Rep. Fossella Slammed With Ethics Complaint

19 May 2008 // UPDATE: A Washington ethics watchdog group wants the House ethics committee to investigate whether Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) violated House rules by romancing his mistress on taxpayer-funded congressional delegation trips abroad.

The left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, has sent an ethics complaint against Fossella to the ethics panel, officially called the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

The group called on the panel to investigate Fossella's May 1 drunken driving charge in Alexandria, Va., as well as reports that he and his mistress, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Laura Fay, traveled together on taxpayer-funded CODELS while they were carrying on a romantic relationship. CREW noted "Fossella allegedly was the solo member of Congress who traveled to France in January 2003 in Lt. Col. Fay's company" and cited the ethics manual, which states that a House member's travel must not "create the appearance that the individual is using public office for private gain."

Fay was an official military liaison to Congress whose job was to accompany lawmakers on their overseas CODELS. CREW executive director Melanie Sloan, citing published reports (such as this one by the New York Daily News), said, "Having an affair is one thing, conducting it at taxpayer expense is quite another. If that's what happened, the Ethics Committee should hold him accountable."

As for the DWI charge, the watchdog group cited the House ethics manual's rule that a member is subject to investigation "whenever a member is charged with criminal conduct, whether felony or misdemeanor charges."

When asked, Fossella spokeswoman Susan Del Percio had no comment to CREW's ethics complaint against Fossella.