Waters’ Lawyers Warn Ethics Panel

Attorneys for Rep. Maxine Waters (D) accused the House ethics committee of improperly collecting additional evidence for its looming trial of the California lawmaker on charges she violated House rules. And they demanded the panel stop.

In an Aug. 25 letter to Committee on Standards of Official Conduct Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and ranking member Joe Bonner (R-Ala.), Waters’ attorneys revealed the committee requested new documents from the California lawmaker’s office Aug. 17 and indicated it would subpoena the materials if necessary.

Defense attorneys Stan Brand and Andrew Herman also wrote that the ethics committee is conducting interviews of unidentified witnesses, including former Waters aides.

“Rep. Waters demands that the Committee cease its post-transmittal inquiry, which it is conducting in violation of both Committee rules and federal criminal procedure,” Brand and Herman wrote. And they vowed to fight the use of any of the newly acquired material: “The Committee should also note that Rep. Waters will oppose any attempt to use evidence acquired post-transmittal of the [Statement of Alleged Violation] in an adjudicatory hearing on the charges contained in the SAV.”

The ethics committee released an investigative subcommittee report, formally known as a Statement of Alleged Violation, on Aug. 9 that charged Waters with violating the chamber’s rules. The report charges that her chief of staff tried to secure federal support for a bank in which Waters and her husband held hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock.

Read more: (Jennifer Yachnin, “Waters’ Lawyers Warn Ethics Panel,” Roll Call, 08/26/2010)