A key House investigating body has dropped its probe of Rep. John Murtha (D., Pa.) and two other members of the House's defense-spending committee, according to people familiar with the matter.The Office of Congressional Ethics has informed aides to Murtha as well as Reps. Norm Dicks (D., Wash.) and Jim Moran (D., Va.) that it is no longer looking into allegations that they traded government funding earmarks for campaign donations.
Dick's chief of staff, George Behan, said the congressman received a phone call earlier this month from an official at the Office of Congressional Ethics informing him that he matter has been closed.
Dicks was told that the body "found no basis for further action and the matter was closed," Behan said.
The Office of Congressional Ethics could still be looking into several other members of the defense-spending committee. It was already known that the Office of Congressional Ethics was examining the actions of Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D., Ohio), Todd Tiahrt (R., Kan.), Rep. Peter Visclosky (D., Ind.), and Bill Young (R., Fla.).
The Office of Congressional Ethics was created a few years ago to examine possible ethics violations by lawmakers and recommend action to the House Ethics Committee.
The story was first reported this afternoon by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper.
The development doesn't mean that the lawmakers are in the clear. The Justice Department is looking into several companies that have received earmarks from Visclosky, Murtha and other members of the House defense-spending panel.
The Office of Congressional Ethics has been criticized for being too aggressive in pursuing ethics inquiries.
After the development, Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said congressional investigators have not been aggressive enough. "Yet again it appears that the congressional ethics committees exist to clear people of wrong doing," she said.