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发帖数: 626 | 1 This is for those who think Boxer has done nothing wrong --
http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2010/10/26/foundation-requests-holder-investigate-boxer/?singlepage=true
In a breaking development that may affect the close California Senate race,
Pajamas Media has learned The Foundation for Ethics in Public Service sent a
letter to Eric Holder last Thursday requesting the attorney general “begin
an investigation to determine whether United States Senator Barbara Boxer
violated any criminal laws or should be liable for any civil penalty for
failure to disclose real property on her Personal Financial Disclosure
Reports between 2002 and 2010.”
The Foundation for Ethics in Public Service is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt
organization “that seeks to bring a new level of transparency,
accountability and integrity to all levels of government in the United
States.” Boxer is the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
The specific property FEPS is referring to is an Oakland, California, home
valued at over a million dollars and co-owned by Boxer, her husband Stewart,
their son Douglas, and his wife Amy. The letter to Holder reads in part:
Despite the fact that Senator Boxer had an ownership in 854 Longridge Road [
in Oakland], she failed to report this substantial real property asset on
any of her personal financial disclosures between 2002 and 2010. She had
also failed to report the mortgage on the property. Further, she failed to
report the purchase of 854 Longridge Road in 2002. Each year Boxer was
required to have filed a “full and complete report.”
The filing of false or incomplete disclosure statements is in violation of
the Ethics in Government Act. The Act authorizes the Attorney General of
the United States to seek civil penalties against Senators who knowingly and
willfully falsify or fail to report required information. The knowing and
willful concealment of the existence of substantial amount of real property
for a prolonged period may subject Senators to federal criminal prosecution
under 18 U.S.C. paragraph 101. [other citations are available at the link]
The Oakland home is currently lived in by Douglas and his wife. This is not
the first time Senator Boxer’s son has been the center of controversy.
The senator reportedly paid out nearly $500,000 from her campaign
contributions to her son’s public relations firm between 2001 and 2009.
Those moneys could have been used to pay off the mortgage on the Oakland
property, adding urgency to the DOJ investigation sought by The Foundation
for Ethics in Public Service and further complicating the legal and ethical
issues involved.
Indeed, ethical questions have been dogging the chair of the Senate Select
Committee on Ethics of late. According to an October 13 Washington Examiner
article by Marta Mossburg (“It’s time for Sen. Barbara Boxer to come
clean on her mortgage loans“), Boxer held no fewer than seven mortgages
with Countrywide Financial, the company at the center of the mortgage
scandal she was investigating as chair of her committee.
Despite the obvious impropriety, Boxer did not recuse herself. Instead she
signed as “chair” the letter that exonerated Chris Dodd after the
Connecticut senator got favorable mortgage rates from Countrywide. That
letter — available at the ethics.senate.gov site — is worth reading now in
light of what we have learned of Boxer’s own activities.
If Barbara Boxer is returned to the Senate, she will resume her position as
chair of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. It is she who will preside
over investigations into the ethical behavior of our senators. |
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