Mollohan Reneges On Recusal

by Matt Margolis :: August 3, 2007 1:44 PM

Roll Call has the story...

Despite having recused himself from matters relating to the FBI - which is reportedly investigating his finances - Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday voted against an amendment that would have increased the bureau's budget by $6 million.

Republicans say Mollohan's vote proves his recusal is a sham - and claim the amendment was intended to draw him out. Democrats defended Mollohan, saying he had not participated in discussions about the agencies that are reportedly investigating him, though no one from his office or the Appropriations Committee would go on the record for this article.
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...[L]ast year [Mollohan] stepped down from the top Democratic spot on the ethics committee. In January he announced that while he was assuming the chairmanship of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, he would recuse himself from matters dealing with the agencies investigating him.

"His pledge to recuse himself didn't hold itself through the appropriations process," King said. "I think he's stayed out of nothing. I don't see any evidence that he has. His lack of restraint [Wednesday] night indicates that it really wasn't a commitment.

"It is ridiculous to make the statement that you are going to be chairman of that committee and recuse yourself from any dealings that had to do with the dealings of the committee," King said, adding that ultimately "Mollohan broke his vow of omerta."

King offered an amendment during the floor debate to provide the FBI $1 million to speed its investigation of Mollohan, in protest of Mollohan's continued chairmanship of the subcommittee.

"[Speaker] Nancy Pelosi [D-Calif.] was wrong to hand Mollohan the gavel for Justice appropriations. Mollohan was wrong to take it, regardless of whether he is innocent or not," King said. "If the impropriety was such that it compelled him to step down from ethics, it was more compelling that he step down from Justice."

Meanwhile, The Hill clues us in to how House Democrats are trying to protect Mollohan.

The House Rules Committee stripped three of Rep. Alan Mollohan’s (D-W.Va.) earmarks from the Agriculture appropriations bill Wednesday night at the lawmaker’s request.

Committee Democrats acted in “accordance of his wishes and others’ wishes,” said John Santore, spokesman for the Rules panel.

In a self-executing rule that cannot be changed on the House floor, the panel added a “limitation to effectively eliminate three West Virginia earmarks from the committee report accompanying the bill,” the committee’s website noted.

That's the so-called "most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history,” for you.

Mollohan is reportedly under FBI investigation for his ties to nonprofit groups, the earmarks he has directed to them and real estate partnerships with at least one of their officers.

In recent weeks, Republicans and watchdog groups have criticized Mollohan for continuing to seek earmarks for some of the nonprofits in the FBI probe, including the Canaan Valley Institute (CVI) of Thomas, W.Va.

Mollohan anticipated a Republican move to strike the earmarks on the floor, as the party did with other earmarks for the Canaan Valley Institute and other West Virginia nonprofits last week, so he offered an amendment to the agriculture-spending bill that would have prevented any money in the bill from being directed to the institute, according to a Democratic aide.

Instead of forcing Mollohan to offer and debate the amendment on the floor, the Rules Committee simply struck the earmarks from the bill.

Republicans immediately questioned the move. Jo Maney, spokeswoman for panel Republicans, said it was a “completely unprecedented” use of the committee to avoid an embarrassing public capitulation.

In floor speeches, several Republicans, led by Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas), lambasted the late-night maneuver.

“This highly irregular inclusion of a self-executing rule is particularly troubling because the Canaan Valley Institute is under investigation by the FBI,” Sessions said.

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) said that Democrats have reneged on their promise to allow earmarks to be challenged on the floor.

“We have former members in jail because of earmarks we’ve approved in this body,” he said. “We simply can’t go on like this.”

Flake planned to offer an amendment to strip another Mollohan earmark, but the Defense subcommittee told his staff that it will be removing it as well as an earmark for Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) for the USS Intrepid Museum in New York City before the bill is debated on the floor, according to a GOP source with knowledge of the matter.

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Mollohan's Questionable Earmark

by Matt Margolis :: July 2, 2007 12:07 PM

If Nancy Pelosi's and Harry Reid's shady land deals weren't enough to signal to Rep. Alan Mollohan (who is already under investigation) not to get involved in earmarks that could increase the value of your own property, then you got all the proof you need that Democrats think they are above the law.

A $1 million earmark request by Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) would allow the Interior Department to expand a wilderness area neighboring properties the Congressman owns.

