Politics

Waters to face ethics trial

By Paul Blumenthal

Late last week the House Ethics Committee revealed that another senior Democrat would face ethics charges. Rep. Maxine Waters, after refusing to settle charges that she improperly intervened in the bailout process for troubled banks, will face a trial by the House Ethics Committee at the same time that the committee is trying Rep. Charlie Rangel on multiple violations of House ethics rules.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the details:

Waters came under scrutiny last year after Massachusetts-based OneUnited Bank, one of the nation’s largest minority-owned institutions, received $12 million in bailout funds.

The funding came three months after Waters, a senior member of the House committee that oversees banking, helped arrange a meeting between officials of the bank, other minority-owned financial institutions and Treasury Department representatives. Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, had owned stock in the bank and served on its board.

Waters has previously said that she fully disclosed her husband’s ties to the bank.

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on August 02, 2010 (boomark / email).