“Based on the facts of the case and the record of committee misconduct, the only remedy … is immediate dismissal with prejudice. No other remedy exists to cure this misconduct,’’ Brand said.
In a follow-up letter to the committee, he wrote, “This misconduct is of such a fundamentally improper level that it cannot be cured by reliance on any other device, including employment of an outside counsel. Simply put . this committee can never conduct an impartial and unbiased inquiry into this matter.’’
Waters has repeatedly said she did nothing improper and had no role in the Obama administration’s decision to bail out OneUnited Bank. Waters’s husband, Sidney Williams, owns stock in the bank, and his investment was in danger of becoming worthless during the near-financial collapse of late 2008.
OneUnited received $12 million in bailout money in December 2008. But Treasury Department officials have told House investigators that Waters was not involved in that decision.
Waters contended she had supported legislation to help all troubled, minority-owned banks like OneUnited - and specifically those, like OneUnited, hurt by their investments in the then-collapsing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Brand said that the conduct of some committee members and staff violated Waters’s constitutional rights. Internal documents showed that the two former lawyers regularly corresponded exclusively last year with Representative Jo Bonner of Alabama, then the ranking Republican and now the chairman.
The two lawyers were suspended last year by the previous Democratic chairman, Zoe Lofgren of California.
The committee had charged Waters with violating House rules and was ready to begin a proceeding on her conduct late last year, but the case was sent back for further investigation after the controversy erupted over the conduct of the two lawyers.
