The U.S. House Committee on Ethics dismissed a complaint accusing Arkansas Congressman Tom Cotton, a Republican challenger for U.S. Senate, of illegally soliciting campaign donations during a radio interview on U.S. Capitol grounds, according to letters released by his campaign Wednesday.
The letters were released in response to a new ethics complaint against Cotton filed Wednesday with the Office of Congressional Ethics by a former chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, Jack Wilson Holt Jr. The complaint accuses the Senate hopeful of breaking House ethics rules by failing to disclose specific clients he worked with when he was employed at McKinsey & Co., a Washington, D.C.-based management-consultant company.
The House Committee unanimously dismissed a complaint made against Cotton in October by the Democratic Party of Arkansas, according to a letter dated March 13 that was sent to Cotton’s office. Cotton also received a letter dated Feb. 28 detailing a unanimous vote by the Office of Congressional Ethics that the complaint be dismissed.
Cotton’s campaign spokesman David Ray released the letters Wednesday.
“The committee left it to our discretion what to do with these letters … it doesn’t release these letters,” Ray said. “Given the fact that the Democrats are again trying to pull a politically motivated stunt that is frivolous and has no merit, we feel like this is a good time to point out that their previous complaint was unanimously dismissed.”
Cotton is running against incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor.
The Democratic Party of Arkansas sent out a news release Wednesday afternoon announcing the newest ethics complaint. A spokesman for the party said the news release would be the only official comment from the party about either complaint. The release does not mention the dismissal of the October complaint.
The complaint from the Democratic Party centered on a Sept. 30 radio interview Cotton gave to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, during which he directed listeners to his website where they could donate to his campaign.Democrats accused Cotton of doing the interview from the coat room of the Capitol, which would have violated rules barring members of Congress from soliciting donations on Capitol grounds.
Holt’s complaint formally questions Cotton’s work for consultant McKinsey & Co. before he was elected to the House in 2012.
The work Cotton did for the company was the subject of a Senate Majority PAC television ad released in March.Several fact-checking sites have taken issue with the content of the ad.
Holt’s complaint Wednesday centers on the core issue Democrats have tried to raise about Cotton’s time at McKinsey and Cotton’s largely undisclosed client list. Cotton did not list any individual clients in his 2012 financial-disclosure forms, which Holt argues violated finance laws.
The law requires members to list any company, client or employer that they received $5,000 or more in income from, unless there is a clear confidentiality agreement.
In his report, Cotton cited his separation agreement when he left the company and included a copy of that agreement.
Holt argued that the agreement is not clear on whether names of clients can be released.
“Mr. Cotton’s attempt to extend the terms of the Separation Certification as the basis for refusing to disclose the identity of his clients is an exercise more in subterfuge than a sound argument based on the plain terms of the agreement,” Holt wrote in the complaint. “Moreover, although Mr. Cotton also referenced that McKinsey serves clients pursuant to a standard confidentiality agreement, he did not address whether the specific clients he served were bound by such an agreement nor did he provide a sample confidentiality agreement.”
Messages left at a phone number listed for Holt on Wednesday were not returned. Holt told an Associated Press reporter Wednesday that he filed the complaint but had reached out to the Pryor campaign for background documents to write the six page letter.
Ray said McKinsey signs confidentiality agreements with all of its consulting clients, and as an employee Cotton is covered under that agreement. He also said Cotton has spoken about certain clients only after McKinsey released public studies or reports about its work with those clients.
“This whole thing is ironic to me, given that they’re criticizing him for not disclosing information, after he voluntarily included a copy of the separation agreement when he wasn’t required to do so,” Ray said. “He’s disclosed more than he was required to.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/10/2014