Sam Graves votes to gut ethics office that investigated him

Back in 2009, the newly formed Office of Congressional Ethics investigated U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, who represents Missouri’s 6th District.

The OCE was established in 2008, toward the end of George W. Bush’s second term, following the corruption scandals of congressmen such as Tom Delay and Mark Foley, and lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The office conducts its own independent investigations, which it then refers up to the House Ethics Committee.

It was looking into Graves, a Republican, as a result of the fact that he had invited a friend, Brooks Hurst, to speak before Congress in favor of federal subsidies for renewable fuels. Hurst owned an ethanol plant. Graves’ wife, Lesley, had invested about $20,000 in Hurst’s ethanol plant. Graves did not see fit to disclose this information.

The OCE ultimately concluded that Graves had not violated any rules and closed the investigation. Graves at the time called the investigation a “political smear.” 

Yesterday, House Republicans convened, without warning or notice, a vote to effectively dismantle the OCE. Under the measure, the OCE would be prohibited from receiving anonymous tips and revealing the findings of its investigations. Even investigations like those of Graves, which do not turn up violations of federal law, are nevertheless believed to serve as deterrents to bad behavior, because the OCE is permitted to publish all its findings. Now, that will no longer be the case. 

Bryson Morgan, a former attorney at the OCE, told The New York Times that the law would allow members of the House Ethics Committee to nix an investigation before it was completed. 

“This is huge,” said Morgan, who now defends lawmakers targeted in ethics investigations. “It effectively allows the committee to shut down any independent investigation into member misconduct. Historically, the ethics committee has failed to investigate member misconduct.”

The measure passed, with 119 Republicans supporting the measure and 74 opposing it. (Democrats were not involved in the action, though there will be a floor vote on Tuesday.) Thus, one of the first acts of the 115th Congress will likely be to eliminate the only independent office charged with overseeing Congressional ethics. The votes have not yet been made public, but Politico reports that Graves “vocally supported the amendment.”

“The vote to declaw the OCE was orchestrated by several members who felt they had been wrongfully accused of unethical behavior by the OCE, according to several sources in the room,” the story notes. “The sources said several members currently or formerly under the OCE’s microscope stood up to support” the amendment. 

Elizabeth Warren and others have chimed in: 

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No word from Graves yet. You can give him a call at 202-225-7041. He’s also on Twitter at @repsamgraves. And you can email him here.