Posted on 02/06/2008 7:40:06 AM PST by K-oneTexas
NRCC probe scares GOP By: Patrick O'Connor and John Bresnahan February 6, 2008 07:49 AM EST
Top House Republicans were told in recent days that a former employee of their campaign committee may have forged an official audit during the contentious 2006 election cycle and that they should brace for the possibility that an unfolding investigation could uncover financial improprieties stretching back several years, according to GOP sources briefed on the members-only discussions.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has retained a forensic auditor to review its accounting for the last several election cycles, the sources said.
The NRCC’s accounting problems were discussed during two high-level conference calls between senior GOP lawmakers on Friday and Monday night, according to Republicans briefed on the calls.
“There is a sense that this could be very damaging to the committee,” said a Republican insider close to the GOP leadership.
The precise details of the suspected accounting irregularities and their possible fallout are not entirely clear. NRCC officials and top GOP leaders are being tight-lipped in large part because the FBI is investigating the matter. An outside lawyer advising members and staff has warned everyone at the committee to keep quiet.
Despite questions swirling around the investigation, Republican leaders and the campaign chairman have shared few details with their colleagues. Members return to Washington on Wednesday, and Republicans are set to hold their first closed-door meeting Thursday, almost a week from when news of the NRCC problems broke.
But those briefed on the matter shared several new details about the focus and extent of the scandal.
The NRCC internal investigation centers on Christopher J. Ward, a former NRCC treasurer who worked at the committee until mid-August of last year, according to those briefed on the matter. From that time until late December, Ward was an outside contractor for the NRCC, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The FBI, which was informed about the matter last week, did not respond to calls for comment.
As treasurer, Ward was in charge of NRCC bookkeeping, tracking tens of millions of dollars in political contributions and expenditures. He has been at the center of NRCC bookkeeping for more than a decade.
Ward also served as treasurer for numerous other Republican campaigns and leadership political action committees, according to FEC records.
Repeated attempts to reach Ward for comment have been unsuccessful. A Politico reporter who went to Ward’s home in Bethesda, Md., on Tuesday morning spoke to a woman who said Ward was not there. It is unclear whether he has been contacted directly by the bureau.
Several sources familiar with the investigation suspect the reporting irregularities could go back many years.
Ward has been with the committee in some capacity since 1993, according to FEC records. He was listed as the committee’s treasurer between 1993 and 2003, according to the same campaign finance data.
He was on the committee’s official payroll the entire time, earning roughly $6,500 per month during his last year at the NRCC. In August, his last month as an official member of the staff, the committee paid him $8,758.
That same month, the NRCC began recording regular monthly payments of $7,500 to C.J. Ward & Company LLC, signaling his transition as an outside contractor for the committee. That venture is listed under the same address as Ward’s Bethesda home, according to FEC records.
Over the years, Ward has also served as the official treasurer for numerous congressional Republicans, their PACs and other GOP candidates running for Congress.
They include retiring Reps. Jim Saxton of New Jersey, James T. Walsh of New York and Jerry Weller of Illinois, as well as Reps. Steve Buyer of Indiana, Phil English of Pennsylvania and Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, among many others.
He was also listed as the treasurer for incarcerated former Ohio Rep. Bob Ney’s American Liberty PAC.
Many lobbyists and former aides who know Ward characterize him as an understated, dependable person. A former NRCC official said he was “a very reliable guy.”
“He was the go-to guy if anybody needed a Republican treasurer” for a campaign committee or a leadership PAC, the former official said.
In a statement released Friday by NRCC Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), still the only official NRCC comment on the matter, Cole said there were “accounting irregularities” at the committee that “may include fraud.” The statement did not mention Ward by name.
Cole added that the committee has “notified the appropriate law enforcement authorities,” later determined to be the FBI.
Texas Rep. Mike Conaway, the committee’s audit chairman, acknowledged Friday that members of the committee knew about the irregularities at least a day before releasing the statement and immediately agreed to notify federal authorities. It all seemed done in a rush. Cole and his top aides, for instance, sought to notify GOP leaders as quickly as possible, but his official statement was sent to the press before some were alerted. For example, aides to Rep. Thomas Reynolds received the chairman’s statement shortly after an NRCC aide tried to get in touch with the New York Republican, who was chairman of the committee during the year in question.
The NRCC has already suffered at least one casualty from the scandal: As the news broke, one senior GOP aide was confirming details for an upcoming fundraiser, but the potential donors balked when they read Cole’s statement.
TM & © THE POLITICO & POLITICO.COM, a division of Allbritton Communications Company
awesome. time for a third party yet?
Let’s convict some one before there’s an investigation.
Ask George Allen Jr or Conrad Burns about this.
Maybe I missed it, but who is supposed to have done what?
Earth to anyone who still gives money to national Republican organizations....
Sure as hell wasn’t me. i told them why, too.
Wish I had my money back from Fred tho.
If this is true, and we don’t know it is, it isn’t anything against Republicans. Fraud, like infidelity and homosexual acts, can happen in any group, including Republicans, Democrats, Jews, Baptists and others. It has to do with the individual, not the group.
More:
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), a certified public accountant, had pushed for months for an internal audit of the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to GOP members, but the committee’s treasurer at the time was reluctant.
Finally, at a recent meeting, the now former NRCC treasurer, Christopher J. Ward, relented, giving Conaway what was supposed to be an official internal audit from 2006. That document was a fake, the GOP members said. Even the letterhead on which it was sent was a forgery.
Revelations about the falsified document touched off an unfolding scandal that has rocked the NRCC and spurred a criminal investigation by the FBI into the committee’s accounting procedures.
Fearing the fallout from the discovery, the NRCC informed its principle lender, Wachovia, of potential accounting problems. Wachovia, which declined comment Thursday, had lent the committee $9 million in 2006, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Knowing the bank was required by law to notify federal investigators of any “suspicious activity,” the NRCC also alerted the FBI, Republican insiders confirmed.
At the same time, NRCC officials notified the FEC that the committee may have filed inaccurate disclosure statements.
Still don’t know exactly who did what, but the situation ‘Shines and stinks like a mackeral by moonlight’ — Randolph of Roanoke.
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