New Ethics panel members named to probe Rep. Maxine Waters after recusals

A half-dozen members of the House Ethics Committee have recused themselves from the troubled investigation of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and been replaced by a new team, a sign that the stalled probe is set to restart.

Waters has faced scrutiny since 2009 over whether she improperly sought federal aid for OneUnited, a bank in which her husband had a financial stake. The Ethics panel has been riven by infighting, as Republican and Democratic members and aides accused each other of mishandling the investigation and Waters, who has maintained her innocence, has demanded the case be dismissed.

Last year, the committee hired veteran defense lawyer Billy Martin Jr. to conduct an outside review of the probe. In a letter Friday to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), six committee members said Martin had found no evidence of any “actual bias or partiality” by the lawmakers, but they were voluntarily recusing themselves from the case anyway to “eliminate the possibility of questions being raised” and “move this matter forward.”

Waters’s office had not provided comment on the recusal as of this posting

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