Fauntroy Data Is Forwarded to Ethics Panel

The Justice Department has referred to the House Ethics Committee allegations that Delegate Walter E. Fauntroy (D-D.C.) hired the son of Rep. Gus Savage (D-Ill.) for a no-show job, officials said Wednesday.

The department decided recently not to bring criminal charges against Fauntroy, the District of Columbia’s non-voting delegate in Congress, after a 15-month investigation.

Spokesman David Runkel said a parallel Justice Department investigation of Savage had also been closed for lack of evidence to warrant prosecution, and that matter also was referred to the House Ethics Committee.

The department examined whether the elder Savage was aware of any possible wrongdoing in Fauntroy’s hiring of his son, said sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Fauntroy, who has denied any wrongdoing throughout the investigation, said in a statement: “There are no new facts for the ethics committee to find.” Abbe Lowell, Fauntroy’s attorney, said the lawmaker had cooperated fully with the probe.

Savage did not return phone calls to his office Wednesday.

Jan Keyes, a spokeswoman for the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct--the formal name of the ethics panel--had no comment on whether it would open an investigation.

The Justice Department investigation began in December, 1988, after the Associated Press reported that Thomas Savage was living in Chicago and running for election to the Illinois House while on Fauntroy’s payroll in the nation’s capital.

Thomas Savage was on Fauntroy’s payroll from September, 1987, through June, 1988, except for a 10-week unpaid leave, a period when he said he went to Illinois to run for the Legislature.

House rules require that congressional employees must perform their duties either in Washington or the member’s district.