While all eyes were focused on failed House efforts to eliminate the Office of Congressional Ethics the only independent watchdog with jurisdiction over House members Republican congressmen led by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) quietly succeeded on another dubious ethical front: They adopted a rule designating records created, generated or received by a members congressional office exclusively the personal property of that member and granting members control over such records.
Making congressional records the personal property of members seems tailor-made for the next lawmaker who, like former congressman Aaron Schock (R-Ill.), hopes to evade criminal responsibility by barring access to material allegedly showing how he misspent public funds.
Schock was indicted in November on 24 criminal counts stemming from his use of his congressional office and campaign committee funds. The fraud charges were based on a range of conduct that allegedly included seeking reimbursement for approximately 150,000 miles of personal travel, purchasing a new vehicle for his personal use and using campaign funds to decorate his congressional office in an homage to the hit British period drama Downton Abbey, with accouterments such as a crystal chandelier, a gold wall sconce and arrangements of pheasant feathers.
Before the indictment, the Justice Department engaged in a protracted legal battle with Schocks lawyers over who controlled thousands of pages of congressional office records from his tenure. Both Schock and the House general counsel argued that Schock personally owned the records and could not be compelled to produce them. In arguing for the right to access documents showing how Schock spent public funds, the government called Schocks ownership claim repugnant to the fundamental principle that no man is above the law. In other court papers, Justice lawyers pointed out that Schocks congressional office does not exist and has never existed solely to represent and serve the interests and goals of Schock or any other Congressman. Ultimately Schock backed down in the face of a second subpoena, and his indictment quickly followed.
Now, with the latest rule change, members will be shielded from Justice Department subpoenas for records like those at issue in Schocks case
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