Rep. Enid Greene Waldholtz, not just her estranged husband, Joe, is now herself under Justice Department investigation over whether she violated federal campaign law.
That's according to the Washington Times, which said the FBI broadened its investigation after a former campaign aide, Kaylin Loveland, told the Deseret News last week that she warned Enid in June 1994 about 30 to 40 campaign violations by Joe.The Deseret News has independently confirmed that FBI officials are asking such questions.
However, Enid's lawyer, Charles Roistacher, said the parts of the Times' story saying the FBI had "seized" documents from the Waldholtzes' home are "absolutely false" - but acknowledged the FBI likely is looking at whether the congresswoman violated campaign law.
The Times said FBI agents assisting a grand jury investigation had seized First Security Bank records in Salt Lake City and documents at the Waldholtzes' Washington, D.C., home.
The Times quoted unnamed "law enforcement" sources saying, "Documents were spread out all over the place in her home - on the chairs, the bed, everywhere."
"That is absolutely false," Roistacher said. "In my presence, the FBI came to her house Wednesday for background into factual information about Joe Waldholtz, who at that point in time was a fugitive. We have fully cooperated with the government, including providing records and documents."
He added, "We have been assured that Enid is not a target of the investigation."
However, Deputy U.S. Attorney William Lawler III said in a press conference last week that Joe also is not yet a formal target either - and that the subject of the investigation (according to technical legal terms) was the joint bank accounts he and Enid held where check kiting appears to have occurred, and that activities of both owners of the account are under scrutiny.
Roistacher said his review of documents has shown much false information by Joe, and he doesn't doubt that some of it found its way into campaign reports he filed.
"I am certain it is the government's obligation to look at the filings made," he said. "But while it has that obligation, we have been assured we are not a target of any such investigation. The fact these were law enforcement leaks (in the Times story) makes us furious because they are just not true."
Roistacher added, "We have hired a Big Six accounting firm to re-create what happened here and to try to make order out of the financial havoc that this guy has caused." Enid has promised to fully disclose what they find once the work is done.
The U.S. attorney's office in Washington had no comment on the story and assertion about a broadening probe. Several sources who have been interviewed by the FBI also told the Deseret News that FBI agents have made it clear they are pursuing questions about Enid and not just Joe.
Enid has said in press statements that she never knowingly violated campaign laws - and has blamed all her financial problems on deception by Joe, from whom she filed for divorce last week.
Besides the FBI probe, sources have said preliminary investigations are also under way by the Federal Election Commission and the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. Both said they cannot confirm or deny that.
The Times said the FBI investigation broadened after Loveland told the Deseret News last Thursday that she resigned in June 1994 after confronting Enid with a memo outlining 30 to 40 instances of false reports to the Federal Election Commission.
She said the congresswoman "assured me she understood what I was saying. She promised Joe would take care of them." But then Enid later loudly told Joe that they "had a problem with Kaylin" and did nothing to correct the problem.
Loveland told the Deseret News Monday, "I can't say how serious the FEC violations were. I just didn't have the experience on other campaigns to compare. . . . We'd pay someone for their work, and the expenditure wouldn't show up on the report. I was concerned; that is why I brought it to Enid's attention."
The Deseret News also reported last week one report prepared by Joe but signed by Loveland listed $2,000 donations each by Joe's father and stepmother - but both deny giving such money. Several other donations listed were from people who cannot be found or whose listed addresses do not exist.
Also, the campaign bounced numerous checks at times when it claimed on FEC reports that it had hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. Vendors and others have also said Joe paid for some campaign expenses out of his personal accounts - which is illegal if it exceeded his $1,000 per election personal donation limit - and did not disclose that or unpaid bills as required.
Former campaign aide Steve Taggart - who resigned with Loveland over financial problems - also said Monday that Joe spent much of his days during the campaign juggling bank accounts, possibly to try to keep checks from bouncing when funds were low.
While Taggart said most campaigns make only one visit to a bank per day to handle transactions, he said Joe sent aide Aaron Edens to the bank several times a day on errands - and that Joe told Taggart that he had set up an interest-bearing "media account" and had been transferring funds to it.
"Now looking back, I don't think there was a media account," Tag-gart said. Joe also never disclosed to the FEC any other account besides the main checking account.
Edens disputes Taggart's assertions - especially a version in the Washington Times that Edens was spending much of his days also trying to avoid bounced checks by running Joe's errands.
"I'm troubled about these allegations because they simply are not true (about making several bank runs per day). Taggart wasn't in the office that much and must have been given some bad information."
But Edens adds that aides have been finding out more problems with Joe in recent days and said he does not know whether bank transactions Joe made were legal.
Edens disclosed last week that Joe had pressured him into adding Joe as a card holder on his personal American Express account. Joe then ran up $45,000 in bills and was slow to pay it back - which caused Edens to lose his card. Edens resigned two weeks ago but rescinded it last week - and said he firmly supports Enid.
Other financial questions that sources have told the Deseret News that are under Justice Department scrutiny include $4 million that Enid's father, Forrest Greene, gave through loans or asset swaps to Enid and Joe.