D’Amato Cleared After Senate Inquiry : Ethics: N.Y. lawmaker was accused of abusing his office. Panel decides that he broke no laws but criticizes him over his brother’s activities.

The Senate Ethics Committee Friday cleared Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) of allegations that he abused his office but said that he had acted in an “improper and inappropriate” manner in failing to prevent his influence from being exploited by his brother.

After a 19-month investigation that centered on D’Amato’s actions on behalf of campaign contributors, the committee agreed unanimously that D’Amato had broken no laws or Senate rules. But the panel said that D’Amato “was negligent in failing to establish appropriate standards for the operation of his office” in connection with his brother’s actions.

“It is the duty of every U.S. senator to conduct his or her office in a manner that precludes its systematic misuse by members of his or her family for personal gain,” the committee said in a statement.

At a press conference, D’Amato said that he was “pleased and delighted” by the committee’s conclusions. “I maintain that my actions have been proper and correct, and they have been,” he said.

D’Amato said the committee found that his brother, Armand, a lobbyist for the Unisys Corp., a large computer manufacturer, had persuaded D’Amato aides to write letters to the Pentagon on the company’s behalf.

The senator denied that he had known about the letters. He said that his brother has been told to stay away from the office and that his chief of staff and legislative director are now “aware . . . of the embarrassment this has caused.”

The Ethics Committee found that D’Amato’s office had assisted Unisys on some government contracts. But it concluded that his help involved only “such actions as letters of inquiry that were . . . routine.”

One of the principal allegations lodged against D’Amato was that he had helped steer low-income housing subsidies from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to developers in Puerto Rico who were also heavy D’Amato contributors.

The ethics panel said that it had been stymied in investigating this charge by a lack of cooperation from witnesses who--facing separate U.S. grand jury investigations--had cited their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The committee said that, without their testimony, it found “insufficient evidence” to conclude that any violations had occurred.

The panel said it also found “insufficient credible evidence” that D’Amato steered HUD mortgage subsidies to applicants in Island Park, N.Y., whom he allegedly favored.

Similarly, it found no proof that he had dropped plans to back legislative restrictions on high-yield junk bonds after receiving big donations from the now defunct junk bond firm Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.

Committee Vice Chairman Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) said that, even though the six-member panel had recommended no punishment, he considers the report to be “a fairly strong statement.”

However, citing the investigation’s $686,000 cost, Rudman said that he considers some of the charges leveled at D’Amato unworthy of investigation.

The complaint against D’Amato was filed by Mark Green, who ran unsuccessfully against D’Amato in 1986. Green said Friday that the outcome proves only that senators “are birds of a feather.”

The ethics investigation and allegations in news accounts have stirred speculation that the former Hempstead, N.Y., town supervisor may face a tough reelection fight next year.