[FateHostera]

TPM:
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmem...hics_trial.php

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has reportedly decided to fight the ethics charges against her, becoming the second Congress member in a week to push for a public ethics trial rather than accept charges of wrongdoing.

Days after the ethics committee announced that Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) would face an adjudicatory hearing, it was reported that Waters will also be the subject of a similar ethics hearing.


Waters is accused of intervening on behalf of a bank that her husband had $250,000 worth of stock in. The bank, OneUnited, received $12 million in TARP funds after Waters set up meetings between the CEO and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. Treasury officials say Waters didn't disclose any connection go the bank.

Waters maintains that she was properly helping a struggling minority-owned bank.
A statement of alleged violation -- the ethics committee version of a complaint in criminal court -- has not yet been released. The House left for August recess last Friday.