Peninsula Daily News News Sources
WASHINGTON — Veteran Congressman Norm Dicks says he is confident that he will be exonerated after his name was included in a list of more than two dozen House members who are the subject of internal ethics investigations.
Dicks, D-Belfair, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, issued a statement Friday saying he always conducted himself appropriately and in accordance with all applicable House rules and laws.
The 17-term lawmaker who represents the 6th Congressional District — which includes the North Olympic Peninsula — said he was confident that when all the inquiries are concluded, he will be “completely exonerated.”
The statement came after the internal workings of the ethics panel were exposed on the Internet in an extraordinary breach. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct — also known as the Ethics committee — called it a case of “cyber-hacking.”
The Washington Post reported in its online edition Thursday that a document — which is about mostly preliminary inquiries — was disclosed on a publicly accessible computer network and made available to the newspaper by a source familiar with such networks.
The committee is looking into potential conflicts of interest between over 30 lawmakers and the now defunct lobbying firm PMA.
The Ethics panel announced that it was investigating two California Democrats — Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson — even as its embarrassed leaders took pains to explain that several other lawmakers’ names should not have been revealed and they may have done nothing wrong.
The names included three lawmakers previously identified in the inquiry: the chairman of the defense subcommittee, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; and Reps. Peter Visclosky, D-Ind., and James Moran, D-Va.
The Post said others whose names were in the report, in addition to Dicks, were Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan.
The committee, however, has not announced an investigation of any of these lawmakers.
The Tacoma News Tribune reported today that Dicks has received more than $133,000 in campaign contributions over three years from PMA’s political action committee before the company collapsed last February when it was under an FBI investigation.
“I can assure you that I have always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with all the applicable House rules and statutes,” Dicks said.
“I am confident that all of my actions as a member of House have been appropriate, and I expect that when all the inquiries are concluded, I will be completely exonerated.”
