The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged melanie sloan

CREW calls on FBI to investigate Rep. Vern Buchanan

By | 08.24.11 | 5:10 pm | More from The Florida Independent

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (aka CREW) has filed an FBI complaint against Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, asking that the Bureau investigate Buchanan on charges of witness tampering, obstruction of justice and bribery, based largely on a deposition of one of his former business partners, Sam Kazran. #

Norm Coleman’s American Action Network accused of violating tax status

By | 03.08.11 | 2:13 pm | More from The Minnesota Independent

Citizens for Ethics in Washington filed an IRS complaint against former Sen. Norm Coleman’s American Action Network Tuesday alleging that the group violated its 501(c)4 status by working to elect Republicans. CREW posits that AAN used its tax status to protect Republican donors from disclosure and spent the majority of More…

FEC calls for information on Vern Buchanan campaign contributions

Two months after filing suit over allegations of questionable contributions made to the 2006 and 2008 campaigns of Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, the Federal Election Commission has released three letters it sent to the Buchanan campaign asking for more details on the matter. More…

Campaign Finance Groups Petition Baucus: Investigate Nonprofits Yourself

By | 10.06.10 | 3:16 pm

Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-Mont.) letter requesting that the IRS investigate a number of Section 501 nonprofit organizations — accused of abusing their tax-exempt status by devoting the majority of their energies to election activities — is getting a lot of approval from campaign finance advocacy groups, but also More…

Watchdogs and Lobbyists Team Up to Reform Earmarks

By | 09.29.10 | 6:11 pm

Watchdog groups tend to cry foul when lobbyists solicit earmarks for their corporate clients from legislators. Lobbyists, in turn, often blame the groups for conjuring up images of corruption when congressmen are merely responding to their constituents’ needs. Yesterday, however, members of both tribes got together and presented a More…

Campaign Watchdogs: O’Donnell’s Spending ‘Flat-Out Illegal’

By | 09.20.10 | 1:51 pm

Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s GOP primary victory might be old news, but her campaign’s financial improprieties dredged up during the primary contest continue to haunt her candidacy going forward. Melanie Sloan, executive director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, says that even cursory reviews of O’Donnell’s More…

Ensign Blames CREW for Ethics Woes

By | 08.13.10 | 5:36 pm

Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) is raising money for a legal defense fund to fight the numerous ethics charges against him. In his appeal he blames Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which he refers to as “a liberal organization,” for his present troubles, and says he’s been More…

Why Are the Rangel and Waters Hearings Happening Now?

By | 08.13.10 | 4:42 pm

The Ethics Committee has known about Rep. Charlie Rangel’s (D-N.Y.) violations since September 2008 and Rep. Maxine Waters’s (D-Calif.) misdeeds since June 2009, so why is it only making its findings available now? That’s the legitimate question that Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, More…

Obama Administration Agrees to Disclose White House Visitor Logs

By | 09.04.09 | 11:09 am

After the Justice Department dragged out four different lawsuits seeking public access to White House visitor records, the Obama administration finally agreed yesterday to settle the cases, brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and committed to post visitor records online.

CREW Executive Director Melanie More…