Government ethics has taken another punch in the chops on Capitol Hill.
Imagine that.
It turns out several members of Congress went on a junket in 2013 paid for by the government of Azerbaijan.Ā Four of them are from Texas: Democrats Ruben Hinojosa and Sheila Jackson Lee, and Republicans Ted Poe and Steve Stockman (who’s no longer in Congress).
http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/13/four-texas-members-congress-took-trip-secretly-fun/
The Azerbaijanis showered the members with gifts, wined and dined them and apparently tried to purchase some influence regardingĀ energy policy.
The Washington Post reported: “Lawmakers and their staff members received hundreds of thousands of dollarsā worth of travel expenses, silk scarves, crystal tea sets and Azerbaijani rugs valued at $2,500 to $10,000, according to the ethics report. Airfare for the lawmakers and some of their spouses cost $112,899, travel invoices show.”
The host government paid for every penny of it, according to the Post.
The ethics investigation is the most extensive since the congressional ethics office was created in response to the Jack Abramoff scandal involving payoffs, bribes and assorted influence-peddling deeds perpetrated by the one-time wheeler-dealer.
Most damning of all is that it was done under the radar. The Post reported: “The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, known as SOCAR, allegedly funneled $750,000 through nonprofit corporations based in the United States to conceal the source of the funding for the conference in the former Soviet nation, according to the 70-page report by theĀ Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent investigative arm of the House.”
Gosh. If it was OK to do this, why do you suppose the Azerbaijanis sought to hide it from congressional ethics investigators? Hey, maybe it was illegal. Right?
Here’s the question: Did the members of Congress who took the money know it was being hidden?
We have laws that prohibit foreign governments from trying to influence U.S. foreign policy. There well might have been more a few of those laws broken here, not to mention serious violations of congressional ethics rules.
Don’t these people get it?