Ethics Probe Into Trip of Congressmen Paid For By Foreign Interests

     Ten members of Congress are under investigation for a trip to Azerbaijan paid for by the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (or SOCAR), contravening congressional rules on foreign governments from influencing US policy.  SOCAR hid the funding by "funneling the money through two Houston-based nonprofits that sponsored the trip" (Jackson, 2015).  Sounds pretty rough, and a clear violation of ethics, right? After all, the trip took place as Congress was looking at sanctions against Iran, which has a partnership with SOCAR, and one of the Congressman received gifts of a rug and some earrings while he was on the visit.  Seems like we hear of these things all the time - politician who breaks the rules (or the law), for their own gain.

     The only problem is that it isn't so cut and dried; N. J. Rep  Leonard Lance had his airfare paid for, according to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), who are conducting a probe, but the Congressman's office says that the trip had been cleared in advance by the ethics office.  Also, since the funds for the trip were through third parties, how can the Congressmen be held liable? Not so fast - the OCE says that "ignorance of the true source of travel expenses is not an absolute shield from liability for receipt of travel expenses from an improper source" (Jackson, 2015).  What about that rug and the earrings? Rep Lance didn't want to offend the host, so he accepted them, but upon returning to the US, he paid for the earrings and sent the rug back.

     So is this a clear case of a lack of ethics?  Until the investigation is complete and if the OCE recommends further investigation and eventual sanctions, we can't say.  At this point, it looks like we have an organization in the OCE that is trying to keep our politicians doing the right thing, and these Congressmen were either duped or complicit, and complicity would be a sign of an issue with ethics.  But it is a good sign that we have people within the government that take their job seriously; we'll have to wait and see if the probe shows the usual problems with those in Washington making poor choices.

Jackson, Herb (May 13, 2015). "Trip by N.J. Rep. Lance, other Congressional members scrutinized in ethics probe". North Jersey.com.  Retrieved Jun 11, 2015.