ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
In a remarkable admission, House Speaker Newt Gingrich agreed with a House ethics subcommittee Saturday that he had repeatedly violated House rules and then falsely denied that he had done so.
Republican leaders in the House rallied around their leader Saturday, asserting Gingrich's sins were technical and relatively minor. They predicted he would win re-election as House leader when the 105th Congress convenes Jan. 7.
But Democrats called on Gingrich to step down from his leadership post, asserting that he may have violated the federal tax code.
In a 22-page statement of alleged violations, a bipartisan investigative subcommittee of the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct asserted that the Georgia Republican had funneled substantial sums of money through tax-exempt foundations to advance a partisan political purpose - and then submitted ``inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable'' statements to the panel about it.
Gingrich, in a one-sentence admission to the subcommittee, acknowledged he had committed the violations, sparing himself a public airing of the findings.
``I, Newt Gingrich, admit to the Statement of Alleged Violation dated December 21, 1996,'' he said in response to the subcommittee's charges.
Left hanging was the punishment to be meted out by the full ethics committee, which must decide whether to hold a public or closed-door hearing on that question.
The full panel, composed of five Republicans and five Democrats, could choose from a variety of penalties, ranging from a letter of reproof to expulsion. In two previous cases where members were found to have lied to Congress, the violators were censured by the full House.
Republican leaders in the House insisted Gingrich had not personally benefited from the violations.
``The speaker accepted full responsibility for the mistakes that were made,'' seven GOP leaders said in a joint statement. ``He did not seek nor intend to mislead the committee.''
``There's absolutely no question the speaker will be re-elected,'' said Rep. Bill Paxon, R-N.Y., chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
But House Minority Whip David Bonior, D-Mich., who has spearheaded the complaints against Gingrich, said he ``should step down as speaker. That would be the honorable thing to do, the right thing to do, and would spare the House from the situation ahead. But my sense is they are going to try to gut this thing out.''
If that occurs, Bonior said, Democrats will put up a parliamentary fight on the House floor. ``It's possible it'll be a difficult day,'' Bonior said.
In a statement issued Saturday afternoon, Gingrich confessed to being ``overconfident'' and ``naive'' in failing to seek sound legal advice as he created several tax-exempt foundations to finance a college course he taught.
``Because I did not,'' Gingrich said, ``I brought down on the people's House a controversy which could weaken the faith people have in their government. In my name and over my signature, inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements were given to the [ethics] committee, but I did not intend to mislead the committee.''
In its report on the violations, the subcommittee cited numerous instances - several in one letter alone from Gingrich - in which he falsely characterized the role of the foundations and of GOPAC, a Republican political action committee headed by Gingrich, in the financing and creation of the college course.
The panel indicated that at least $1.46million was involved in Gingrich's various political enterprises.
The ethics subcommittee found that Gingrich's course was intended to promote a conservative Republican agenda and an eventual GOP takeover of Congress. He and other officers of GOPAC solicited most of the money to develop the course from wealthy contributors, who could claim tax deductions for their donations.
Federal tax law prohibits the use of tax-exempt money to pay for partisan political activity.
Bonior accused Gingrich of ``engaging in a pattern of tax fraud, lies and cover-up in paving his road to the second-highest office in this land. He is not worthy of that office.''
It was not clear whether the Justice Department or Internal Revenue Service intends to look into the subcommittee's allegations.
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