Panel Finds Rep. Weaver Violated House Rules on Campaign Funds

The House Ethics Committee said Tuesday that Rep. James Weaver (D-Ore.) violated House rules by borrowing $82,000 from his campaign organization, but it recommended no disciplinary action.

Ending an eight-month investigation of Weaver, who is retiring, the committee found him at fault in his handling of loans to and from his campaign organization but said he had not attempted to hide the transactions.

Weaver had been the Democratic opponent of Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), but he withdrew from the race Aug. 13, saying he needed to devote attention to the committee investigation.

Weaver had given up running for reelection to the House to run for the Senate. He will leave Congress next January, after 12 years.

The $82,000 borrowed from Weaver’s campaign committee between August, 1981, and November, 1984, went into investments that eventually lost money.

The committee “did not find any apparent violations of applicable law,” but said that “circumstances underlying Rep. Weaver’s borrowings of money from his campaign account established a violation” of the House rule that “prohibits the expenditure of campaign funds which are not attributable to bona fide campaign purposes.”

The committee also said Weaver violated a second House rule “due to his failure to disclose adequately his commodity investment transactions during the period 1978 through 1985.”

Weaver said the committee had found only “a technical violation. The House rules state that if no disciplinary action is recommended, it is a technical violation,” meaning that the panel’s report is meant to guide House members about their conduct.