Mollohan’s request for the project — contained in the Interior-environment appropriations bill passed by the House on Wednesday — was dated six days after the Dominion Post newspaper of Morgantown, W.Va., reported that the Justice Department had issued a subpoena for a witness to testify before a grand jury about Mollohan’s finances. Critics have accused Mollohan of steering earmarks to friends, business partners and contributors.

A Mollohan spokesman flatly rejected the notion that there was anything wrong with the earmark, and pointed out that conservation groups and the federal government have deemed the wilderness area a high priority project. Mollohan himself said any allegation that he is profiting from the earmark is “far-fetched to the point of absurdity.”

It's easy to point to the claims of a third party as a justification for being the force behind a particular earmark that could result in a significant financial gain for yourself, however, given the fact that Mollohan is already the target of a federal investigation, he should no have been extra careful in avoiding the appearance of impropriety. So far, fellow Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have been accused of supporting earmarks that could financially benefit them. This comes after Democrats made a big deal out of a highway bill supported by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, which, looked at objectively, doesn't look nearly as shady as the earmarks supported by Pelosi, Reid, or Mollohan.

Mollohan also certified “that neither I nor my spouse has any financial interest in this project.”

But Mollohan owns two properties in Tucker County, near the boundaries of the refuge — one with a home and an adjacent lot, the other a lot with no building — that he lists on his financial disclosure forms as being worth a total of $550,000 to $1,100,000. With two ski resorts nearby and several housing developments along the same road, local officials say property values are skyrocketing in the area, and placing more land off-limits to development will simply increase the price of the existing lots.

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Mollohan Steered Millions In Federal Contracts To Family-Run Charity Donors

by Matt Margolis :: June 22, 2006 9:48 PM

Rep. Alan Mollohan is already in enough trouble... Adding this to the list doesn't make him look any better.

Representative Alan Mollohan helped funnel at least $179 million in U.S. government contracts over the last six years to companies that gave to the West Virginia Democrat's family-run charity, tax records and other documents show.

The money went to 21 companies and nonprofit groups that contributed $225,427 to the Robert H. Mollohan Family Charitable Foundation in 2004 -- almost half of the charity's revenue, according to the documents. The congressman, an Appropriations Committee member whose finances are under federal investigation, is the secretary of the foundation, which is named for his father.

The charity, which distributes scholarships to West Virginia students, raises most of its money from corporate sponsors of an annual golf tournament attended by Mollohan, 63. The event gives company executives an opportunity to meet with him in a casual setting without having to report the donations as lobbying expenses.

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FBI Set to Present Subpoenas to Mollohan’s Nonprofits

by Matt Margolis :: April 28, 2006 9:30 PM

Breaking news...

The F.B.I. has notified three nonprofit organizations created by Representative Alan B. Mollohan and financed primarily through special federal appropriations he steered their way that they should expect subpoenas soon for financial and other records.

Mr. Mollohan, Democrat of West Virginia, stepped down from the House ethics committee last week over accusations of financial impropriety that stem largely from a complaint the conservative National Legal and Policy Center has filed with the United States attorney in Washington.

The nonprofits at issue are the Vandalia Heritage Foundation, the Institute for Scientific Research and the Canaan Valley Institute. The F.B.I.'s notification to them has occurred over the last two days and signals that the bureau is looking deeper into the 500-page complaint, which among other things suggests ties between the special appropriations, or earmarks, and Mr. Mollohan's personal real estate investments.

Mr. Mollohan's office did not return repeated calls yesterday. Nor did Vandalia's president, Laura Kurtz Kuhns, whose ownership of vacant lots on Bald Head Island, N.C., with Mr. Mollohan and their spouses is a prime focus of the conservative group's complaint.

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Mollohan Steps Down From Ethics Committee

by Matt Margolis :: April 21, 2006 10:29 PM

He was against stepping down before he was for it.

Rep. Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, facing questions about his finances, stepped down on Friday as the top Democrat on the ethics committee of the scandal-rocked U.S. House of Representatives.

Mollohan insisted he was the victim of baseless political attacks, but said he had decided it would be best to leave the panel while he deals with the matter, first raised publicly a few weeks ago.

"As difficult as it has been for me to reach this decision, I believe that the reasons I have set out ... will be fully understood and accepted by fair-minded people," Mollohan wrote House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat.

