House Ethics Report: ‘Substantial Reason’ To Believe Rep. Owens Broke Federal Law

Goodbye Owens

I agree with Sheldon Skelos! Bye bye Owens, and bring on Doug Hoffman!!!!

In the criminal justice world this would be called “entrapment.” This hayseed Owens gets approached by Al D’Amato and Al pitches him on a luxury trip to Taiwan – sure – bring the wife, score a few points at home – and Owens is so stupid he falls for it, hook, line, sinker. Then he gets caught, and D’Amato and his hooligans can’t try to throw him under the bus fast enough. Of course, D’Amato’s hooligans are not the master criminals that Al is, and they have left a trail a mile wide back to his door, so Al is going to have some dancing of his own to do. We can only hope that Owens smartens up a little bit, realizes that he’s not in Lowville anymore, and turns state’s evidence for the DOJ to put Al away once and for all. Wake-up, you Schmuck. You got played and now you are screwed. So what are you going to do about it?!

NRCC’s Ian Prior Is Comical:

(Below) Ian Prior said in a statement as reported by Channel 7

The reaction from the National Republican Congressional Committee Wednesday night was swift: “Instead of focusing on representing his constituents back home, Bill Owens took a $22,000 trip to Taiwan and stayed in a $500 per night hotel – all on the dime of Taiwan and its lobbyists,” said Ian Prior, an NRCC spokesman. “Not only was this behavior hopelessly out-of-touch, but it may have also been against the law. This is certainly not the kind of behavior that the people of the 21st District of New York are looking for in their Congressman,” What’s so funny about Prior, is how quick he is to forget that ProPublica also went after Rep. Bill Owens 2012 Congressional election opponent Matt Doheny, after Matt said upon assuming office I’d like to invest seed money in starting businesses in North Country, or get investors to do so, and I’m willing to oversee or even help manage those businesses to create jobs in NNY.

ProPublica and The Post Star in Glenn Falls who ultimately endorsed Matt Doheny, were quick to voice their astonishment that someone running for Congress –Matt Doheny –could be so naive about what a glaring conflict of interests that would be, ‘representing NY 21 in Congress, while giving favorable treatment to companies you invested in as start-ups, and have a vested interest in seeing earn high profits.” They had to explain to Mr. Doheny – obviously no beacon of ethics – that he would be engaging in a conflict of interest and likely illegal financial activity for a sitting Congressman. Afterwards Matt Doheny backed off the idea of financing start-ups to create jobs in NNY altogether, but clearly showed he’d likely make mistakes in what a Congressman ethical behavior should consist of in attempting to bring jobs to NNY..

First of all Bill Owens explanation is the simple truth, “I hold myself and my office to the highest of ethical standards. Which is why, in abundance of caution, I have already personally reimbursed the sponsor of the trip for the cost,” he said. Owens has said the
purpose of his trip was to meet with a high tech company that was considering opening a plant in upstate New York, and more generally to encourage investment in the north country.” Secondly trips like this often get into murky water in terms of trips qualifying or not qualifying under something called the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act. In any case the Congressman moved quickly and paid the 22,000 or so out of pocket expenses once he realized that there might be ethics issues about the trips sponsor. “The Hill” newspaper notes that the ethics committee stopped short of setting up a formal subcommittee to investigate Owens. In other words this is likely to be resolved quickly and without future censure of any kind.

Mike Flynn ‘Middle Class Mike’