Ethics

WASHINGTON — One of Ed Martin’s last acts as he left his job this week as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia was to acknowledge to his staff that he is under investigation for ethics violations. Martin was... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith said Tuesday that his team was finalizing a two-volume report on its investigations into President-elect Donald Trump and that at least one volume of it could be released by the Justice Department as early as Friday. The... Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Ethics Committee released a report Monday alleging former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid thousands of dollars for illegal drugs and sex with women at least 20 times. The women included a 17-year-old. The report says Gaetz... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats criticized the Supreme Court's chief justice Thursday for failing to enforce ethics standards on the court as they consider a proposal to intervene. Lawmakers were discussing a Senate Judiciary Committee bill to impose a new code... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Allen Weisselberg, a retired executive in Donald Trump’s real estate empire, was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in jail for lying under oath during his testimony in the civil fraud lawsuit brought against the former president by... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — At first glance, images circulating online showing former President Donald Trump surrounded by groups of Black people smiling and laughing seem nothing out of the ordinary, but a look closer is telling. Odd lighting and too-perfect details... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — An FBI informant has been charged with fabricating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company, a claim that is central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress. Alexander Smirnov falsely... Read More

WASHINGTON — A consumer advocacy group filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Starbucks saying the company falsely labels its coffee and tea as "100% ethical" despite a history of what it called "slave-like conditions" on farms where the coffee beans and... Read More

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday ruled that former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows cannot move charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia to federal court. Meadows was indicted in August along with... Read More

WASHINGTON — U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell is facing an official complaint by a conservative member of Congress who accuses her of ethics violations for her statements during the Women's White Collar Defense Association awards banquet on Nov. 28 in... Read More

TOMPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Rep. James Comer, a multimillionaire farmer, boasts of being one of the largest landholders near his rural Kentucky hometown, and he has meticulously documented nearly all of his landholdings on congressional financial disclosure documents – roughly 1,600... Read More

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. George Santos ' lawyer expressed optimism about plea negotiations in Santos' criminal fraud case Tuesday, successfully fending off prosecutors' attempts to speed up the the ousted congressman’s trial. In Santos' first court appearance since he was expelled... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the House Ethics Committee announced Friday he has filed a resolution to force a vote on expelling Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., from Congress, one day after the committee issued a withering report detailing substantial evidence that... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics panel said Thursday it has found “substantial evidence” of lawbreaking by Republican Rep. George Santos of New York and has referred its findings to the Justice Department. The committee said that Santos’ conduct warrants public condemnation,... Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it is adopting a code of conduct for justices in the wake of a series of revelations about undisclosed gifts and other benefits some had received from wealthy benefactors. In a... Read More

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who’ll be voting for the next House speaker in coming days, was charged with 10 new criminal counts on Tuesday, including identity theft. The superseding indictment filed in the U.S. District Court... Read More

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recused himself Monday for the first time in a case involving the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The case is an appeal by former Trump administration legal advisor John Eastman,... Read More

WASHINGTON — Justice Elena Kagan is calling for a “code of conduct” for the Supreme Court in a departure from the position held by most of her colleagues. She announced her support for the code of conduct in a speech... Read More

WASHINGTON — A leading U.S. senator on the Judiciary Committee filed a complaint Monday with the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court that accuses Justice Samuel Alito of ethics violations. Although the complaint focuses partly on trips and gifts... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., is calling on the House Ethics Committee to release its findings regarding Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. “More than enough time has passed for the Ethics Committee to conduct a fair and accurate assessment of... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Focusing on the Bidens rather than Donald Trump's federal court appearance, House Republicans released a transcript Thursday of their interview with Hunter Biden’s former business associate detailing overseas financial dealings by the president’s son. The more than five-hour closed-door... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced legislation that would mandate the Supreme Court to implement a code of ethics and abide by new standards regarding financial disclosure and case recusal requirements.  In an 11-10 vote along partisan... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — People are hungry for accurate and reliable information online and may just need help to find it, according to a new media literacy project launched by Microsoft. The tech company worked with the Trust Project, a nonprofit... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of former President Donald Trump from after he left office in which he talks about holding onto a classified Pentagon document related to a potential attack on Iran, according to media... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who briefly worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. George Santos says he got his job after sending a series of payments to one of the Republican’s top deputies. Derek Myers, 31, told staff of the... Read More

Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes is scheduled to move to her new home — a federal prison where she has been sentenced to spend the next 11 years for overseeing a blood-testing hoax that became a parable about greed and... Read More

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — After years of legal and ethical scandals swirling around Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives has moved toward an impeachment vote that could quickly throw him from office. The extraordinary and rarely-used... Read More

BOSTON (AP) — A hearing to decide whether a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman charged with leaking highly classified military documents should remain jailed while awaiting trial has been delayed to give the defense more time to prepare. Jack Teixeira, 21,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative mega-donor Harlan Crow purchased three properties belonging to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his family, in a transaction worth more than $100,000 that Thomas never reported, according to the non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica. The 2014... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Legally, the most important words former President Donald Trump said after he was charged with 34 felonies by the Manhattan District Attorney last week were “not guilty.” But, politically, the most significant may be “election interference.” Trump’s repetition... Read More