Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is standing by its assertion that U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., failed to report a financial transaction he was required to disclose even as Pearce’s spokesman says the claim is bogus.
The allegation, made Tuesday when CREW released its list of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress, is that Pearce failed to report on a public financial disclosure form the fact that he sold the assets of Lea Fishing Tools, Inc. to Key Energy Services for more than 540,000 shares of stock in 2003. The group says Pearce was required to report the sale and his failure to do so likely violated the Ethics in Government Act.
Though a Pearce campaign staffer told me this morning that a spokesman from Pearce’s government office would call to discuss the situation with me, it has not yet happened. The last official word I received from Pearce’s office is that it would make no comments to me until after Pearce’s response was published in the Albuquerque Journal.
Though the Journal has not yet published an article about the situation, it did publish these comments from Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips on its blog on Tuesday evening:
“They don’t have their facts correct. Rep. Pearce filed an accurate financial disclosure statement and all of Mr. Pearce’s assets and transactions were correctly reported as law required,” Phillips said. “There has been no violation of the Ethics in Government Act and Mr. Pearce stands by the documents on record.”
Phillips added that Pearce “serves the Second District with the utmost integrity. It is appalling that a group which claims to promote ethics and accountability would publish outright lies.”
In the blog posting, the Journal published no explanation from Phillips to back up his assertion that the allegation is false. Phillip’s statement also didn’t directly address CREW’s second allegation – that Pearce may have advocated for drilling on the Otero Mesa in exchange for campaign contributions from those with ties to oil companies.
In an interview, Melanie Sloan, CREW executive director, stood by the allegation that Pearce failed to disclose a transaction he was required to report.
“We checked the reports pretty carefully and there is nothing in the reports indicating the sale,” she said. “… If he has a more detailed explanation, I too would like to hear it, but him just saying that we’re wrong is not sufficient.”
With my limited knowledge of this sort of thing, I looked through the financial reports, which you can read by clicking here, and found no indication of the sale, which doesn’t mean much. I’ve been looking, without success, for others who might be able to shed light on the situation, and I’ve made three attempts to discuss this with Pearce staffers.
You can read the full report on CREW’s allegations against Pearce by clicking here.
An investigation isn’t likely, CREW says
Sloan said she believes there should be an investigation but probably won’t. House ethics investigations can only be triggered by members of the House, and there is a longstanding truce between Democrats and Republicans.
“That said, it is a violation of federal law to misreport things on these disclosure forms, and it can be a felony,” Sloan said.
However, she added that it’s rare for the Justice Department to investigate a member of Congress when the only allegation is not reporting a transaction. She said it is not uncommon for such a violation to be added as a charge when other charges are filed against a member of Congress.