House panel to probe Rep. Richardson

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The House Ethics Committee announced Friday it was investigating whether Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., misused her staff for political purposes.

The committee unanimously voted Thursday to name an investigative subcommittee which will determined whether Richardson violated the House Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation "with respect to alleged use of official House resources and personnel for work related to campaign activities and other non-official purposes," committee Chairman Jo Bonner, R-Ala., and ranking member Linda Sanchez, D-Calif.

Richardson said she was targeted for investigation because she is black, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The committee will investigate whether Richardson pressured staff members to work on her 2010 re-election campaign. A source told the Times some current or former Richardson staffers said equipment from her congressional office was used for the campaign. Eight told investigators they felt under pressure to do unpaid campaign work.

Richardson said she will "explore the issue of whether the ethics committee has engaged in discriminatory conduct in pursuing two investigations against me while simultaneously failing to apply the same standards to or take the same actions against other members -- of whom the overwhelming majority are white males."

Richardson was cleared in an earlier investigation involved a bank's cancellation of a foreclosure sale of a house she owned in Sacramento.

Before any decisions are made in the 112th Congress and because of uncertainties because of California's redistricting effort, Sanchez was recusing herself to avoid "even the appearance of a conflict of interest," the statement said. She appointed Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., to be acting ranking member in the matter.

Rep. Charles W. Dent, R-Pa., was named chairman of the investigative subcommittee, and Yarmuth will be its ranking member.