Newt Gingrich Addresses Ethics Violations Charges

Fresh off an upset win in the South Carolina 2012 primary Saturday night, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich found himself facing questions around the ethics charges brought against him during his tenure as Speaker of the House.

Eighty-four charges of ethics violations were filed against Gingrich in 1997, resulting in his being reprimanded by the House of Representatives and fined $300,000. The ethics investigation led to his eventual resignation from Congress.

Speaking Sunday on CNN, Gingrich said he was completely exonerated of the charges, and that the $300,000 penalty he paid for ethics violation was actually a 'reimbursement' for the cost of the investigation.

From CNN:

Gingrich also claimed he persuaded fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote "yes" on the ethics charges against him in order to put a swift end to the proceedings. Doing so helped lawmakers move on the balancing the budget, Gingrich said.

"I personally asked House Republicans to vote 'yes' because we had to get it behind us to get back to the things that mattered," Gingrich said.

Days before the South Carolina primary, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called on Gingrich to release the full ethics report. Romney said he worried about an 'October surprise' if the former speaker didn't go public now. He reminded voters that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Barack Obama have access to the documents. Pelosi has warned she has damaging information on the former speaker.

Even members of Gingrich's own party have expressed concerns about his shady past. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has endorsed Romney, called Gingrich an "embarrassment" to the Republican Party. "We all know the record," Christie said Sunday on Meet the Press. "I mean he was run out of the speakership by his own party."

GOP candidate Rick Santorum, who came in third place in Saturday's primary, called Gingrich a "high-risk candidate" and "erratic conservative" Sunday on ABC's This Week.

The Gingrich campaign has repeatedly said the full ethics report is already released and available online on the Library of Congress and House Ethics Committee's websites.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post listed Nancy Pelosi as Senate Majority Leader. Pelosi is in fact House Minority Leader.

Comments

[gobucks61]

01:57 AM on 01/25/2012

The attack on Newt began with a man defeated by him in Georgia. The man, Jones. reported to the Ethics Comm. That Newt was teaching a Course at Kennesaw under taxfree status when he was teaching political views of the Republicans to students. From this report the Dems took off and the media spent so much ink crucifying him over and over for this violation. The whole matter disrupted all the Republicans were trying to accomplish and it was such a big distraction that the Party and Newt decided it best for him to resign. The sad thing is that much time and energy was put into this to study of every angle that by the time Newt was found innocent of any of the charges, he was no longer leader of the house and seemed to be in political ruin.The student evaluations, recordings and IRS investigation of the class cleared him. Now some are still trying to make him pay for something he was innocent of. He was forced to pay the cost of all the investigation. A pure railroad job if ever there was one. After studying and learning the truth I will vote for Newt Gingrich because he can handle the heat and turn the nation around. His efforts in Congress were so great that the Democrats were willing to get him out at all costs.

[Mark Fey]

07:48 AM on 01/26/2012

Sorry gobucks61,

It is wishful thinking to imagine that Newt is innocent of anything. He has been caught too many times, and only admits to wrong-doing when caught red-handed.

As for the "things" left undone by the resignation in disgrace by Gingrich, thank the lord he was stopped!

[kenneth wells2011]

05:39 PM on 01/24/2012

I'm appalled that Romney would suggest that former speaker Gingrich could fall victim to an October surprise. This coming from a guy so out of touch that his investment adviser has to tell him that it's a bad idea to hide his money in the Caymans and in Swiss bank accounts if he's running for president. He doesn't see anything wrong that he has done by being a corporate raider bankrupting companies and selling off the pieces. He thinks it's perfectly fine for him to pay only 13 percent taxes on forty million dollars while some of us like Newt himself pays over thirty percent. Newt is a patriot that has served this nation while Mitt has had a career of killing jobs. It's rather ironic that someone like that is asking people to trust him to people back to work. He's the last man on earth to trust in putting this country back together.

[Amy Lauren Leopold]

08:34 PM on 01/23/2012

The man lies through his teeth. He has no morals or integrity.

[unkeat]

10:04 PM on 01/23/2012

You shouldn't talk about our president that way......

[MarcEdward]

01:25 PM on 01/24/2012

You are commenting on the wrong thread - this one is about Newt Gingrich.

[MarcEdward]

01:29 PM on 01/24/2012

The man lies through his teeth

I think he lies through every orifice he possesses.

[Amy Lauren Leopold]

01:45 PM on 01/24/2012

I'm sooo with ya, Marc.

[vinzy32]

03:54 PM on 01/23/2012

Unfortunately there is a grey curtain between Newt and the public right now. But another 4 years of Obama will destroy this country as we know it. Yes, many think it can be improved, I certainly do. But it must be coupled with common sense and morality. We should not be experimenting with solutions as we did with the bailouts and stimulus which only made things worse. Are there no people out there that can lead in the right direction? Scary stuff.

[john rajah]

05:24 PM on 01/23/2012

Was Newt your history teacher?

[logic63]

06:34 PM on 01/23/2012

another four yearsof Obama will keep us on the right track for recovery after the republuicans havedone all they can to destroy us

[drtea]

03:01 PM on 01/24/2012

Four more years of Obama will DESTROY this country! If you like this country being trillions of dollars in debt; if you like him killing every job opportunity that comes along; if you like his Solyndra investment, if you have no pride and like being dependent on the big government; if you support "fast and furious" where americans were killed vote for Obama. Personally I like Gingrich. Obama had 4 years to make things better...he has made things worse and has this country on the brink of self destruction through his leadership!

