Roll Call reports Ethics Committee may be investigating Rep. Renzi

Roll Call (sub. req'd but the full article is here) is reporting that the House Ethics Committee may actually be doing something in the case of Rep. Rick Renzi.   What, if anyting, the Committee may be doing, we don't know.  That committee doesn't have a great track record for action.  But, Renzi's dealings appear to have piqued their interest:

Signaling that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct may be probing the activities of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), a senior ethics aide pulled the embattled lawmaker’s financial disclosure records on April 19 — the same day the FBI raided Renzi’s family business in Sonoita, Ariz. 

The top committee aide to ethics ranking member Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), Todd Ungerecht, pulled all of Renzi’s annual financial disclosure records from 2003 to 2006, according to records available at the House’s Legislative Resource Center.

The ethics committee has released no public statement on Renzi, and the panel does not comment on potential or ongoing investigations, so it is uncertain if the committee has launched a formal inquiry. Ungerecht declined to comment Monday, citing the panel’s long-held confidentiality rules.

However, in light of the FBI raid and an ongoing federal investigation into Renzi’s business ties, it would be within the panel’s jurisdiction to open an inquiry into the lawmaker. Renzi’s office had not responded for comment by press time.

Renzi Pays Back Taxes; FEC

Renzi Pays Back Taxes; FEC Drops Probe

May 1, 7:01 PM (ET)
By JIM KUHNHENN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi avoided federal campaign penalties by paying $323,830 in back taxes last year to reassure regulators that loans to his political committee came from his own pocket.

The Federal Election Commission, in documents made public Tuesday, said it decided to take no further action against Renzi regarding the source of the loans to his 2001-2002 congressional campaign.

Renzi, a Republican, did agree to pay a $25,000 fine for unrelated reporting violations during that election cycle.

The congressman, who has been drawn into an FBI investigation of an Arizona land deal, completed a conciliation agreement with the FEC on Jan. 10, but it was only made public now

Oh, really

I see. Has the FEC sat on this?
Perhaps someone might sit on the FEC.

Wishful thinking: regulatory bodies that work as they should. How can this be achieved?

Curiously,

it was a GOP aide that pulled the records. What's in the wind?

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