House Approves Speedy Jefferson Probe

Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., makes a statement upon his arrival at Washington's National Airport in this May 22, 2006 file photo. Jefferson will be indicted in a bribery investigation involving business deals he tried to broker in Africa, The Associated Press has learned. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, Files) (Lauren Victoria Burke - AP)

"I would encourage Mr. Jefferson to take this under advisement and encourage him to step down," said Rep. Christopher Carney, R-Pa.

"My position is similar to the gentleman from Pennsylvania," said Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo. "I would suggest that (Jefferson) do justice to himself, prepare his defense, and that his district have someone else."

Hoyer, meanwhile, proposed a second resolution that directs the ethics committee to respond to the indictment of any House member by empaneling an investigative committee within 30 days. Hoyer's resolution passed 387-10, with 15 members voting present.

"I respect the decision of my colleagues regarding these resolutions," Jefferson said in a statement issued by his office after the votes. "I am innocent of these allegations and confident that members of the Ethics Committee will arrive at the same conclusion through investigation."

Jefferson's indictment Monday sparked a fresh round of partisan fingerpointing over which caucus is more ethical.

Republicans gloated over the indictment of a Democrat and ridiculed Pelosi for waiting until Tuesday to announce her 10 members of an ethics pool from which an investigative committee would be chosen. Democrats pointed out that Republicans are coming late to the congressional crackdown on ethics, considering the list of GOP members indicted or otherwise in trouble in the 12 years the GOP was in control.

The bickering extended to the ethics committee, whose chairwoman denounced Boehner's resolution without naming him and provoked a rare public retort from the panel's ranking Republican.

It's unusual for the House in a resolution to specifically instruct the ethics committee to report whether a member's expulsion is warranted, as does Boehner's. Usually such resolutions leave it to the committee to recommend appropriate sanctions.

"It is inappropriate for any other member to impose on these proceedings," Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, chairwoman of the Standards of Official Conduct committee, said in a statement that did not mention Boehner by name. "I refuse to allow these proceedings to be politicized by House Republican leadership."

She announced that the ethics committee was empaneling a subcommittee to probe Jefferson, choosing members from the 20-member bipartisan ethics pool.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the ethics committee's ranking member, denounced Tubbs Jones' statement and said he had done what he could since the beginning of the Democratic-controlled Congress to empanel a committee to investigate Jefferson.

The indictment said Jefferson received more than $500,000 in bribes and sought millions more in separate schemes to enrich himself by using his office to broker business deals in Africa. The charges came almost two years after investigators raided Jefferson's home in Washington and found $90,000 in cash stuffed in his freezer. Jefferson maintained his innocence but resigned from the Small Business Committee nonetheless.

"In doing so, I, of course, express no admission of guilt or culpability in that or any other matter that may be pending in any court or before the House of Representatives," Jefferson wrote Pelosi. "I have supported every ethics and lobbying reform measure that you and our Democratic Majority have authored."

After the FBI alleged the $90,000 stash was bribe money, Pelosi succeeded in stripping Jefferson of his seat on the Ways and Means Committee _ over Jefferson's objection.

The congressman was re-elected in November to a ninth term in the House. Opening the 110th Congress as House Speaker this year, Pelosi granted him the seat on the Small Business Committee.

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Associated Press writer Larry Margasak contributed to this report.