Pelosi, in a brief statement, accepted Mollohan's decision and expressed confidence in the 12-term lawmaker up for re-election in November.

The Wall Street Journal reported on April 7 that federal prosecutors had begun a review of Mollohan's finances, and it raised questions about so-called earmarks -- provisions put in big spending bills -- that Mollohan had helped direct to nonprofit groups in his state in recent years.

On the same day, the conservative National Legal and Policy Center announced it had filed a complaint against Mollohan in February with the U.S. attorney's office in Washington. The center cited a sharp increase in Mollohan's assets in recent years and charged he had violated ethics law.

House Majority Leader John Boehner issued following statement today on Mollohan's decision:

Congressman Mollohan and the Democrats have repeatedly used the Ethics Committee to play politics while blocking the committee from functioning. In light of the troubling accusations regarding his own conduct, Mr. Mollohan's reluctant decision to finally step down from the committee is important for the integrity of the ethics process.

In response to the news, Nancy Pelosi released her own statement, blaming partisan attacks for Mollohan's problems.

The allegations against Congressman Mollohan originate from the National Legal and Policy Center, which engages in highly partisan attacks on Democrats. These attacks are an attempt to deflect attention from the long list of Republican criminal investigations, indictments, plea agreements¸ and resignations that have resulted from the reported long-term and extensive criminal enterprise run out of House Republican leadership offices. The Republican culture of corruption has been ignored by the Ethics Committee for a year and a half following the decision of the Republican leadership to fire their own chairman and some Committee members for doing their job.

Despite the source of these accusations, Mr. Mollohan today has made an honorable decision to step aside so that he can address the charges, and I commend him for his leadership.

Nancy has to write this situation off as a Republican attack in order to avoid dealing with the facts of the case against Mollohan.

Nancy now has a big problem. All her talk about the "culture of corruption" is exposing the corruption in her party.

Congressman Howard Berman was chosen to replace Mollohan a ranking member on the ethics committee.

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Mollohan Owns More Property Then He Previously Claimed

by Matt Margolis :: April 20, 2006 1:19 PM

Of course, you won't hear much about this in the mainstream media...

During the past two weeks, questions have popped up over the amount of property owned by one of West Virginia's congressmen.

It turns out U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., may own more than he even knows.

In Tucker County alone, the Congressman and his wife own all or part of eight parcels, several of which are around Canaan Valley Resort and Timberline Four Seasons Resort.

The congressman's property ownership took center stage after the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative government watchdog group, noticed a rapid increase in Mollohan's reported assets.

NLPC chairman Ken Boehm said his group uncovered hundreds of instances where Mollohan omitted or misrepresented the value and scope of real estate holdings in financial disclosure forms.

Mollohan claims his stunning increasing assets was as a result of wise real estate investments.

The State Journal asked Mollohan ... whether he owns any other property.

Mollohan said he did not.

Then, this week, Mollohan told the Charleston Daily Mail he owned a house in Canaan Valley that he and his wife purchased with his parents, Helen and the late Robert Mollohan, in the mid-1990s. He said Barbara and he purchased a lot next to that house, as well as two other lots in Tucker County.

He also told the Daily Mail he and a childhood friend purchased a farm along the Cheat River in Tucker County in 2005.

The Tucker County Assessor's Office shows Mollohan owning a bit more than that. In total, Mollohan owns part or all of just fewer than 305 acres in Tucker County.

During a phone interview with The State Journal April 19, Mollohan said there must have been a misunderstanding.

Whenever Democrats get caught, they call it a "misunderstanding."

Will Mollohan step down from the Ethics Committee now that he's been caught lying? Don't count on it.

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Ethics Complaint Filed Against Rep. Mollohan

by Matt Margolis :: April 7, 2006 4:52 PM

From The National Legal and Policy Center...

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) today disclosed that it filed a 500-page Complaint on February 28 with the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia detailing hundreds of ethics law violations by Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV).

Rep. Mollohan is the ranking member of the House ethics committee and a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. The Wall Street Journal this morning carried a front-page story about the case.

The lengthy complaint followed a nine-month investigation by NLPC, the ethics group that also broke the Boeing procurement scandal in 2003. NLPC alleged financial conflicts of interest by former Air Force official Darleen Druyun in negotiating the lease of refueling tanker aircraft. Ms. Druyun and Boeing CFO Michael Sears eventually served prison terms, and Boeing CEO Phil Condit resigned.

