House Ethics Committee says it’s investigating Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney

The House Ethics Committee revealed on Friday that it is investigating outgoing Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Oversight and Reform Committee, though the details of the probe remain unknown.

The committee said it received a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on June 23, and that top lawmakers in the group “jointly decided to extend the matter.”

The OCE is an independent watchdog that investigates lawmaker behavior and refers cases to the House Ethics Committee. Once the Ethics Committee receives a referral from the OCE, it has 45 days to review the matter. After that time period is up, it can either release the referral or extend its review, which the committee did on Friday.

The group noted, however, that a referral or extension does not indicate wrongdoing by a lawmaker.

“The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” the group wrote in a statement.

The committee said it will announce its course of action for Maloney on or before Nov. 21.

The Hill has reached out to Maloney for comment.

Committee rules bar the group from accepting complaints or referrals within 60 days before an election when a candidate is the subject of the review, but Maloney lost her primary to Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) in August, keeping her off the November ticket.

The two longtime lawmakers were pitted against one another after redistricting. Nadler handily beat Maloney in the contentious member-vs-member primary by more than 25 percentage points.

Maloney’s tenure in the House has spanned nearly three decades. The congresswoman was first elected to the lower chamber in 1992.

Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) is currently the acting chairwoman of the Ethics panel, and Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) is the acting ranking member. They took over for former Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who resigned from the House last week, and former Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who died in a car accident in August, respectively.