Stan Brand, the attorney representing Sen. Larry Craig in the Senate ethics investigation, has filed a letter with the Senate Ethics Committee seeking to have the case thrown out. Brand told The Spokesman-Review today, “In the 220 recorded years of history, the Senate has never disciplined someone for misdemeanor conduct not arising from their official duties, period. I don’t know how else to say that. There’s a good reason for that, I think, and that is, that’s just not something the Senate wants to get into. It doesn’t view it as serious enough, and not as implicating the office in a way that would motivate them to take a look at those types of cases, and so they don’t.”

Brand said he’s sure other senators have misdemeanors on their records, “and I’m sure there are more who will in the future – and that’s why I don’t think the committee has wanted to open that floodgate.”

Craig, of course, pled guilty to misdemeanor charges as part of a restroom sex-solicitation sting at the Minneapolis airport. After news reports came out, Craig said he’d done nothing wrong and said the guilty plea was a mistake. Police reports from the incident include a note that at one point, Craig handed his U.S. Senate business card to the arresting officer, and asked him, “What do you think about that?”

Brand said, “That’s who he is – that’s like identifying yourself. I don’t see why that’s a problem. He couldn’t deny his status, his status would be evident from a number of ways that he would identify himself. That, by itself, I hardly think is a reason for (the Senate Ethics Committee) asserting jurisdiction over this case.”

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