The advocacy group American Family Voices is planning to file an ethics complaint against House Oversight & Government Reform Committee chairman Darrel Issa for improperly using his position to add to his multimillion dollar personal fortune, according to a report by The Hill.
Issa’s tenure as chair of the committee has been rife with examples of politically-charged investigations (or lack of investigations), so it’s not surprising that Issa’s office would immediately try to pass off these legitimate ethics inquiries as a White House set-up. Just as he called the New York Time’s lengthy inquiry into the overlap between his private financial interests and his public actions “a hit piece,” Issa’s spokesperson insists that this complaint is also without merit because “the White House has used an assortment of outside progressive groups in an effort to attack Oversight and Chairman Issa directly. This is just their latest salvo in an ongoing effort to obstruct oversight.”
While the White House and Rep. Issa may be politically at odds, the White House certainly didn’t direct the SEC to stop investigating Goldman Sachs (Issa did; he simultaneously bought $600,000 worth of Goldman Sachs bonds). The President didn’t push for a merger between Sirius and XM satellite radio companies (Issa did; he has a financial interest in Sirius through his holding company DEI).
Until Issa can explain how the White House is forcing him to favor corporations in which he has a financial interest, his complaints won’t carry a lot of water. More likely, this ethics inquiry will reveal that the Congressman might not always prioritize fair and effective oversight.