What guidance did the Ethics Committee give to the Speaker on paying the $300,000?
The Ethics Committee placed no restrictions on how the Speaker could choose to pay the reimbursement. In the words of Committee Member Steven Schiff (R-NM), the committee was “deliberately silent” on that issue. Representative Marge Roukema (R-NJ), concurred that the “resolution leaves repayment to the Speaker’s discretion.” The Committee’s ranking Democrat, Ben Cardin (D-MD), told the Los Angeles Times that “We didn’t want to micro-manage this. All we said was that the money had to come from a legal and ethical source.” (Los Angeles Times, 1/23/97) When asked whether there were limits on how the money should be repaid, Special Counsel James Cole told the Committee that “he should make sure he pays it in an ethical manner, in accordance with the law, perhaps with legal advice. It is up to him to do it the right way.” Clearly this full personal payment surpasses those high ethical and legal standards.
