Ethics Panel Says Craig Acted Improperly
By MATTHEW DALY – 7 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Ethics Committee said Wednesday that Idaho Sen. Larry Craig acted improperly in connection with a men's room sex sting last year and had brought discredit on the Senate.
In a letter to the Republican senator, the ethics panel said Craig's attempt to withdraw his guilty plea after his arrest at a Minneapolis airport was an effort to evade legal consequences of his own actions.
Craig's actions constitute "improper conduct which has reflected discreditably on the Senate," the letter said.
In an e-mailed statement, Craig told The Associated Press he disagreed with the ethics panel's action.
"While I am disappointed and strongly disagree with the conclusions reached by the Senate Ethics Committee, from the outset I have encouraged the committee to act in a timely fashion and they have done so. I will continue to serve the people of Idaho," he said.
The six members of the committee — three Democrats and three Republicans — told Craig they believed he "committed the offense to which you pled guilty" and that "you entered your plea knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently."
The panel said Craig only tried to remove his guilty plea after his attempts to avoid public disclosure had failed.
"Your claims to the court ... to the effect that your guilty plea resulted from improper pressure or coercion, or that you did not, as a legal matter, know what you were doing when you pled guilty do not appear credible," the letter said.
The panel also said Craig should have received permission from the ethics panel before using campaign funds to pay his legal bills. Craig, who is not running for re-election, has spent more than $213,000 in campaign money for legal expense and public relations work in the wake of his arrest and conviction last summer.
The committee said it had reached no conclusion about whether use of campaign funds was proper, but it said "it is clear that you never sought the committee's approval, as required," to use the money for legal expenses.
Any future use of campaign money for legal bills will be seen as "demonstrating your continuing disregard of ethics requirements," the ethics committee wrote in its three-page letter.
The panel also admonished Craig for showing the arresting officer a business card that identified him as a U.S. senator. Craig has been reported to have told the officer at the time, "What do you think about that?"
The committee wrote, "You knew or should have known that a reasonable person in the position of the arresting officer could view your action and statement as an improper attempt by you to use your position and status ... to receive special and favorable treatment."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the ethics panel, declined to comment. A spokeswoman said the panel's letter of admonition cannot be appealed.
The ethics panel took no further action against Craig.
Craig, a three-term Republican, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August after he was accused of soliciting sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in June.
After the matter became public, Craig tried to withdraw his plea. A judge in Minnesota refused, saying Craig's plea "was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and ... supported by the evidence." Craig has appealed that ruling to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
Senate Republicans demanded the ethics investigation after news broke of Craig's conviction last August. Craig first promised to resign Sept. 30, then reversed his decision. He now says he will stay in office until his term expires in January.
Craig has said an undercover police officer misinterpreted his foot and hand movements as signals that he wanted sex.
Craig, who lost several GOP leadership positions on Senate committees and subcommittees in the wake of the scandal, has been working with Boxer and other members of the Senate's environment committee on a global warming bill and other matters.
Besides Boxer, the letter is signed by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the panel's vice chairman, and Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Ken Salazar, D-Colo., Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.
Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.
New Allegations Test Craig's New Boldness
Once-Retiring Idaho ("I am not gay") Senator Keeps Fighting
Tuesday, December 4, 2007; Page A03
On Labor Day weekend, Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) told the nation he would resign within weeks because of the uproar over his arrest in a sex sting in an airport men's room. To stay and fight, Craig said in a news conference carried live by cable news channels, would be "an unwanted and unfair distraction" from his work as a senator and his responsibilities to his colleagues.
Today, three months later, Craig returns to Congress in the wake of the most lurid allegations about his conduct to date, vowing yet again to finish out his term, having long since abandoned his promise to step down quietly for the good of his constituents and his party.
Far from hiding in disgrace, Craig carries on with his odd new normal: After dodging television cameras in the early days of the scandal, he now quietly attends political fundraisers, meets with Cabinet nominees and attends to constituents.
Craig will, in fact, end his week on Capitol Hill on Thursday by casting his secret ballot in GOP caucus leadership elections -- contests that can be decided by a single vote -- then take off on a military jet to Bali, Indonesia, at taxpayer expense, part of a congressional delegation to a United Nations summit on global warming.
This stay-the-course approach comes as Craig battles detailed allegations of homosexual acts that conflict with his adamant statement that he is "not gay," made in August after news broke of his arrest in a sting conducted after complaints of lewd behavior in a Minneapolis airport restroom. Craig pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.
On Sunday the Idaho Statesman reported in considerable detail the claims of two men who said they had sex with Craig, and two others who said he made passes at them.
One of the men, Mike Jones, 50, is a former prostitute whose revelations of encounters with the Rev. Ted Haggard prompted Haggard's resignation as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and forced him to step down from his Colorado church.
Jones told the Statesman that in the winter of 2004-2005, Craig, while visiting Denver, paid him $200 for an hour-long sexual encounter. Another man, David Phillips, told the paper he had sex with Craig in the summer of 1986 while Craig was a member of the House. The two met at a gay nightclub, according to Phillips, now 42 and an information technology consultant in Washington.
Craig, who is married, said the report had no "basis in reality" and accused the paper of engaging in "tabloid journalism" by running a story that was not corroborated.
Despite the fact the Idaho Statesman has decided to pursue its own agenda and print these falsehoods without any facts to back them up, I won't let this paper's attempt to malign my name stop me from continuing my work to serve the people of Idaho,"Craig said in a statement.
And so Craig soldiers on. His colleagues appear resigned to his staying.
"The matter's before the ethics committee, and we'll see what they think is appropriate," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday, declining to comment further.
