On the heels of yesterday's Roll Call editorial that wondered why there was no concrete rule regarding leadership roles for Members of Congress under criminal investigation, today's edition of The Hill takes a closer look at Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has spent more than a year looking into Lewis's relationship with a lobbying firm and the millions of dollars in contracts its clients received from Congress. Lewis, the ranking member of the spending committee, has outlaid an estimated $900,000 on defense lawyers since the probe began, but the investigation has been quiet in recent months.
Lewis spokesman Jim Specht said Lewis's home has not been searched and that the California Republican has had no "direct contact" with DoJ officials...
...Lewis has received no letters, calls or other contact from the DoJ, Specht said. He added that Lewis's defense lawyers voluntarily have reached out to the DoJ.
Specht said he did not know why, with the case so quiet, Lewis has spent so much on attorney fees, referring the question to Lewis's lawyers.
That doesn't seem to make much sense to me - if the case is supposedly not going anywhere, what in the world is the point of almost a million dollars in legal defense expenses?
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