The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the House Ethics Committee has taken the first procedural step in the ethics investigation which we discussed on Friday: "Walker Remains in the Hotseat: Criminal and Ethics Investigations Pending." From this morning's Dan Harrie story:
The leaders of the Utah House Ethics Committee have decided to hold a meeting of the full panel to consider allegations of elections-law violations against Rep. Mark Walker.And for some strange reason, we were not at all surprised by this:
The Ethics co-chairs will convene a public meeting of the committee next Monday to consider allegations that Walker offered his rival in the state treasurer's race a job and big pay increase if he would withdraw his candidacy.
"The eight members will review the complaint and see if there is enough information to move forward," said Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy.
If they [the full 8 member comittee] decide to proceed into a preliminary inquiry, they will go into closed session, in accord with legislative rules, Kiser said.We spoke this morning however with one of our informed and trusted sources on the hill, who assures us the closed session rule will be confined to the "preliminary inquiry" only, and, assuming that the committee finds sufficient evidence of ethical misconduct on Rep. Walker's part to support further investigation, all subsequent proceedings would occur in full public view, under applicable House rules.
In view of the considerable array of incriminating information in this matter which has already been revealed in the public press, we find it difficult to imagine how the committee could do anything other than to proceed with a full investigation.
We'll be keeping our skeptical eyes peeled on this however, and will post updates and developments here as this matter progresses.
