Leaked Ethics Document Now Widely Available
A confidential document detailing House ethics investigations made its way to a public Web site Friday, nearly one month after much of the secretive information contained in the report appeared in news stories.Wikileaks.org on Friday released the document, which detailed investigations under way as of mid-July by both the House ethics committee and the Office of Congressional Ethics.The Washington Post first reported the document’s leak in late October, publishing details about investigations but not releasing the document itself.The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, commonly known as the ethics committee, previously acknowledged that one of its aides had exposed the document through a file-sharing network. Committee leaders said that the aide was subsequently fired.Although news reports had suggested the document remained accessible on file-sharing networks, the document’s publication on Wikileaks.org appears to be the first openly accessible version of the document. The House ethics committee, which does not comment on its investigations or other work, would not confirm whether the document is authentic.Wikileaks.org does not identify its sources, and it is not known whether the 24-page document, available in a PDF, has been edited or otherwise altered. The document contains several blank pages.