"The special counsel also provided further evidence of how Gingrich misled the committee. Earlier the ethics subcommittee pointed to a contradiction in the information Gingrich gave investigators. In October 1994 he said GOPAC was involved in setting up a college course that was financed with tax-deductible money. In December 1994, he said GOPAC was not involved.
Last September the committee announced it was expanding its investigation to examine whether Gingrich had misled investigators. On Oct. 1, the committee asked Gingrich for further information about the discrepancy, and on Oct. 31 Gingrich responded.
"One would have thought that, when we pointed out the letters, he would have read them," Cole said. "And if something was wrong, you thought he would bring it to our attention. But he did not. . . . Instead he sends us a letter repeating what he said before. He doesn't see anything wrong. Well, that makes it tough for us to understand that in fact this is as innocent as some people would have us believe."
Cole also described in considerable detail the negotiations with Gingrich's attorneys that led to the speaker's statement agreeing to the findings.
In addition to combining three counts into one, the committee altered an original charge dealing with the false information given to the panel to include language pointing out the role of one of Gingrich's attorneys in preparing the material. In addition, the word "knew" was dropped, making the charge read that Gingrich had submitted information that he "should have known" was false, blurring the question of whether he acted intentionally."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/govt/leadership/stories/011897.htm
And this is a serious ethical matter or a political matter?
