Gingrich To Pay Ethics Fine With Own Funds

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., has decided to use personal funds from a loan to pay the unprecedented $300,000 penalty the House levied against him for violating ethics rules, Republican sources said Wednesday night.

The speaker is to spell out the details of the payment and the loan to House Republicans at a closed-door meeting today and then go to the House floor to make a public announcement, the sources said.

Gingrich’s decision to use personal funds rather than campaign funds or contributions to a legal defense fund is a bid to put the lingering ethics matter behind him. While his wife, Marianne, strongly opposed such a move, many of the speaker’s closest advisers warned him that relying on contributions to pay the penalty could threaten his speakership by provoking a political backlash.

But using personal funds has risks of its own. Many House members - both Democrats and Republicans - have said they do not want him to set a precedent by personally paying a disciplinary penalty many of his supporters see as politically motivated. One possible solution would be to create a fund to which he would contribute the proceeds of a loan or other personal money and the fund would make the payment, rather than Gingrich personally, the sources said. Many details of the payment plan - including whether the loan would be for all or part of the $300,000 - were unclear Wednesday night.

Earlier in the day, some sources suggested the loan could be structured so that most of the payments would be due after Gingrich relinquishes the speakership, and presumably his House seat, when he would have fewer restrictions over how to repay the loan. When the Republicans took control of the House in 1995, Gingrich said he would not serve as speaker beyond 2002. House Democratic leadership aides said such an arrangement would not be acceptable. Gingrich made the decision Wednesday night after his aides spent the day with staff from the ethics committee, formally known as the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, discussing how various options would comply with House rules.