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August 10, 2010
Rep. Maxine Waters Charged With THREE Violations
I will never forget this that Maxine Waters did. LOL check out the video. hahaha ~ Wild Thing
( California Democrat, Maxine Waters, gives away the game while grilling John Hofmeister of Shell Oil during the recent Congressional hearings. Representing the 35th district of california.)
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Rep. Maxine Waters charged with three violations
The House ethics committee released its formal charges against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Monday, accusing her of three counts of violating the letter and spirit of House rules and federal regulations by assisting a bank in which her husband owned stock.
The 10-page "Statement of Alleged Violation" focuses on the actions of Waters and Mikael Moore, who is the congresswoman's chief of staff and her grandson, and tracks very closely with the year-old findings of the independent Office of Congressional Ethics.
Waters is accused of improperly intervening on behalf of OneUnited, a minority-owned bank in which her husband held stock worth roughly $350,000. The federal government's Sept. 7, 2008, takeover of mortgage-lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac threatened to sink the bank, which was heavily invested in the twin titans of the secondary home-mortgage market.
Waters has denied any wrongdoing and notes her decades of work on behalf of minority-owned businesses. As the highest-ranking black lawmaker on either the House or Senate banking committees, Waters is a natural recipient of requests for help.
But the ethics committee insists she should have stayed away from the matter entirely, given her husband's stake in the company.
Within a month of the takeover, the value of the congresswoman’s husband’s investment in the bank had plummeted to $175,000 — and he was in danger of losing the entire stake had OneUnited failed.
On Sept. 8, 2008, Waters called then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to request a meeting between his aides and officials from the National Bankers Association, a trade group of minority-owned banks in which OneUnited was the most prominent player.
Two OneUnited executives, Robert Cooper and Kevin Cohee, attended a meeting with Treasury officials the next day. Cooper was also the incoming chairman of the National Bankers Association. Neither Paulson nor Waters participated in the meeting.
The bank officials asked Treasury to cut a check for $50 million to OneUnited to cover the anticipated losses from the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the ethics committee. Treasury didn’t have the authority to give the money, and OneUnited later asked for a swap of $42 million in exchange for the bank’s $51 million in preferred stock in Freddie and Fannie, according to the earlier OCE report.
Ultimately, smaller banks such as OneUnited were made eligible for funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which did not yet exist when OneUnited officials apparently met with Treasury aides.
After raising $20 million in private capital, OneUnited applied for TARP money and received $12 million.
The first count against Waters states that she broke the rule forcing lawmakers to “behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.” The committee charges that Moore, acting in his capacity as Waters’s chief of staff, “was actively involved in assisting OneUnited representatives with their request for capital from Treasury and crafting legislation to authorize Treasury to grant the request.”
The second count involves a breach of the “spirit” of a rule stating that a lawmaker “may not receive compensation and may not permit compensation to accrue to the beneficial interest of such individual from any source, the receipt of which would occur by virtue of influence improperly exerted from the position of such individual in Congress.”
She is also charged with violating the Code of Ethics for Government Service.
“Reasonable persons could construe [Moore’s] continued involvement in assisting OneUnited as the dispensing of special favors or privileges to OneUnited, and accepting the preservation of the value of her husband’s investment in OneUnited as a benefit under circumstances which might influence the performance of [Waters’s] governmental duties,” the ethics committee found.
Like some other minority banks, OneUnited had invested heavily in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock as the housing market soared, believing the investment in the two "government-sponsored entities" was a safe one.
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Wild Thing's comment.......
She's been corrupt for decades, she even got an ambassadorship to the Bahamas out of Bill Clinton for her husband in exchange for defending him during White Water and impeachment. Her husband also got a Mercedes dealership thru some kind of sweetheart political deal she arranged.
Posted by Wild Thing at August 10, 2010 05:40 AM
Comments
Yeah, so what?
Maxine represents a group of people who will re-elect her no matter what, so she's safe there.
Ethics violations? No big deal. Look at her past wheelings and dealings, and she is still there.
There will be a few charges thrown out there, some pronouncements by blathering politicians, a high profile hearing. Then what.
A strong repremand and then it is business as usual.
Now if this were a Republican, or maybe even a run of the mill Dem., that nobody ever heard of, then it would be a different story.
Continued harrassment by the media, stories written based on rumors and inuuendo, deep background checks, etc.. All designed to break the accused and force a resignation.
Won't happen here. Maxine holds the trump cards. She's a Democrat, a woman and most importantly, shes black.
Posted by: Sean at August 10, 2010 10:34 AM
She needs to be given her own island. You know, the one that broke away from Greenland a couple of days ago. And maybe take the rest of the Congressional Progressive Caucus with her. A sort of North Atlantic cruise adventure.
Posted by: Jim at August 10, 2010 02:02 PM
Well so much for Pilosi's tainted free congress. We got two huge Taints, and even lower than one taint but two big taints, the Rangle taint, and that leads up to one large stain on somebody's blue dress, Pilosi's, maybe ?
As long as these trials go on during the election process it doesn't matter if they win or lose, it will kill the democrats. Just the fact that they are going on. Now Rangle is having to face his first primary in a very long time. Black or not people are tired of the free ride congress is getting.
Posted by: Mark at August 10, 2010 03:00 PM
SO WHAT or $O WHAT? In ,,,,, 83-days the INDEPENDENTS put the GOPhers back in control of the House and perhaps the Senate! Maybe then the GOPhers will grow a pair, eh? - DON'T TREAD ON ME & IN GOD WE TRUST...
PS: A Rangel & Walters doubleheader trial is damning - timing wise - for Obamanation.
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at August 10, 2010 08:11 PM
GREAT, I love all your input on Maxine and Rangle.
Posted by: Wild Thing at August 11, 2010 02:27 AM
