Independent Counsel Urges Heavy Fines For Gingrich Public Hearing Delayed After Gop Ethics Panel Members Read Report

A report by the independent counsel for the House ethics committee is highly critical of Speaker Newt Gingrich for his admitted ethical lapses, recommends a heavy fine, and suggests that the matter be turned over to the Justice Department for further investigation, congressional aides said on Thursday night.

The committee had tentatively scheduled a public hearing for today on the case but appeared to back away as Republican committee members read the report and saw its potential to be politically damaging.

Aides from both parties confirmed that the report caused the committee to back off and cancel any formal announcement of the hearing, although a hearing may still take place. It was Democratic aides who said that in addition to a formal reprimand for Gingrich, the report by the independent counsel, James Cole, called for a large fine and for sending the evidence to the Justice Department.

The reported recommendations by Cole are more serious than Republicans had anticipated. Some have been arguing that his offenses amounted to no more than “jay-walking tickets” and that he should get only the mildest sanction available to the ethics committee, a letter of reproval.

With the hearings likely to be dominated by Cole, Republicans on the committee apparently feared that putting the material forward would damage their attempts to protect Gingrich from a harsh reaction by the full House, when it votes on his punishment on Tuesday.

Before the report, which is believed to be 200 to 300 pages in length, and supporting documents can be made public, the committee must meet to vote to release them. That meeting is tentatively scheduled for this morning.

Earlier on Thursday, Theodore van der Meid, the committee’s chief counsel, had announced that Cole’s report would be made public at midday today and that supporting documents underlying the case, which run to about 1,000 pages, would not be printed until Saturday.

On Dec. 21, Gingrich admitted that he had brought discredit on the House by providing untrue information to the committee and by failing to get adequate legal advice about using tax-exempt foundations to finance a college course and televised town meetings with political overtones.

Since then, the ethics committee has held only one meeting, a 14-hour session last week in which members agreed to begin hearings on Monday that they said would last for three days. Rep. Nancy Johnson, the Connecticut Republican who heads the panel, unilaterally canceled those plans when Democrats on the committee continued to complain that the Jan. 21 deadline for voting was a rush to judgment. She directed Cole to work on his report instead of preparing for hearings.

Before word of the contents of Cole’s report spread, the din of partisan accusations and counteraccusations lessened on Thursday. Republicans issued only a couple of news releases complaining about the publication of a taped telephone conversation Gingrich and other Republicans leaders held on the morning of his guilty plea.