Waters Headed for House Trial

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will face a House ethics trial rather than negotiate a settlement with an investigative subcommittee, Fox News reported Friday.

Waters has been the subject of an investigation since October 2009 focused on her relationship with the National Bankers Association and OneUnited Bank, and her role in the decision to provide $12 million in federal bailout funds to the latter in 2009.

Waters’ husband, Sidney Williams, had served on OneUnited Bank’s board and owned a minimum of $500,000 in the company’s stock in 2007.

A Waters aide declined to comment on the reports Friday night. Politico first reported that Waters would proceed to an ethics trial.

The Californian would become the second lawmaker to move toward an ethics trial in the 111th Congress, only days after the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct initiated proceedings in an unrelated investigation of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Read more: (Jennifer Yachnin, “Waters Headed for House Trial,” Roll Call, 07/30/2010)