Today, the Washington Post took a look at the growing phenomenon of the land deals that have enriched many members of Congress, sometimes through the use of federal aid: 

When Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.) entered the House of Representatives in 1983, he was coming off a year in which his law firm income was $17,474, and he was losing money on two rental properties.

By the end of 2006, according to financial disclosure reports released yesterday, after dabbling in real estate, Mollohan's wealth had soared to between $6 million and $24 million.

J. Dennis Hastert, a former high school teacher and wrestling coach, was first elected to Congress as a Republican from rural Illinois in 1986, showing assets worth at most $270,000. At the end of last year, after his own real estate investments, Hastert had a net worth of $4 million to $17 million.

Open-government and ethics watchdogs say that Mollohan and Hastert are part of a growing circle on Capitol Hill that is engaging in land deals as a path to wealth, and they argue that such transactions have the potential to benefit from legislators' political connections and official actions.

The Politico's Cryptometer is running a special "Scandal Edition":

Normally, The Politico runs Cryptometers on critical issues and key players on Capitol Hill, such as those involved in the political struggle over the war in Iraq. But this week, we're doing something a little different. We're running a Cryptometer on the lawmakers in legal trouble -- and ranking them on how deep we think that trouble is. As always, everyone here is innocent until proven otherwise.

For anyone who follows scandals in Washington, the list is quite familiar. In fact, everyone on the Cryptometer's list is also in CREW's Beyond DeLay, meaning we considered them among the 20 most corrupt Members of Congress.

Featured in the Scandal Edition, in order of the Cryptometer's rankings, are: William Jefferson (D-LA); Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA); Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ); Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA); Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) and Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV). Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) earns an honorable mention.

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) will probably make the new edition.

From TPM Muckraker:

West Virginia congressman Alan Mollohan (D) has used $160,000 worth of services by a white collar criminal defense firm, according to new campaign filings.

Mollohan, who chairs the House panel which controls the Justice Department budget (including the FBI), has been under investigation by the FBI for a rather knotty mess of nonprofits, friends and real estate deals that appear to have made a lot of money for a lot of people.

According to documents filed by his campaign with the Federal Elections Commission, the law firm Kellogg Huber Hansen Todd Evan has collected $140,000 from his campaign. The campaign says that as of Dec. 31, 2006, it owed the firm another $20,000,

Yesterday, in a move praised by CREW, Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) announced he will recuse himself from matters before the Appropriations Committee relating to the Justice Department while he's under investigation by the FBI.  There are still two members of that same committee, Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and John Doolittle (R-CA), who are also facing federal investigations.  Late last year, CREW's Melanie Sloan stated that "no member under federal investigation be involved in the oversight or appropriations of any agency involved in investigating that member."   We've heard from Mollohan.  No word yet from  Lewis and Doolittle on recusal:

Mollohan has denied any wrongdoing and made the decision to step aside from the Justice Department budget on his own, said his spokesman, Gerry Griffith.

"These charges are rubbish, and whatever financial success my wife and I have had is a result of my wife's expertise and her years of experience in real estate,'' Mollohan told his Democratic colleagues at a private meeting.

Mollohan nonetheless opted to take himself out of position to consider "any related Justice Department accounts.''

"I have never received word from the Justice Department about the scope, nature or state of these inquiries,'' he said.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, praised Mollohan and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., "for recognizing that recusal is the appropriate course of action.''

Sloan criticized Republicans for not requiring Appropriations Committee members Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., and John Doolittle, R-Calif., also under Justice Department scrutiny, to make similar moves.

It may be business as usual for those two. 

Today, we learned that Rep. Alan Mollohan, who is currently under investigation by the FBI, will recuse himself from matters relating to the Justice Department.  This is significant because Mollohan chairs the Commerce, Justice, State Subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FBI.  In November 2006, CREW stated that no member under investigation should oversee the budget of the agency investigating them.  Mollohan's recusal is a very wise move in the view of CREW. 

Upon hearing this news, Melanie Sloan made the following statement:

Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Mollohan deserve credit for recognizing that recusal is the appropriate course of action.  The Democrats have handled Rep. Mollohan’s ethics problem in a manner markedly different from the way the Republicans have handled such issues.  Not only did Speaker Pelosi first remove Rep. Mollohan from his position as Ranking Member of the House Ethics Committee last Congress, she now also has had him recuse himself from consideration of Justice Department matters.  In contrast, Appropriations Committee members Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and John Doolittle (R-CA), who are also under federal investigation, have failed to recuse themselves from these matters.  Speaker Pelosi, who campaigned on the issue of a cleaner congress, is working hard to live up to this ideal.  The question now is whether Republicans will follow her lead in dealing with their own ethically challenged members.

The Democrats in the House are preparing to enact ethics reform.  Yet, the Christian Science Monitor reminds us all that the Democrats have their own members with ethics issues:

But even as House Democrats try to burnish their image on ethics, they are being forced to work around the legal woes of their own members, including two in key positions.

