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Jackson Resigns as HUD Secretary
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"We have helped families keep their homes," Jackson said yesterday. "We have reduced chronic homelessness. And we have preserved affordable housing and increased minority homeownership."
But Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said HUD "has fallen far short" under Jackson's leadership and said Bush must appoint a replacement "who will have the full authority to work with us in making the decisions we need to deal with the housing finance crisis."
The department's inspector general has been looking at whether Jackson improperly sought to punish the Philadelphia Housing Authority for refusing to turn over a $2 million property to a Jackson friend. A federal judge ruled yesterday that the city agency had not clearly shown HUD overstepped its authority by allowing an agreement on the spending of federal funds to lapse.
Jackson is also the target of investigations by a federal grand jury, the FBI and the Justice Department. Those investigations began after a speech in Dallas in April 2006, in which Jackson said he had arranged the firing of a contractor who told him, "I don't like President Bush."
Jackson later said he concocted the anecdote, and HUD's inspector general concluded that Jackson had not exercised improper influence over contracts. But the continuing probes are looking at whether Jackson was truthful when he told the Senate Banking Committee last May, "I don't touch contracts."
HUD sources have told the inspector general that Jackson intervened in the business of the New Orleans and Virgin Islands housing authorities to steer work to friends. Two government sources briefed on the probe said investigators have been working to get a key former aide to cooperate.
The inspector general has also been looking at whether an occasional golfing buddy of Jackson's had performed work on Jackson's property on Hilton Head Island, S.C. It is unclear whether that remains a part of the investigators' work. James Martin, a St. Louis defense lawyer representing Jackson, did not respond to e-mail or telephone messages left yesterday.
Staff writer Carrie Johnson contributed to this report.
