Ernest Istook: “Reclaiming my time, the gentleman correctly states that the resolution does not pass judgment upon any Member. It does…”

“Reclaiming my time, the gentleman correctly states that the resolution does not pass judgment upon any Member. It does not say allegations are true. Certainly each of us are going to have varying degrees of personal opinion, and let us take this scenario that we have, if someone is going to go into Federal court and accuse a Member of the U.S. Congress of being part of a conspiracy with him for embezzlement, if his hands were clean and this had not occurred, then you anticipate what would have happened is he would have tried to plea bargain where he does not have to plead guilty to something, and he gets immunity from prosecution. In this case, the gentleman pleaded guilty, he was found guilty on three counts of conspiracy of embezzlement. I am not asking any Member to join me in my opinion of the truth of the allegations. I am asking Members to join me in getting to the bottom of it. The ethics committee has not prejudged what has occurred or not occurred and they should not prejudge. But, by golly, they had better get to the bottom of it.”