TRAFICANT CASE House ethics subcommittee report lists 10 violations by rep

The congressman plans to defend himself at the July 15 committee hearing.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A U.S. House ethics subcommittee that accuses U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. of 10 violations of the House's code of official conduct says in its report that its members could have charged the congressman with additional violations.
"To pursue other avenues further would have required the investigative subcommittee to undertake new and time-consuming avenues of inquiry, and possibly to seek expansion of its jurisdiction," the report reads.
The four-member panel based its investigation solely on a transcript of Traficant's federal corruption case and supporting documents from the trial. Traficant was convicted in April of 10 felony counts including bribery and racketeering. His sentencing is set for July 30.
The 10 accusations of violating House rules, released Thursday in Washingtown, mirror Traficant's 10-count conviction.
Violations of code
The panel unanimously agreed that Traficant violated the House's code of conduct as well as the Code of Ethics for Government Services by:
* Agreeing to perform, and performing, official acts on behalf of individuals and/or businesses in exchange for things of value.
* Agreeing to employ R. Allen Sinclair as a congressional staffer in exchange for $2,500 per month in salary kickbacks.
* Persuading Sinclair to destroy evidence and to give false testimony to a federal grand jury.
* Filing false income tax returns.
* Engaging in a "continuing pattern and practice of official misconduct through which he misused his office for personal gain."
The subcommittee's report was forwarded to the remaining eight members of the House Ethics Committee -- including U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, a Madison Republican and Traficant friend -- which will have a public hearing July 15 in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington to determine whether any or all of the counts have been "proven by clear and convincing evidence."
Traficant, a Poland Democrat, will be given the chance to answer the charges at the hearing.
The ethics committee could recommend a variety of penalties against Traficant to the full House including expulsion. An expulsion vote would need a two-thirds majority to be approved.
Four House members have been expelled in the nation's history, and only one since the Civil War.
Charles Straub, Traficant's spokesman, said the ethics charges against his boss came as no surprise because the subcommittee relied heavily on the transcript of the congressman's corruption trial.
To defend himself
Traficant, who served as his own lawyer during his federal trial, plans to defend himself at the ethics committee's public hearing, Straub said, but he will probably have a few attorneys providing "some technical help on some of the issues."
The subcommittee's report gives the impression that its members believe they took it easy on Traficant. The subcommittee members wrote in the report that they stuck to the trial outcome, but if they wanted to, they could have issued other charges.
"The examples of Representative Traficant's misconduct set forth in this letter are only a partial list of the egregious misconduct for which Representative Traficant is charged," the report reads. The charges "are of the most serious nature and are abundantly supported by the evidence in the record, and which evidence demonstrates that Representative Traficant continually traded his office and the duties he swore to uphold for money and a wide range of other things of value."
Accepting gifts
For example, the subcommittee said in all likelihood it could have charged Traficant with violating a House rule for accepting "scores of gifts" including money, meals, automobiles, farm equipment, and free labor.
"Compounding the mere receipt of these apparent gifts -- potential violations in and of themselves -- was the fact that the gifts were often solicited by Representative Traficant, and were in connection with official favors he performed for those who gave him the gifts," the report reads.
Also, Traficant is in apparent violation of a rule requiring him to disclose the source of the gifts on his annual financial disclosure statements, and another violation for failing to disclose a debt of about $13,000 he owed to contractor Anthony Bucci, the report continues.
Failed to respond
According to the report, on April 24, a week after the subcommittee was created, it sent Traficant a letter offering him the chance to present either orally or in writing a statement regarding the allegations. Traficant was asked to appear before the committee May 1, if he wished, or to send a written statement by that date. Traficant did not respond to the request.
But sometime after May 1, Traficant sent a letter to the subcommittee asking for a copy of his trial transcript, which was given to him two days later, and asked that he be granted a 30-day extension from the time he got the transcript to respond. The extension request was denied.
On May 8, the subcommittee gave Traficant a copy of its statement of alleged violations, as well as a copy of all the evidence it intended to use against him. The subcommittee voted to adopt the statement May 22. Traficant filed an answer to the statement Thursday.
"Each of the counts ... alleges egregious conduct that reflects directly on Representative Traficant's official and representative responsibilities," the report reads.
Since his April 11 conviction, Traficant has heeded the warning of the ethics committee to not return to Capitol Hill while it investigates him. He has not participated in a single House vote this year, last coming to Washington in late January, a few weeks before his federal trial began.
The committee, which told him to stay away these past few months, is calling for his return to Capitol Hill on July 15 for the hearing on considering his expulsion from Congress, where he has served as a member for 17 1/2 years.
Traficant is running for his congressional seat as an independent and has said if he is in a prison cell and is re-elected, he wants to serve his term in Congress.
skolnick@vindy.com