{"id":1236386,"date":"2022-01-24T17:24:07","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T22:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1236386"},"modified":"2022-01-24T17:24:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T22:24:13","slug":"house-ethics-office-substantial-reason-to-believe-illinois-dem-offered-illegal-bribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-ethics-office-substantial-reason-to-believe-illinois-dem-offered-illegal-bribe\/","title":{"rendered":"House Ethics Office: \u2018Substantial Reason\u2019 To Believe Illinois Dem Offered Illegal Bribe"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-ethics-office-substantial-reason-to-believe-illinois-dem-offered-illegal-bribe%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1236386&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/\">Democrats<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Marie Newman offered six-figure job to potential political rival during successful congressional run<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"736\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1229596168_736x514-1.jpeg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"denied:data:image\/gif;base64, R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1229596168_736x514.jpeg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1229596168_736x514-300x210.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-1229596168_736x514-703x491.jpeg 703w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tRep. Marie Newman (D., Ill.) \/ Getty Images\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/collin-anderson\/\" title=\"Posts by Collin Anderson\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Collin Anderson<\/a> \u2022 January 24, 2022 5:15 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>Congressional investigators say there is &#8220;substantial reason to believe&#8221; Illinois Democrat Marie Newman illegally bribed a potential primary opponent to keep him out of the race.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to a House Office of Congressional Ethics <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/OCE-Reports-and-Findings.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a>, Newman likely &#8220;promised federal employment to a primary opponent for the purpose of procuring political support,&#8221; a violation of federal law. The finding comes roughly seven months after Newman <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/illinois-dem-admits-to-bribing-prospective-opponent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>acknowledged in federal court<\/span><\/a><span> that she signed a contract during her successful 2020 congressional campaign promising a six-figure job in her office to local Palestinian activist Iymen Chehade.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While Chehade <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/illinois-dem-offered-activist-taxpayer-funded-job-in-alleged-bid-to-clear-primary-field\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>claimed<\/span><\/a><span> Newman offered him the job to keep him from challenging her in a primary race, Newman denied the charge, contending that she was unaware of Chehade&#8217;s intention to run for office. Emails obtained by House investigators, however, show that Chehade explicitly told Newman he &#8220;agree[d] not to announce or submit his candidacy for election to Congressional Representative of the 3rd District of Illinois&#8221; in exchange for Newman&#8217;s job offer. In his email, Chehade also asked Newman for a &#8220;commitment to endorse&#8221; him once Newman decided to leave office.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;Hi there,&#8221; Newman replied in late 2018. &#8220;Took some time to digest the doc. Most of it looks good.&#8221; The House ethics office&#8217;s report notes that the evidence &#8220;strongly contradicts Rep. Newman&#8217;s testimony that she did not have any knowledge of Mr. Chehade&#8217;s intent to run for congressional office.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;The OCE found that Mr. Chehade&#8217;s policy expertise was not the only reason she contracted to employ him in the future,&#8221; the report states. &#8220;Instead, Rep. Newman likely was motivated to enter the agreement to avoid competing against Mr. Chehade in the next Democratic primary.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Newman and Chehade went on to sign the contract, which promised Chehade a senior role in Newman&#8217;s office that did not require him to &#8220;maintain specific hours,&#8221; paid him a $140,000 salary, and gave him &#8220;complete discretion about the selection and employment termination of staff members under his supervision.&#8221; When Newman won election to Congress months later and refused to honor the agreement, Chehade <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/illinois-dem-offered-activist-taxpayer-funded-job-in-alleged-bid-to-clear-primary-field\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span>sued<\/span><\/a><span> the Democrat for breach of contract.Emails obtained by House investigators, however, show that Chehade explicitly told Newman he &#8220;agree[d] not to announce or submit his candidacy for election to Congressional Representative of the 3rd District of Illinois&#8221; in exchange for Newman&#8217;s job offer. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>During an <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/OCE-Rev.-21-3052_Referral-Exhibits.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a> with the Office of Congressional Ethics, Newman campaign manager Ben Hardin acknowledged that the contract seemed &#8220;odd&#8221; and that Newman told him he would &#8220;have to deal with this.&#8221; Newman&#8217;s office did not return a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Probes into Newman&#8217;s apparent violation will now move to the House Committee on Ethics for further review. The committee confirmed it will &#8220;review the matter&#8221; in a Monday <a href=\"https:\/\/ethics.house.gov\/sites\/ethics.house.gov\/files\/documents\/Press%20Release_244.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats Marie Newman offered six-figure job to potential political rival during successful congressional run  Rep. Marie Newman (D., Ill.) \/ Getty Images  Collin Anderson &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1236386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1236386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1236386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1236386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1236386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}