Are Mr. Sununu and Mr. Romney incapable of doing a web search?
IN THE MATTER OF REPRESENTATIVE NEWT GINGRICH
January 17, 1997. --Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed
Mrs. Johnson, from the Committee on Standards of Official
Conduct, submitted the following
REPORT
I. Introduction
A. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
On September 7, 1994, a complaint was filed with the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct ("Committee") against Representative Newt Gingrich by Ben Jones, Mr. Gingrich's opponent in his 1994 campaign for re-election. The complaint centered on a course taught by Mr. Gingrich called "Renewing American Civilization." Among other things, the complaint alleged that Mr. Gingrich had used his congressional staff to work on the course in violation of House Rules. The complaint also alleged that Mr. Gingrich had created a college course under the sponsorship of 501(c)(3) organizations in order "to meet certain political, not educational, objectives" and, therefore, caused a violation of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to occur. In partial support of the allegation that the course was a partisan, political project, the complaint alleged that the course was under the control of GOPAC, a political action committee of which Mr. Gingrich was the General Chairman.
Mr. Gingrich responded to this complaint in letters dated October 4, 1994, and December 8, 1994, but the matter was not resolved before the end of the 103rd Congress. On January 26, 1995, Representative David Bonior filed an amended version of the complaint originally filed by Mr. Jones. It restated the allegations concerning the misuse of tax-exempt organizations and contained additional allegations. Mr. Gingrich responded to that complaint in a letter from his counsel dated March 27, 1995.
On December 6, 1995, the Committee voted to initiate a Preliminary Inquiry into the allegations concerning the misuse of tax-exempt organizations. The Committee appointed an Investigative Subcommittee ("Subcommittee") and instructed it to:
determine if there is reason to believe that Representative Gingrich's activities in relation to the college course "Renewing American Civilization" were in violation of section 501(c)(3) or whether any foundation qualified under section 501(c)(3), with respect to the course, violated its status with the knowledge and approval of Representative Gingrich . . . . The Committee also resolved to appoint a Special Counsel to assist in the Preliminary Inquiry. On December 22, 1995, the Committee appointed James M. Cole, a partner in the law firm of Bryan Cave LLP, as the Special Counsel. Mr. Cole's contract was signed January 3, 1996, and he began his work. On September 26, 1996, the Subcommittee announced that, in light of certain facts discovered during the Preliminary Inquiry, the investigation was being expanded to include the following additional areas:
1) Whether Representative Gingrich provided accurate, reliable, and complete information concerning the course entitled "Renewing American Civilization," GOPAC's relationship to the course entitled "Renewing American Civilization," or the Progress and Freedom Foundation in the course of communicating with the Committee, directly or through counsel (House Rule 43, Cl. 1); 2) Whether Representative Gingrich's relationship with the Progress and Freedom Foundation, including but not limited to his involvement with the course entitled "Renewing American Civilization," violated the foundation's status under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations (House Rule 43, Cl. 1);
3) Whether Representative Gingrich's use of the personnel and facilities of the Progress and Freedom Foundation constituted a use of unofficial resources for official purposes (House Rule 45); and
4) Whether Representative Gingrich's activities on behalf of the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation violated its status under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and related regulations or whether the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation violated its status with the knowledge and approval of Representative Gingrich (House Rule 43, Cl. 1).
As discussed below, the Subcommittee issued a Statement of Alleged Violation with respect to the initial allegation pertaining to Renewing American Civilization and also with respect to items 1 and 4 above. The Subcommittee did not find any violations of House Rules in regard to the issues set forth in items 2 and 3 above. The Subcommittee, however, decided to recommend that the full Committee make available to the IRS documents produced during the Preliminary Inquiry for use in its ongoing inquiries of 501(c)(3) organizations. In regard to item 3 above, the Subcommittee decided to issue some advice to Members concerning the proper use of outside consultants for official purposes. B. INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS
The investigation of this matter began on January 3, 1996, and lasted through December 12, 1996. In the course of the investigation, approximately 90 subpoenas or requests for documents were issued, approximately 150,000 pages of documents were reviewed, and approximately 70 people were interviewed. Most of the interviews were conducted by Mr. Cole outside the presence of the Subcommittee. A court reporter transcribed the interviews and the transcripts were made available to the Members of the Subcommittee. Some of the interviews were conducted before the Members of the Subcommittee primarily to explore the issue of whether Mr. Gingrich had provided the Committee, directly or through counsel, inaccurate, unreliable, or incomplete information.
During the Preliminary Inquiry, Mr. Cole interviewed Mr. Gingrich twice and Mr. Gingrich appeared before the Subcommittee twice. Several draft discussion documents, with notebooks of exhibits, were prepared for the Subcommittee in order to brief the Members on the findings and status of the Preliminary Inquiry. After receiving the discussion documents, the Subcommittee met to discuss the legal and factual questions at issue.
In most investigations, people who were involved in the events under investigation are interviewed and asked to describe the events. This practice has some risk with respect to the reliability of the evidence gathered because, for example, memories fade and can change when a matter becomes controversial and subject to an investigation. One advantage the Subcommittee had in this investigation was the availability of a vast body of documentation from multiple sources that had been created contemporaneously with the events under investigation. A number of documents central to the analysis of the matter, in fact, had been written by Mr. Gingrich. Thus, the documents provided a unique, contemporaneous view of people's purposes, motivations, and intentions with respect to the facts at issue. This Report relies heavily, but not exclusively, on an analysis of those documents to describe the acts, as well as Mr. Gingrich's purpose, motivations, and intentions.
As the Report proceeds through the facts, there is discussion of conservative and Republican political philosophy. The Committee and the Special Counsel, however, do not take any positions with respect to the validity of this or any other political philosophy, nor do they take any positions with respect to the desirability of the dissemination of this or any other political philosophy. Mr. Gingrich's political philosophy and its dissemination is discussed only insofar as it is necessary to examine the issues in this matter.
C. SUMMARY OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE'S FACTUAL FINDINGS
The Subcommittee found that in regard to two projects, Mr. Gingrich engaged in activity involving 501(c)(3) organizations that was substantially motivated by partisan, political goals. The Subcommittee also found that Mr. Gingrich provided the Committee with material information about one of those projects that was inaccurate, incomplete, and unreliable.
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