A House Ethics Committee panel will review allegations that Rep. Michele Bachmann's 2012 presidential campaign violated campaign finance and other ethics rules, escalating the congressional probe of the campaign's dealings.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that the independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), which was reviewing seven cases related to Bachmann's campaign, sent all of them to the House Ethics Committee, an indication that they had "substantial reason” to believe that ethics violations had occurred.
From the Star-Tribune:
Under rules set forth for the ethics board, there was no public disclosure Tuesday of the individual cases transmitted for further review by the House ethics committee. Instead, the report included a general summary of the board’s actions showing that it did not dismiss or terminate any cases in the past three months, the same period that Bachmann has been under investigation.
William McGinley, a Washington attorney for the Bachmann campaign, disputed the suggestion that none of the allegations against her were dropped, although he didn’t say what claims the OCE might have referred for dismissal.
Bachmann, who recently announced that she would not seek reelection in 2014, is facing investigations by the FBI, the FEC and an Iowa state Senate ethics committee, in addition to the OCE, over the various allegations. Her campaign is accused of stealing an email list from a campaign volunteer, making improper payments to the Iowa chairman of her campaign and using campaign staffers to promote Bachmann's book, among other things.
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