The reelection of Rep. William Jefferson (D) of Louisiana in a runoff, despite the $90,000 in possible payoffs that federal investigators found stashed in his home freezer, stunned many of his colleagues, who had expected the eight-term lawmaker to lose the contest. To defuse criticism, Ms. Pelosi and the Democratic Steering Committee denied Mr. Jefferson his request to keep a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, pending the outcome of a federal investigation.

Rep. Alan Mollohan (D) of West Virginia is facing a federal investigation over earmarks he sponsored and profitable real estate deals. He is in line to chair the subcommittee that oversees the budget of the agency that is investigating him - a decision now pending in the House Appropriations Committee. Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus say that Democrats are holding Mr. Jefferson, who is black, to a higher standard than they are Mr. Mollohan. Republicans say both cases signal that Democrats face their own culture-of-corruption issues.

We'll be hearing more about Jefferson and Mollohan.  The FBI isn't finished with them,  yet. 

The latest campaign finance reports show that a number of House Appropriations Committee members currently under federal criminal investigation are using their campaign war chests to pay their legal bills. Outgoing House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and Reps. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) and John Doolittle (R-CA) are each spending sizeable chunks of their campaign cash -- raised in the latest election cycle -- to pay for their legal troubles.

All three men are on CREW’s 2006 list of the “most corrupt members of Congress.”

Rep. Lewis, who is under investigation for his cozy relationship with lobbyist and former Congressman Bill Lowery (R-CA) and his lobbying firm, Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, has spent a staggering $861,789 in the 2005-2006 cycle from his campaign committee, Lewis for Congress Committee.

Rep. Mollohan, who is set to chair the Science, State, Justice and Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations subcommittee, also used funds from his campaign committee, Alan Mollohan for Congress, to pay for his legal expenses. Rep. Mollohan has paid $70,112 this past cycle to Kellogg Huber Hansen Todd Evans & Figel, a firm that specializes in “white collar criminal defense.” Federal investigators are exploring whether Rep. Mollohan steered $250 million to five nonprofit groups that he created and that are staffed by his friends in direct exchange for campaign contributions.

Rep. Doolittle has spent $117,730 from his campaign committee, John T. Doolittle for Congress, on legal fees over the last election cycle. Rep. Doolittle has an outstanding invoice of $45,151 with Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP, the firm handling his legal issues. Its practice area includes “criminal/congressional investigation.” Rep. Doolittle is under investigation for his ties to convicted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and defense contractor Brent Wilkes, who is under federal investigation for allegedly bribing former Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA).

Congressman Alan Mollohan is in line to oversee the budget of the FBI. At the same time, Mollohan is facing an investigation by that agency. CREW has stated that members of Congress should not oversee agencies that are investigating them. The Mollohan predicament is gaining the attention of the national media now. Bloomberg reports:

Representative Alan Mollohan, a West Virginia Democrat whose finances are being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is in line to take over the House panel that sets the bureau's budget.

Mollohan, 63, is the ranking Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Department of Justice, which includes the FBI. His party has a long-standing practice of awarding appropriations subcommittee chairmanships to senior members, and no other Democrat has announced plans to seek the post when the party assumes control of Congress next month.

The pending appointment poses an ethical dilemma for incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 66, who helped her party take control of Congress for the first time in 12 years by vowing to clean up a ``culture of corruption'' on Capitol Hill.

``If the Democrats want to be taken seriously as the party of ethics reform, then every time one of their members gets into trouble, they're going to have to take it seriously,'' said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Her organization is urging Mollohan to recuse himself from any decisions affecting the FBI's budget.

A lot of people (and reporters) are watching to see how Mollohan and the Democrats handle this situation.

Following up on CREW's statement that members of Congress should not oversee the budgets of agencies that are investigating them, The Charleston Daily Mail asks a key question about West Virginia Congressman Alan Mollohan:

How can Congress put in charge of the FBI budget a man who may be under an FBI investigation?

The paper provides context from CREW -- and agrees with our position:

The FBI will not confirm whether it is investigating him. Nonetheless, House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi apparently persuaded Mollohan to resign this spring from the House ethics committee when discussion of a possible FBI investigation first came to light.

Now the liberal Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is calling for Mollohan to recuse himself from decisions on the Justice Department budget.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the center, stopped short of calling for Mollohan not to be appointed chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the Justice Department budget.

But she told the Dominion Post of Morgantown: "The question is whether Justice will be able to vigorously investigate Mr. Mollohan when he is responsible for their budget. Once you're the appropriators, you have a lot of influence over what money goes to a department. I don't see how all that happens objectively."

...Pelosi did the right thing this spring. Now new House Appropriations Chairman David Obey must follow suit by giving Mollohan some budget other than the Justice Department's to oversee.