Lawmakers caught in battle between House ethics cops

Two Capitol Hill panels that police the ethics of members of Congress appear to be battling about which has authority over 10 lawmakers accused of unwittingly accepting improper travel and gifts from the state oil company of Azerbaijan.

A Washington Post story published Wednesday detailed the contents of a confidential Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) investigation of a 2013 trip to Azerbaijan, a former republic of the Soviet Union in Central Asia.

The OCE was created in 2008 to vet ethics cases and recommend action to the Ethics Committee. The Ethics Committee retains sole authority to judge whether members have broken the rules and to mete out punishment. The committee apparently asked the OCE to drop this case. There is no evidence the committee has ever made such a request before.