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你好， 腐败文化:
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., violated House ethics committee standards by giving reporters access to an illegally taped telephone call involving House Republican leaders a decade ago, the ethics panel said Monday.
In a report released days after Congress adjourned, the ethics panel said that McDermott, a former ranking member of the panel, failed to meet his obligations as a committee leader.
“Representative McDermott’s secretive disclosures to the news media … risked undermining the ethics process regarding” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the report said.
McDermott’s actions “were not consistent with the spirit of the committee’s rules,” the panel added in a 25-page report.
The committee took no further action beyond release of the report.
A refresher on the case:
The ethics complaint stems from a tape recording made by a Florida couple, who gave it to McDermott in January 1997. The tape recorded then-Speaker Gingrich, R-Ga., in a December 1996 conference call with GOP leaders regarding a separate ethics investigation of Gingrich.
McDermott, then the ethics panel’s top Democrat, leaked the tape to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times, which published stories on the case in January 1997.
Once again, there are no consequences for illegal leaks. It’s business as usual.
Way to clean house, Nancy.
The full committee report is 点击此处 （PDF）。
As you may recall, in March, a federal appeals court found McDermott guilty:
在 2-1 的意见中，美国哥伦比亚特区上诉法院裁定麦克德莫特侵犯了众议院多数党领袖约翰·博纳的权利，他在 1996 年涉及前众议院议长纽特·金里奇的电话中被听到。
法院命令 McDermott 向 Boehner 支付超过 700,000 美元的泄露录音谈话内容。 该数字包括 60,000 美元的赔偿金和超过 600,000 美元的法律费用。
麦克德莫特向《纽约时报》和其他新闻机构泄露了 1996 年涉及前众议院议长纽特·金里奇的手机通话录音。
The full nine-member appeals court vacated the appeals court ruling this spring. Its ruling is due next year.
***update – a lawyer e-mails: “You wrote that a federal appeals court found Rep. McDermott guilty. This is incorrect. The appellate court upheld the lower court’s ruling of a civil rights violation. I do not believe there was ever a criminal proceeding thus guilty is the wrong terminology and implies criminal activity. The proper terms would be that McDermott was found liable for a civil rights violation.***
注意。
You may also recall that McDermott had the gall to criticize the NSA’s warrantless surveillance progam.
照他们说的做……
***
以前：
