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Ethics complaint against Sestak

Published by Daniel Malloy on .

Judicial Watch, a public interest group, has filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics over the Joe Sestak job offer scandal -- this time against Sestak himself. The group had previously griped about Rahm Emanuel trying to interfere in the Pennsylvania election by offering Sestak a White House position through former President Bill Clinton, but now Judicial Watch is targeting Sestak, saying that he got his story straight with the White House before going public in what amounts to a conspiracy.

The complaint notes that Sestak changed his story from saying that he was offered a "job" to the "advisory council" position the White House said was dangled, after stonewalling for a few months.

"The record of statements made to the media suggest that Congressman Sestak and Obama White House officials conspired to cover up the facts of a job offer made to Congressman Sestak in an effort to avoid criminal sanctions for violation of the Hatch Act and other federal laws. And by so doing they may have engaged in a criminal conspiracy," the complaint states.

The Office of Congressional Ethics is an independent body created by Speaker Nancy Pelosi that can investigate House members and recommend further investigation or sanctions to the House Ethics Committee, which has final say.

Naturally, the Republican National Committee joined the fray and spokesman Parish Braden said in an email: "It’s absurd that the White House and Joe Sestak thought declaring themselves innocent would be sufficient in determining if the law had been broken. The public has still only heard one side of the story and Rep. Sestak still refuses to come clean. Unfortunately, all we’ve encountered is a troubling pattern of stonewalling from this White House and Rep. Sestak, both clearly more concerned about elections than the rule of law."

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