Gingrich Pays Fine's Second Installment
By Jeffrey L. Katz, CQ Staff Writer
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., has paid a second $50,000 installment toward his $300,000 penalty for violating ethics rules.
Under an arrangement worked out last year, Gingrich agreed to pay the penalty out of his own pocket. He may borrow half from former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan. (House, 1961-69; Senate, 1969-96).
Gingrich paid the first $50,000 on May 15, 1997. The second installment was due June 1. Under terms of the agreement, another $50,000 is due Nov. 30.
The remaining $150,000 is due Jan. 2, 1999, and could be borrowed from Dole under an agreement that would require Gingrich to pay 10 percent annual interest and repay the loan by 2005.
Christina Martin, Gingrich's press secretary, said the Speaker has not decided whether he will take Dole up on the loan offer.
The penalty stemmed from the ethics committee's finding that Gingrich misled the panel during its investigation of ethics charges against him.
Settling complaints lodged by his political enemies, Gingrich in December 1996 admitted that he broke House rules and brought discredit on the House by failing to get proper legal advice in setting up tax-exempt organizations, which he then improperly used for political purposes.
The ethics committee imposed the penalty to force the Speaker to repay the costs of resolving misleading statements he gave members during the investigation. Gingrich was also formally reprimanded on the floor in January 1997.
Gingrich has insisted that the $300,000 is not a fine or penalty but a "reimbursement" to the House. But even many GOP colleagues view it as something tougher. At the time it was levied, Rep. Marge Roukema, R-N.J., insisted that Gingrich should pay "this fine" out of his own pocket.
© 1998 Congressional Quarterly Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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