[jlfenton]

01:47 PM on 01/23/2012

This is his spin on the story now....And this was the true story then--"By John E. Yang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 22 1997; Page A01

The House voted overwhelmingly yesterday to reprimand House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and order him to pay an unprecedented $300,000 penalty, the first time in the House's 208-year history it has disciplined a speaker for ethical wrongdoing."

Any Questions?

[linmarco]

05:18 PM on 01/24/2012

In case you didn't know he helped engineer the ouster of House speaker Jim Wright (D) from Texas. I believe it was for an ethics violation. A short while later he was trapped in the same web.

[T Trump]

01:27 PM on 01/23/2012

Newt’s theory is that no matter how big the lie is (or more precisely, because it's so big), people will believe it if you repeat it enough.

[logic63]

06:35 PM on 01/23/2012

that's the first things little republicans learn as children

[unkeat]

10:07 PM on 01/23/2012

Naw, the first thing we learn is that Obama is a Marxist Communist.... then we learn how to lie by watching Obama speaches.

[maggiemi56]

11:56 PM on 01/23/2012

I thought that was Obamas theory

[jlfenton]

12:53 PM on 01/23/2012

Why would he pay $300,000 for "investigation charges" if he was exonerated? Why would he "resign" if he was exonerated? How will he deflect these charges to be someone else's fault? Who will he attack for these charges?

[HymnsToSilence]

08:48 PM on 01/23/2012

His favorites of course - the "elites" and the "media."

[unkeat]

12:25 PM on 01/23/2012

Newt, warts and all, is still light years better than the current clown in office. Newt is smart, articulate, and knows there are not 57 states in the Union.

[jmitch6511]

12:55 PM on 01/23/2012

Disrespectful calling the Tea Party Tea Baggers, are you kidding? As much disrespect they have used against the President is terrible and sad. Pot & Skillet my friend, Pot & Skillet.

[unkeat]

03:14 PM on 01/23/2012

The tea party disagrees openly with the president over his tax policies. They do not use gutter language to express themselves, as some on the left do. It's childish using vulgar terms to express yourself.

[REDPTDC]

02:32 PM on 01/23/2012

This is the best the GOP has to offer??? Sad!!!

[unkeat]

03:16 PM on 01/23/2012

I guess you'll be even sadder in November, when a conservative is elected, and overturns the socialist agenda of the failed Obama administration.

[Left Hook]

12:17 PM on 01/23/2012

Of course the "ethics" charges are baseless - In Newt's case one has to have them in the first place...

[JerseyGiant]

12:10 PM on 01/23/2012

Oh Newt, if you were exonerated then why in the world would you need to "reimburse" for the investigation.

[HymnsToSilence]

08:52 PM on 01/23/2012

Because he put the country first. Good ol' Newt always putting others before himself.

[MarcEdward]

01:26 PM on 01/24/2012

Poor guy, if he didn't love America so much he wouldn't be forced to cheat on whomever he happens to be married to.

[Mark Fey]

08:44 AM on 01/26/2012

He gets so use to paying for his pleasures, in his opinion - After they f*cked him, he just naturally reached in his pocket to pay for the privilege.

[pippie123]

12:01 PM on 01/23/2012

Activist Post: Witnesses Document Potential Vote Fraud in S.C. Primaries
www.activistpost.com

[StarGazr5992]

11:59 AM on 01/23/2012

oh my newt keep lying like this and you will trip over that long nose that keeps growing

[authorized-user]

11:51 AM on 01/23/2012

Gingrich said he was completely exonerated of the charges, and that the $300,000 penalty he paid for ethics violation was actually a 'reimbursement' for the cost of the investigation.

Right, he got 300 000 credit card points on this too. Calista, lets go shopping!

[Grumpy Old Dude]

11:35 AM on 01/23/2012

One has to marvel at the brazen and complete revisionist history pulled off by Repubs since the 2010 election cycle.

1) Gov. Rick Scott--Not a Medicare cheat, even though he paid the largest fine in Medicare history
2) Rep. Allen West--Didn't disgrace his uniform, he conveniently decided to end his military career
3) Newt---Didn't pay a fine, he patriotically reimbursed the government for showing his innocence

I'm always remarking at how dim I believe the average Repub voter is...this is definitive proof!

[krazzicraig]

11:26 AM on 01/23/2012

One has to love how the Christain Conservative rigth are able to ignore the Ten Commandments when it suits them. Thou shell not commit adultry. It is a simple 5 word statment made by God. There is no ,this can be ignorned if you are running for the office of the president of the USA.Not in any Bile I have ever read. It was also not in the movie.What , are there now 9 commandments or 8.

[rankinkrl]

11:43 AM on 01/23/2012

What about FDR, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton?

[lostinram]

01:16 AM on 01/24/2012

What does Jimmy Carter have in common with the other three? Other then being President of course.

[Grumpy Old Dude]

12:04 PM on 01/23/2012

The Repub position regarding the 10 commandments is much like to the pirate code in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean..."more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules."