Ernest Istook: “every Member of this body took the same oath, every one of us, not just those who are on the ethics committee, regarding…”

“every Member of this body took the same oath, every one of us, not just those who are on the ethics committee, regarding upholding the Constitution of the United States, which includes in article I, section 5, the obligation that we police the behavior of our Members, discipline if necessary, expel if necessary, but every single one of us has the obligation. And although we have an ethics committee assist us in discharging those obligations, it belongs to each one of us to act and take seriously that responsibility, not to pass the buck to the ethics committee, not to pass the buck to the U.S. attorney, but to stand up for the standards that the American people have every right to expect of us. And they have a right to expect that Members of Congress will not embezzle from the taxpayers, that Members of Congress will not be the only ones to escape indictment no matter how smoking the gun may have been laid down as has been done almost 8 months ago. They have every right to expect that since we believe in reasoning, that that extends to cooperation with all aspects of the executive branch, including the Justice Department, including finding a way to work together to cooperate on an internal probe for embezzlement that happened within the walls of this Congress by Members, according to the testimony and the proffer of proof by Mr. Rota. We are not investigating something that happened elsewhere. We have an obligation to look at what happened internally.”