General Discussion

December 22, 1996

Panel Concludes Gingrich Violated Rules on Ethics

By ADAM CLYMER

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The Gingrich Ethics Investigation
WASHINGTON -- A House ethics subcommittee found Saturday that Speaker Newt Gingrich brought discredit to the House by using tax-exempt money for political purposes, and by providing the committee with "inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable information" about the role of a political action committee in a college course he taught.

The full Committee on Standards of Official Conduct must still meet to decide whether to recommend disciplinary action. It is likely to call for some form of censure or reprimand, but not for a penalty so severe as to preclude his re-election as speaker, such as expulsion. A recommendation could come before 1997.

Gingrich did apologize, saying, "I brought down on the people's house a controversy which could weaken the faith people have in their government."

While some Republicans, like Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., and Christopher Shays, R-Conn., pronounced themselves reassured by the committee's action, Rep. Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., the minority leader who has withheld comment on the case until now, said that the findings were "disturbing and serious" and that the speaker's actions called into question "the integrity of the House of Representatives."

The subcommittee of two Republicans and two Democrats acted without dissent, and Gingrich spared himself a hearing in which his problems would have been discussed in public, and perhaps televised.

More at:

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/1222gingrich-ethics.html