Ethics group calls on GOP leadership to demand Rep. Buchanan’s resignation

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) said it was incumbent upon House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to condemn Buchanan’s conduct.

“It is time for Rep. Buchanan to go,” Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, said in a statement. “House Republican leaders — who swore a zero tolerance policy for ethical wrongdoing — should be condemning his conduct and demanding his departure, not playing golf with him in Sarasota.”

Representatives for Boehner and Cantor did not respond to requests for comment.

{mosads}CREW has filed multiple complaints against Buchanan with the FBI and the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), an independent panel that investigates complaints against House members. The complaints center around whether Buchanan’s campaign reimbursed employees at a car dealership he owned for contributions they made to his campaign, and whether he later coerced a business partner to make false a statement about the activity.

Buchanan has denied all wrongdoing and said that OCE had been negligent in its investigation by withholding exculpatory evidence and misinterpreting documents. OCE’s report was later referred to the House Ethics Committee, which has multiple ongoing inquiries into Buchanan but has not made any conclusions about potential violations.

“CREW is a left-wing front group funded by George Soros that cannot be taken seriously,” said Buchanan spokesman Max Goodman.

He pointed to a website, www.crewexposed.com, that alleges that CREW disproportionately targets Republican politicians.