Republicans Urging New Investigation of Massa

Republicans on Thursday pushed the House ethics committee to look into whether Democratic leaders responded appropriately to complaints of misconduct by then-Rep. Eric Massa, an inquiry that could become an election-year embarrassment for Democrats.
The House voted 402 to 1 to refer to the ethics panel a GOP-backed resolution demanding a resumption of an investigation of Massa’s activities and a final report on the matter by the end of June. While the vote does not bind the committee to act, Democrats seem resigned to the idea that the inquiry will gain new life. The quick reversal came as Democrats began to acknowledge their increasing vulnerability to charges that they have tolerated ethics transgressions by caucus members.
Massa resigned his seat Monday, insisting he was guilty of nothing more than using “salty language” with members of his staff. But on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that he was under investigation for allegedly groping multiple staffers in several incidents. On Wednesday afternoon, the ethics panel met privately and decided to end the Massa investigation, citing the fact that he is no longer a member of Congress. Hours later, reports surfaced that the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had been alerted in October to the attention that Massa was said to be paying to young male staffers.
House leaders have said that allegations of sexual misconduct were reported to them in February and that House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) moved rapidly to ensure that they were investigated.
Pelosi’s top spokesman said Thursday that the concern that Massa’s chief of staff relayed to Pelosi’s office in October was not viewed as a warning about staffers being at risk, but more as a request for advice in dealing with a troublesome member of Congress.
Pelosi said in an interview on MSNBC late Thursday that the information in October “didn’t come close to an allegation,” and she dismissed Republican complaints about the handling of the matter. “It’s another subject people would like to make into a distraction,” she said.
When Hoyer’s staff told Pelosi’s staff about the new allegations in February, the speaker’s staff concurred that it should be referred to the ethics committee, sources said.
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The allegations
In October, Joe Racalto, who was Massa’s chief of staff, told a Pelosi aide that the New York Democrat was living in a townhouse with a group of young, male staffers, that he routinely used foul language in the office and that he had recently asked a young male aide in Rep. Barney Frank’s office to go out to dinner. Racalto also discussed the dinner with Frank’s chief of staff.
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Hoyer learned Feb. 9 of allegations that Massa had groped staffers, according to four sources familiar with the discussion, a day after his staff was alerted to them. During a blizzard that paralyzed Washington, Hoyer contacted Massa’s deputy chief of staff Feb. 10 to demand that the allegations be reported to the House ethics committee or he would report them himself.
In an interview Thursday, Frank (D-Mass.) confirmed that his chief of staff had called Racalto “in an excess of caution” to alert him that Massa had taken one of Frank’s junior staffers out to dinner. “Joe said that he already knew about the situation and was considering how to address it,” he said.
Frank said that his chief of staff wanted Massa’s office to understand the perception it created but that the junior employee reported nothing improper and there was no indication the dinner was part of a pattern.
“When someone is seen with someone much younger in a staff position, people will understandably raise questions. If it had been a young woman, it would be the same problem,” Frank said. “She said, ‘You know, Joe, people talk in this town. Your boss was out with a young man last night.’ ” Frank said he didn’t know about the conversation until it was reported Wednesday evening.

Read more: (Carol D. Leonnig and Ben Pershing, “Republicans Urging New Investigation of Massa,” The Washington Post, 03/12/10)