All charges against Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Draper, were dismissed Friday by the House Ethics Committee, ending a closed-door investigation into a complaint filed by Democratic lawmakers that accused him of bribery, extortion and abuse of office.
"It's a beautiful day, outside here as well as what happened inside the Capitol today," an emotional Hughes told reporters, calling the complaint "an attack on the eve of an election. It's the dirtiest kind of campaign,
and I'm just grateful the committee saw this for what it was."
Hughes' chief accuser, House Minority Caucus Manager Phil Riesen, D-Salt Lake, had little to say Friday night. "I really don't want to comment except to say what happened today with the ethics committee is absurd. Period."
Riesen said he wasn't worried about any potential consequences. "I don't care. I did what I thought was right and I still consider it was right. If retribution is what they want to do, bring it on," he said. "Whatever happens, happens."
Wednesday, the committee begins hearing another ethics complaint, this one filed by Hughes against Riesen for allegedly leaking the allegations against Hughes to the news media.
The committee meets behind closed doors, but made an exception Friday to announce its findings. Even so, members continued to decline to answer questions from the media, citing the pending case against Riesen.
Although the bipartisan committee determined none of the six charges against Hughes were proved by "clear and convincing" evidence, they also chose to send a letter critical of Hughes' behavior to the House.
The letter, signed by the four Republicans and four Democrats on the committee stated, "We do find that some of Representative Hughes' conduct as presented to us during this inquiry was unbecoming" a House member and requested that Hughes "take steps to change his behavior and to make appropriate apologies to those who may have been affected."
The letter also stated that the committee came to the conclusion that the current code of official conduct "is not specific enough to provide adequate guidelines to look to when examining legislative behavior and not direct enough to give fair notice of whether certain behavior is ethical or not."
The committee went on in the letter to "strongly recommend" that the Legislature review and revise its rules of conduct and that the House "begin ongoing ethics training for all members as quickly as possible."
Hughes did not address the letter in his statement and did not take questions from the media before leaving the Capitol with his wife, Krista, to attend their young daughter's soccer game.
His attorney, Thomas Karrenberg, was dismissive of the committee's letter.
"You could write that letter and that every person up here, at some time or another, had unbecoming behavior," he said. Asked if the letter hurt his client, Karrenberg said, "quit seeing the glass as half-empty. It's three-quarters, 98 percent full."
The committee separated the charges of attempted bribery, extortion and abuse of office into 30 separate counts. On 23 of the counts, the committee voted unanimously for dismissal, and on three, they tied.
It takes a majority vote of the committee to recommend that the full House consider sanctions against a member. The committee chairman, Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, said the votes effectively end the investigation into the allegations against Hughes.
Kiser said some 40 witnesses were subpoenaed by the committee and more than 30 testified during the seven days of hearings.
"It's been long and hard and stressful," the committee chairman said. "There's been a lot of pressure."
He said the committee has been criticized for closing the hearings as well as for moving slowly. "We came to see a weakness in our rules as we were required to follow them," Kiser said.
Most of the attention had been focused on the first of the six charges against Hughes, that he attempted to bribe former GOP Rep. Susan Lawrence by offering to arrange a $50,000 campaign contribution if she changed her opposition to school vouchers.
He was also accused of attempting to "shakedown" lobbyists for contributions to his pro-voucher political issues committee; of pressuring lobbyists and a primary opponent; and of misusing his office to obtain confidential information used in the voucher campaign.
Supporters of Hughes say internal polling shows he has fallen behind his Democratic challenger, Lisa Johnson, in his re-election bid and worry he may not have enough time left before Nov. 4 to counter the effects of the hearing.
Hughes said Friday he wanted "to get back to my district and start campaigning."
The other Democrats involved in the complaint against Hughes were clearly frustrated Friday.
Rep. Roz McGee, D-Salt Lake, who signed Riesen's complain along with Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, said the problems with the secretive process could have been avoided had lawmakers approved a bill last session setting up an independent ethics commission.
And Hansen said the complaint was not politically motivated.
"The Republicans are saying this is an 'October surprise' — it's all about elections. I think they are dead wrong on that," Hansen said. "The public needs to understand this was not about politics. This was about the integrity of the state Legislature."
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