June 2nd, 2010, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) to pursue a House of Representatives investigation of a job offered by the White House to Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) in return for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate race.
In his letter to Issa, Wilson wrote, “Representative Sestak has a duty to be fully forthcoming regarding this clear violation of law, lest he be deemed an accomplice in its concealment. An official investigation is the proper venue for an initial finding of facts, under oath, which will advise further action by the House.”
“It is time for Representative Sestak to fully come clean,” the letter continued.
The scandal could result in an ethics investigation of Sestak. Issa had previously warned that if Sestak did not disclose what job he was offered, and who offered it, that he would lodge an official complaint with the House ethics committee.
Wilson in a statement said that “Although Representative Sestak has revealed new information, it contradicts his previous statements, only raising more questions and warranting an official investigation.”
Wilson noted in his letter that the White House’s admission that an “uncompensated” position had been offered contradicted Sestak’s initial confirmation that he had been offered a “high-ranking” job. Wilson wrote that it also contradicts what Sestak has now said that former President Bill Clinton, acting as an intermediary for the White House, spoke with him “about my being on a Presidential Board while remaining in the House of Representatives.”
“This surprising change in Sestak’s original story casts a high degree of suspicion on the Representative,” Wilson wrote. “Even though he declined the offer of an appointment in both versions of events, the revision of his original story could make him complicit in the cover-up of the commission of a crime.”
Wilson urged Issa to investigate: “This warrants an immediate investigation by the House of Representatives in some capacity to ascertain the facts, and to determine whether or not Sestak is involved with a cover-up of a violation of the law.”
Initially, the White House had denied that any appointment had been offered, but later acknowledged that conversations had taken place with Representative Sestak, but that they were not “problematic.”
Finally, the White House Legal Counsel Robert Bauer admitted that the Obama Administration engaged in “discussions of alternatives to the Senate campaign” and at least promised an appointment in exchange for Sestak pulling out of the race.
In a statement, Wilson concluded, “Representative Issa, for pursuing this issue, deserves the thanks of the American people, who have a right to know if Barack Obama was responsible for illegally offering a Presidential appointment to Representative Sestak in exchange for dropping out of a Senate race.”
Attachments:
ALG Letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, June 2nd, 2010.
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
###