressional Office of Payroll and Benefits until December, 10 months later. These forms are the only documentation that they quit or were rehired.

Stockman's race was marked by strange behavior; he barely mounted a campaign against Cornyn, his filthy and crumbling campaign office was condemned by the city fire marshal due to safety concerns, and the two donations in question are just a smaller part of Stockman's sketchy relationship with proper campaign accountancy. While the odds remain low that the Republican-led House Ethics Committee will do, as the kids say today, squat, misleading authorities in an effort to cover up illegal campaign donations would constitute a felony.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/11/1306272/-Office-of-Congressional-Ethics-recommends-investigation-of-Rep-Steve-Stockman?detail=email