Reprinted from Roll Call (July 17, 2012)
Q: I work for a Member of the
House, and one of my responsibilities is to help her gather
information for her annual financial disclosure statement. I have
been doing this for years, and we have always been as careful as
possible to ensure that the statements are free of errors. She has
insisted on this approach. Then, last week, I saw that the House
Ethics Committee dismissed charges that a Member had filed false
financial disclosure statements. Apparently, the committee
explained that errors on statements are common. Is it really legal
to file false financial disclosure statements?
A: Is it legal to file a false financial
disclosure statement? In a word, no. If this were not a
family-friendly publication, I might have included a word before
"no" for emphasis. But, this does not mean all types of
errors on financial disclosure statements warrant sanctions. Given
your role in helping your Member with the statements, I
