Bar fight and DUI car crash: Conduct of Democrat-picked congressional ethics chief gains scrutiny
2015 internal probe found Omar Ashmawy engaged in "lapse of judgement" by using congressional email to press police to file criminal charges after a bar fight.
By John Solomon
Updated: December 9, 2022 - 2:43am
Omar Ashmawy, the chief of the Congressional Ethics Office, has returned to duty just weeks after crashing his car into a Pennsylvania home in September and being charged with driving under the influence, but Republicans about to take control of the House in January are raising fresh concerns about his past conduct and his performance in the sensitive job.
The senior Republicans on the House Administration, Ethics, and Rules Committees have been briefed on the September 2022 DUI incident as well as a 2015 bar fight during which Ashmawy was injured but was later found to have improperly used his congressional position to pressure police to file criminal charges against his antagonists, according to internal correspondence and memos obtained by Just the News.
In the 2015 episode, an independent counsel named by the House to investigate concluded that Ashmawy "attempted to improperly exert pressure" on local police by using his official congressional emails and commenting that "people in Washington DC were following the decision of local authorities," according to information the cochairmen of the congressional board that supervises Ashmawy sent lawmakers recently.
Ashmawy was also sued by one of the men in the fight, a former Transportation Security Administration air marshal, who accused Ashmawy of improperly trying to get him criminally charged and fired from his job. The man wasn't charged but lost his job. Ashmawy settled the lawsuit by making a small cash payment without admitting any wrongdoing, according to letters and other memos sent to lawmakers.
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https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/congressional-ethics-chief-returns-work-after-dui-lawmakers-delve
