WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., will ask an ethics panel to look into circumstances in which an aide's husband's clients benefited from the senator's actions.
Specter was reacting to a Thursday USA Today report that so-called earmarks, which the senator said benefited Pennsylvania, went to clients of the lobby firm of Michael Herson, whose wife, Vicki Siegel Herson, is a member of Specter's Senate staff.
The senator said neither Herson nor his company "lobbied anybody in my office," The New York Times reported. However, he was going to refer the case to the Senate Ethics Committee to see if any conflict of interest occurred, although he said neither he nor Siegel had violated ethics rules.
The Times said neither Siegel nor Herson would comment on the case.
USA Today reported that over the last four years budget set-asides by Specter had benefited Herson's lobby clients by about $50 million.
