Jean Schmidt took improper $500K gift but not gui

[jaxx]

House Ethics: Jean Schmidt took improper $500K gift but not guilty of violation

GOP Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) did improperly accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in free legal help in a long-running campaign case but "did not knowingly" violate House ethics rules on accepting an improper gift, the Ethics Committee announced today.

Schmidt will have to repay the $500,000 and revise her financial disclosure forms for the past several years to reflect the improper gift, the Ethics Committee declared. Schmidt can use campaign funds, if approved by the Federal Election Commission, or a legal-defense fund, which has been approved but never formally created, or pay from her own pocket. In the meantime, Schmidt will have to carry this debt as a liability on her disclosure forms.

<..> Schmidt sought advice from the Ethics Committee in 2009 about accepting legal services from the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund. Schmidt eventually got permission to set up a legal defense fund to pay her lawyer bills, but a related entity — the Turkish Coalition of America — was secretly paying Schmidt's fees.

"However, the committee has found that Rep. Schmidt's lawyers failed to inform her of their payment arrangement with TCA, and made false and misleading statements to her about their relationship with TCA and TALDF. Because Rep. Schmidt did not know she was receiving a gift from TCA, the committee has determined that no sanction is appropriate in this case."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrus...ation.html

That is a Mickey Mouse report, like reading a story with no reasoning.

[KonaKane]

"Somebody plopped 500k in my lap, smiled, no strings attached, yada yada. How was I to know it was a gift?"

[Cha]

Haha ..the dumb bozo has to pay it back.