Eddie Bernice Johnson Claims 'I Never Heard the Rules' on Scholarships

As her Republican opponent called for a House ethics investigation, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson insisted Thursday that she had no idea that the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation had rules against awarding college aid to her relatives.

“If I had known this was against the law I wouldn’t have done it,” the Dallas Democrat told WFAA-TV (Channel 8), as she began trying to rebuild her image after days of scrutiny of $31,000 in scholarships she awarded in violation of nepotism and residency rules. “I did not have an ethical alarm go off.”

GOP challenger Stephen Broden, who has accused Johnson of corruption, stepped up his pressure by demanding the release of records pertaining to the tainted scholarships. He also accused her of failing to publicize the scholarships in order to make it easier to award funds to relatives.

Johnson had been quiet for the last eight days, but she broke her silence Thursday, launching a public-relations offensive that began with an appearance on a Dallas radio station and ended on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, where for the first time since the scandal erupted, she shifted some of the blame for the lapses onto her chief of staff, Murat Gokcigdem.

Read more: (Todd J. Gillman, “Eddie Bernice Johnson: ‘I Never Heard the Rules’ on Scholarships,”Dallas Morning News, 09/03/10)