Malkin and Hannity falsely claimed Rep. Stark has an “ethics scandal”
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on March 4th, 2010 5:47 am by HL
Malkin and Hannity falsely claimed Rep. Stark has an “ethics scandal”
On Fox News’ Hannity, Michelle Malkin falsely claimed that Rep. Pete Stark has “his own ethics scandal … regarding a house that he claimed deductions for apparently in Maryland.” In fact, the House ethics committee flatly rejected these allegations and concluded that Stark did not seek a Maryland property tax credit and did not violate Maryland law or House rules.
From the March 3 edition of Fox News’ Hannity:
HANNITY: The story gets more interesting now, because you’ve got [Rep. Charles] Rangel’s [D-NY] successor [as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee], a guy by the name of Congressman Pete Stark [D-CA], who himself has been investigated for ethics violations.
[…]
MALKIN: And then, of course, his own ethics scandal, as you mentioned, regarding a house that he claimed deductions for apparently in Maryland, and then he went and cussed the people who were investigating that as well.
Ethics committee flatly rejected allegations against Stark
Ethics committee: Stark did not violate Maryland law or House rules. In a January 29 report, the House ethics committee flatly rejected allegations that Stark “violated Maryland criminal tax law and ethics rules of the House of Representatives by intentionally filing a false application for a Maryland property tax credit.” The ethics committee found that Stark “did not violate House ethics rules. Nor did he run afoul of Maryland’s criminal or tax laws.”
Ethics committee: Stark did not “seek” tax credit and did not “file a false application.” The ethics committee found:
The evidence clearly establishes that Representative Stark did not receive a tax credit as a result of filing an application for the credit. The evidence also establishes that he did not file a false application for the Maryland property tax credit.
Representative Stark did not seek out the Maryland property tax credit. The State of Maryland required every homeowner in Maryland to fill out a form to determine their eligibility for the tax credit.
Therefore, Representative Stark did not violate House ethics rules. Nor did he run afoul of Maryland’s criminal or tax laws.
