Walsh ripped off in NRCC scandal
The site’s slow right now so I’m not going to link to our previous coverage about this but I just read this on the Washington Post site:
Add retiring Rep. James Walsh (N.Y.) to the list of Republican lawmakers who now believe they were ripped off by Christopher Ward, the former treasurer of multiple GOP campaigns who is under federal investigation for allegedly embezzling funds from the National Republican Congressional Committee.
On April 14, Walsh’s political action committee, COLDPAC, filed six amended reports with the Federal Election Commission covering much of 2007. Why? The answer can be found in the PAC’s amended report for last April, which includes a $20,000 disbursement to Ward for “Misappropriated Funds.”
Walsh’s PAC is at least the sixth GOP committee to report that Ward took funds, and he appears to be the biggest individual victim measured by dollar amount (not counting the NRCC), so far in the scandal. Committees connected to GOP Reps. Charles Dent (Pa.), Vito Fossella (N.Y.), Jeb Hensarling (Texas) and a moderate Republican group have also reported having funds taken by Ward.
I would say something witty to the effect of “eating their young”, but Walsh isn’t young and I am not witty.
Let’s not forget that Walsh (and those other committee chairmen) refused to insist on independent audits of the accounting records. In other words, Walsh and the other declined to follow standard accounting and management practices. He is guilty of being irresponsible with other people’s money … whether this means he is criminally liable I don’t know … but let’s heap a good portion of the blame for this onto Walsh himself.
[...] the NRCC got into that financial mess so financial help is needed but unless these auditors provide substance - like provable points that [...]