Panel Checking Report of HUD, D’Amato Links
The Senate Ethics Committee is looking into allegations that Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) violated rules in the Department of Housing and Urban development scandal, a congressional source said Thursday night.
The source, speaking only on condition of anonymity, would not say whether the committee has actually launched an investigation. The ethics panel can check into allegations at an early stage before even starting a preliminary inquiry.
D’Amato’s spokeswoman, Zenia Mucha, said in New York: “We haven’t been told anything.”
First report of the investigation was broadcast on the CBS Evening News.
Referring to the CBS report, she said: “That doesn’t mean squat. They’re obligated under the law to investigate anything that’s filed with the Ethics Committee.”
Wilson Abney, counsel to the committee, declined to comment.
Last summer Mark Green, who ran against D’Amato in 1986, filed a complaint against him with the Senate Ethics Committee, saying there was “substantial evidence” that D’Amato broke Senate rules and federal law. Green cited news reports of D’Amato’s involvement in the Wedtech scandal and influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
D’Amato denounced Green’s complaint as politically motivated.
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