A House Democrat may have bribed a potential primary opponent by promising a job in her office in exchange for primary support. Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., dismisses the accusation and objects to parts of the report produced by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which voted 6-0 to refer the case to the House Ethics Committee for further investigation.
Newman’s legal counsel, Brian Svoboda, stated in a 13-page rebuttal to the report that OCE’s suggestion failed to establish grounds for investigation. The facts, which OCE consistently omitted whenever they favored Rep. Newman, demonstrated that nearly every element of the allegation was false: she did not offer employment in exchange for political support, but rather on the merits, to someone who was not a primary opponent, and in any case before she was a candidate. The report was completed in response to a referral to the House Ethics Committee.
In an attempt to have the case dismissed, Newman’s legal counsel alleged that the contract violated House employment and federal contracting regulations. The House Ethics Committee noted in a press release issued Monday that the mere fact of conducting an additional review of a referral, and any mandatory disclosure of such additional review, does not imply any violation, nor does it constitute any judgment on the part of the committee. The House Ethics Committee has issued subpoenas to Chehade and the Democratic consulting company LBH Chicago.
A conservative organization filed a politically motivated complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) over a dropped case, according to Newman’s communications director Pat Mullane. That the material acquired during the OCE’s inquiry proves unequivocally that the ethical complaint lacks merit. Former moderate Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., defeated Newman in a Democrat primary in 2020. Lipinski, an anti-abortion Democrat, told the Washington Examiner that he lost the primary because Newman garnered backing from a slew of progressive organizations and party leaders who chastised him for his abortion views.
