CREW asks for Harman probe

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is asking for a probe of Rep. Jane Harman over allegations that she agreed to lobby prosecutors to go easy on two former AIPAC officials.

CREW alleges the CQ Politics report could include evidence of crimes or ethics violations:

Rep. Harman may have committed bribery and may have violated House rules prohibiting members from engaging in ex parte communications with executive or independent agency officials on the merits of matters under their formal consideration; failure to uphold the Code of Ethics for Government Service, and acting in a manner that does not reflect creditably on the House.

CREW filed complaints with both the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of Congressional Ethics.

"As plum a position as the chair of the Intelligence Committee may be, the political gamesmanship necessary to win it must stop well before the grand jury's door," says CREW's Melanie Sloan.

Last year, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-Arizona, was given a light admonishment by the Senate Ethics Committee for lobbying to have a U.S. Attorney fired. He is now facing a federal grand jury probe into potential obstruction of justice.

Harman, for her part, denies she ever called anybody at the DOJ about the AIPAC case.

UPDATE: Here's a counter-argument from Bill Pascoe, also at CQ Politics:

So the question then becomes, did what she did violate any laws?

After all, there is no allegation that money, or anything else of tangible "value," exchanged hands, or even was promised, in exchange for her official action.

The chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee is "valuable" to a certain small segment of the population -- but it's an intangible value. How would one attach a tangible, or monetary, value to it?

And if one cannot attach a monetary value to the thing offered in exchange for the official action -- even if the official action appears to have taken place at the behest of a foreign power -- did a crime occur?

If a crime didn't occur, then obviously failing to investigate and prosecute it wouldn't be much of a scandal either.