By JAKE SHERMAN | 3/10/10 4:42 PM EST
The top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says the Obama administration may have broken the law by offering Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) a job in order to persuade him not to mount a primary challenge against Sen. Arlen Specter.
The top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says the Obama administration may have broken the law by offering Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) a job in order to persuade him not to mount a primary challenge against Sen. Arlen Specter.
Sestak has said that the administration offered him a high-ranking government job if he’d stay out of the race. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has been asked repeatedly about the accusation in recent weeks but so far has neither confirmed nor denied that a job was offered.
But in a letter to White House general counsel Robert Bauer Wednesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that, if Sestak’s allegation is true, administration officials may have violated a federal statute which makes it a crime for a government employee to use his authority “for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate” for certain offices, including Senate seats.
"While the White House may think this is politics as usual, what is spectacularly unusual is when a candidate — a U.S. congressman no less — freely acknowledges such a proposal,” Issa wrote. “Almost always candidates keep quiet about such deals, and for good reason — they are against the law."
Issa listed a series of questions he wants answered by March 18:
1. At any time, did White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel have communications with Rep. Sestak about the 2010 race for the United States Senate? Identify the communications.
2. At any time, did White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina have communications with Rep. Sestak about the 2010 race for the United States Senate? Identify the communications.
3. At any time, did any official within the White House Office of Political Affairs have communications with Rep. Sestak about the 2010 race for the United States Senate? Identify the political officials and the communications.
4. Identify any other individuals at the White House that had communications with Rep. Sestak about his bid for the United States Senate. For each individual, identify the communications.
5. What position(s) was (were) Rep. Sestak offered in exchange for his commitment to leave the Senate race?
6. Following Rep. Sestak’s disclosure that he was offered a position in the president’s administration in exchange for bowing out of the 2010 race for the United States Senate, what, if any, investigation did your office undertake to determine whether the criminal activity described by Rep. Sestak occurred?
7. Do you expect to make a referral to the United States Department of Justice in this matter? When should we expect this referral?
Sestak first made the accusation during a television interview in early February, and he repeated it when asked about it during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this week.
Asked about the allegation Tuesday, Gibbs said: “ I don't have the update with me, but let me check and see if I do have anything.”