More at Human Events.

UPDATE: Congress Daily reports that House Speaker Hastert says Mollohan should resign from the House Ethics Commitee:

House Speaker Hastert today said he believes Minority Leader Pelosi should ask Ethics ranking member Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., to step aside -- if only temporarily -- in light of a report this morning that federal prosecutors are investigating Mollohan's finances and whether they were properly disclosed. Hastert said he had asked former House Administration Chairman Ney to relinquish his chairmanship earlier this year when Ney was confronted with ethics questions. "I asked my chairman to step aside, that's really up to Ms. Pelosi, that's her choice. There's a precedent for it," Hastert said. Both the House Administration and Ethics committees are leader-appointed. "I was wondering why [Ethics Committee Democrats] were dragging their feet on this whole ethics thing," Hastert said. "I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not, we'll see."

UPDATE: Media coverage omits Mollohan's party...

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Mollohan And MZM

by Matt Margolis :: December 8, 2005 12:13 PM

While the problems surrounding Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham have gotten plenty of play in the media, it begs the question of why the House ethics committee, was silent on it.

Five months ago, as the scope of the federal investigation into Cunningham's conduct became clear, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called for the House ethics committee to launch an investigation.

Under House rules, an outside person or agency isn't allowed to make an ethics complaint. So the group shopped around among members of Congress to see if someone was interested in filing a complaint against Cunningham. No one was.

Why not? Perhaps because a number of Democrats have received money from defense contractors apparently helped by Cunningham in getting government contracts.

Democrats who "took money from former MZM Inc. president Mitchell Wade, ADCS Inc. owner Brent Wilkes, their relatives, employees or political action committees" include (according to one source) Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Rep. John Murtha, (D-PA), and former Rep. Vic Fazio (D-CA).

But it goes deeper. Also the recipient of money from MZM is Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), the top Democrat on the House ethics committee. Roll Call reports that Mollohan "has received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and gifts to a family foundation from MZM Inc. and another firm that did business with MZM."

The donations to Mollohan were perfectly legal. But the fact that the top ethics cop for House Democrats received significant sums from the company behind Congress' biggest bribery scheme in recent memory opens him up to conflict-of-interest questions in any future ethics investigation involving MZM.

To make the situation even worse, unlike other members of Congress who will be shedding contributions linked to the contractors, Mollohan refuses to do so. He also claims to be unaware of donations made to his political action committee, Summit PAC. According to PoliticalMoneyLine.com:

• MZM made a $20,000 contribution to the non-federal account of Mollohan’s Summit PAC in 2002.
• MZM made a $2,000 contribution to Mollohan’s Summit PAC in 2002.
• MZM CEO, Mitchell Wade, gave $1,000 to Summit PAC in 2003.

Still, Mollohan claims ignorance. He told Roll Call he "had no idea that MZM had even given to Summit PAC," until they informed him. "The people who were putting together Summit PAC were responsible for getting them to contribute. I don't know MZM and I don't know [Mitchell Wade.]"

One of those who created Summit PAC for Mollohan was Robert Hytner, vice chairman of Information Manufacturing Corp. of Rocket Center, W.Va. - a company that had a close but apparently troubled business relationship with MZM.

In 2002, IMC paired with MZM on what was to be the initial round of a $12 million Defense Department contract. The contract was issued for support work for the Pentagon's Joint Counter-Intelligence Assessment Group, Congressional sources said. Mollohan, who serves as ranking member on the Appropriations subcommittee on Science, State, Justice, Commerce and related agencies, said he had no role in securing any funding for that program.

How IMC and MZM came to share the $12 million DOD contract is unclear. IMC was to open a 70-person intelligence operation in West Virginia, and MZM would have filled 30 of those slots. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) issued a press release in October 2002 in which Wade thanked Byrd for helping secure the funds for the program.

It's quite a tangled web Mollohan is caught in. He is no stranger to receiving large campaign contributions from "companies that won contracts based on earmarks he has helped secure." Of course, he claims he has no role in helping a company win a government contract "beyond making sure a program is funded."

So, while Nancy Pelosi has called for an investigation into the relationship between Cunningham and MZM, the connections between MZM and Democrats seem to be of no concern to her.

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