Living right next to Jean Schmidt’s district, I have followed her congressional career rather closely, which brought me to a conclusion a few years ago. Schmidt appears to be the type that thinks she can do anything she wants and not be held accountable for it. She is by far one of the more “rogue” members of Congress we have, so this comes as no shock:
The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating Rep. Jean Schmidt’s receipt of legal assistance from a Turkish-American interest group that has represented her in a host of proceedings in Ohio, one of the Republican’s counsels confirmed Friday.
Schmidt attorney Bruce Fein declined to answer questions about how he is paid, saying he is responding to a request from the OCE, the board that reviews potential rules violations and recommends investigations to the House Ethics Committee.
This isn’t the first we heard of this. It was a hot issue in the 2008 election, when Democratic challenger, David Krikorian, brought it up during the campaign season. That ultimatley lead to Schmidt filling a complaint against Krikorian (you can see the background here and here).
It’s going to be interesting to see where the ethics committee goes with this. If Schmidt is found to have violated House rules, maybe the people of OH-02 can finally get some real representation.