(Andrew Harnik/AP)A congressional ethics panel said there is “substantial reason to believe” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), broke House rules by paying his departed chief of staff a three-month severance package in 2015. The findings of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) were released by the House Ethics Committee on Wednesday. According to the OCE report, Meadows said he would take care of it — and swiftly did, making sure that West was no longer present around the office. In May 2016 letter to House Ethics Committee leaders, Meadows’s attorney said he had opted not to engage in the “duplicative, costly and burdensome process” of the OCE review since the Ethics Committee “is the ultimate arbiter of compliance with House Rules and Standards of Conduct.”But the OCE did not recommend the House Ethics Committee take Meadows’s actions in stride. A spokesman for Meadows said Wednesday that the congressman intends to cooperate with the House Ethics Committee going forward, and “is fully confident that the Committee will find that he acted in good faith.”

Source: Washington Post August 17, 2016 16:59 UTC