CNSNews.com - Top Republicans to White House: Alleged Facts in Your Sestak Memo Appear to Document Lawbreaking

CNSNews.com - Top Republicans to White House: Alleged Facts in Your Sestak Memo Appear to Document Lawbreaking

(CNSNews.com) - Three top House Republicans sent a letter to the White House counsel Wednesday saying they believe that a memorandum the counsel released Friday purporting to explain the administration’s actions in offering to appoint Rep. Joe Sestak (D.-Pa.) to a federal position in exchange for Sestak declining to make a Democratic primary run against Sen. Arlen Specter (D.-Pa.) presents a set of facts that appear to violate the law.

White House Counsel Robert F. Bauer released a memorandum on Friday afternoon about the Sestak incident. It says the White House made “efforts” in June and July of last year to “determine whether Congressman Sestak would be interested in service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board, which would avoid a divisive Senate primary,” and that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel recruited former President Bill Clinton to offer Sestak a position on such a panel.

On Wednesday, Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee; Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee; and James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Bauer requesting that he produce all the documentation created and collected by his office in investigating the Sestak matter.

The letter expressed the congressmen’s view that the facts presented by Bauer’s memo appear to represent a violation of federal law.

“Even if we suspend our disbelief that the White House asked a former U.S. president to call on a member of Congress to offer a mere unpaid advisory position in exchange for dropping out of a Senate race, the facts alleged in the Sestak memorandum still appear to violate several sections of the United States Code,” the letter said.

The sentence in the letter carries a footnote that cites 18 U.S.C. Sections 211, 595 and 600 and 5 U.S.C. Sections 1501-1508. These statutes deal with corruption in federal appointments and interfering with elections.

Issa told CNSNews.com Wednesday that he expected public pressure on the administration to mount to the point where it would have to name a special prosecutor, a request the Justice Department has already turned down.