House Panel to Widen Ethics Probe of Gingrich

Raising new questions about House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a bipartisan House panel expanded its ethics investigation of the GOP leader Thursday to determine whether he had dealt truthfully with the panel concerning a college course he taught with the support of a conservative foundation.

The investigative subcommittee of the House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to examine whether Gingrich had provided “accurate, reliable and complete information” about the college course and other matters that have been investigated for months by a special counsel.

The unexpected development came at a time when Democrats had been accusing the committee of dragging its feet. And while the case has at times split the Ethics Committee bitterly along party lines, the subcommittee’s two Republicans and two Democrats joined together to expand the inquiry.

Tony Blankley, Gingrich’s spokesman, called the action “a continuation of the fishing expedition that Democrats have been forcing on the Ethics Committee.” He emphasized that the vote did not mean the subcommittee had drawn any conclusions that Gingrich had acted improperly but only that it had opened new avenues of inquiry.

Several Democrats called on Gingrich to step aside as speaker until the case is resolved, saying that Gingrich made the same demand of House Speaker Jim Wright when he was under investigation before resigning in 1989.

“The integrity and honesty of the speaker of the House has seriously been called into question,” said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).

If the investigative subcommittee concludes that there is reason to believe Gingrich lied to the committee or otherwise violated the rules, it would file formal charges with the other six members of the Ethics Committee. Gingrich would be given an opportunity to respond and have formal hearings.

If the panel concluded that he had violated House rules, it could recommend formal punishment to the full House, which must vote on such matters as whether to reprimand, censure or expel a member for ethics violations.

The subcommittee vote to expand the Gingrich inquiry came about a month after it had received a report from James M. Cole, the special counsel who was hired in January to conduct the investigation. The case has taken on increased political significance as the Nov. 5 elections approach.

At the center of the investigation so far has been “Renewing American Civilization,” a course Gingrich taught from 1993 to 1995 with financial support from a nonprofit organization, the Progress & Freedom Foundation. Cole’s investigation focused on whether the course’s content was so partisan that it could not properly be financed with tax-exempt contributions.

The subcommittee that has been considering Cole’s report said in a statement released after its closed-door vote that “certain facts have been discovered in the course of the preliminary inquiry which the subcommittee has determined merit further inquiry” into several areas.

One involves whether Gingrich had provided “accurate, reliable and complete information” concerning his college course, its relationship to GOPAC--a political action committee Gingrich once headed--or with the Progress & Freedom Foundation.

The ethics panel authorized Gingrich to teach the course after he filed a May 12, 1993, letter disclosing that he would be teaching a Saturday morning class at Kennesaw State College in Georgia. He failed to disclose in the letter, however, that the course would be televised nationally, filled with partisan themes and financed by the Progress & Freedom Foundation and GOPAC donors.

Blankley called the new questions about information provided on the course a “bafflement,” saying that Gingrich had cooperated fully in the special counsel’s investigation.

“To date, I have submitted over 46,000 pages of documents and spent 11 hours in interviews with the special counsel,” Gingrich said in a letter to Ethics Committee leaders that asked them to release the subcommittee’s report calling for the expanded inquiry. “If further questions arise or clarifications are necessary in regards to your proceedings, I continue to stand ready to provide any additional information you request.”

Gingrich’s letter said: “The issuance of this interim report is evidence that the subcommittee process is working.” The subcommittee is also expanding its investigation of the Progress & Freedom Foundation and another nonprofit organization that Gingrich and his political advisors used from 1984 to 1994 to extend the reach of GOPAC, which helped engineer the Republicans’ takeover of Congress two years ago.

In both cases, the Ethics Committee is seeking information to determine whether Gingrich’s activities constituted a violation of federal laws governing tax-exempt charitable organizations.

According to IRS records, the Progress & Freedom Foundation was formed in 1993 as a nonprofit, conservative think tank to conduct “independent” research on methods for the “advancement of American society.” But records show that the foundation devoted 84% of $460,471 in first-year expenditures to producing Gingrich’s televised college course and his weekly cable TV program.