The Hill reports that the House ethics committee has charged Rep. Maxine Waters with three counts of violating House rules and the federal ethics code in connection with her effort to arrange a 2008 meeting between Treasury officials and representatives of OneUnited bank.
The committee found that by trying to assist OneUnited, Waters stood to benefit directly because her husband owned a sizable amount of stock that would have been “worthless” if the bank failed. It also accused Waters of violating the “spirit” of a House rule prohibiting lawmakers from using their positions for financial gain, as well as a government ethics statute banning the dispensing of “special favors.”
The meeting Waters helped arrange was between the National Bankers Association (NBA), a trade group of minority owned banks of which OneUnited is a member, and Treasury officials. At least that was how Waters described it when she contacted then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to request the meeting, according to this report. As it turned out, three of the four attendees NBA invited had ties to OneUnited, according to the Office of Congressional Ethics.
OneUnited was seeking $50 million in assistance to cover expected losses from the collapse of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The ethics committee valued Waters’ husband’s holding in OneUnited at more than $350,000 as of the end of 2007. This represented between 4.6 and 15.2 percent of the couple’s net worth, according to Waters’s financial disclosure reports. By the end of September 2008, the stock’s value plummeted more than 50 percent, to $175,000, because of the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The committee found that “if OneUnited failed, [Waters’s] husband’s investment would have been worthless.”
In early September 2008, Barney Frank, head of the House Banking Committee, warned Waters against involvement in assisting OneUnited because of her husband’s ties to the bank. However, the committee found that Waters remained involved through her chief of staff, Mikael Moore, who also happens to be Waters’ grandson.
Moore continued to communicate with OneUnited executives regarding the proposed TARP legislation. OneUnited’s senior counsel sent Moore an email thanking him for his “hard work.”
In October, the legislation authorizing the TARP included language intended to apply to OneUnited. The bank eventually applied for TARP funds and received $12 million in December.
Waters’ attorneys have argued that Moore — the congresswoman’s grandson and chief of staff — acted without her knowledge. The ethics committee isn’t buying this. How could it?
The Hill points out that Waters is the second House Democrat charged recently with ethics violations. In late July, the House ethics committee charged Rep. Charles Rangel with 13 counts of breaking House rules and federal ethics statutes. With only three violations, Waters is a paragon of virtue compared to the man from Harlem. Yet, she fully deserves her status as one of the most corrupt members of Congress.