Zoe Lofgren: “I have been a member of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct now for 5 rac{1}{2} years, and in those 5…”

“I have been a member of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct now for 5 rac{1}{2} years, and in those 5 rac{1}{2} years, in every case, every member of the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct has tried to discharge their duty fairly and to do the right thing. That has always been the goal. There has never been a drop of partisanship in the committee. As we have worked through this, I think it is important to share what the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct reviewed before coming here today. We have heard about this Mr. Detore, who was not found to be a credible witness by the adjudicatory subcommittee. But in addition to that testimony offered to the committee, we reviewed 6,000 pages of testimony, more than 50 witnesses for the prosecution, and 29 witnesses called by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant). What we found in the review of the statements of those witnesses that were subject to cross-examination is, regrettably, a pattern of tens of thousands of dollars that were delivered to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant) in kickbacks and bribes, the most serious misconduct that we need to address here.”