Maureen Groppe

Star Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee announced Tuesday it is continuing an investigation of allegations against Rep. Marlin Stutzman, essentially guaranteeing it will take no action before the Indiana Republican leaves Congress at the end of the year.

If the committee does not finish its review before Stutzman’s term ends Jan. 3, the panel will no longer have jurisdiction over him.

In making its announcement, the committee also released a report by the independent Office of Congressional Ethics that concluded Stutzman may have used campaign funds to pay for a personal family trip to California last year.

The 5½-day trip included three meetings with supporters or potential supporters but also personal activities, such as tours of Capitol Records, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Reagan Ranch. Other activities, such as dinner with individuals from the Hallmark Channel and a lunch with a Hallmark television show producer, appear to have had only incidental, if any, campaign purpose, according to the report.

The Office of Congressional Ethics, an independent office governed by a board of private citizens that conducts an initial round of fact-finding, determined there was “substantial reason” to believe an ethics violation had occurred.

That triggered a review by the House Ethics Committee.

The panel of five Democrats and five Republicans includes Indiana Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Carmel.

The committee said in a statement Tuesday that it is continuing its review “in order to gather additional information necessary.” The statement noted that its extension does not mean members believe a violation has occurred.

AP: Rep. Marlin Stutzman bills campaign for family trip

Stutzman told the ethics panel in September that the trip was primarily campaign- and fundraising-related, and that the independent body had been predisposed to find him guilty and had ignored exculpatory evidence.

“Spending time with constituents and voters is always permissible campaign-related activity for a member of Congress,” his lawyer wrote to the ethics committee.

But the Office of Congressional Ethics’ report shows Stutzman’s staff raised questions about the personal nature of the trip as it developed.

Stutzman’s former campaign manager, Brendon DelToro, told the Office of Congressional Ethics that he left the campaign because he did not think political funds should have been used to pay for the trip. He also said he had raised concerns as the trip was being developed.

“So I suggested that if the trip were to go forward, we would need to look at using a combination of both campaign and personal money,” DelToro told the investigatory panel.

The trip initially came up in the context of a tour being organized and hosted by Pat Miller, a Fort Wayne radio talk show host. But House rules did not allow Stutzman to be an official part of the tour.

“It appears that a ‘political trip’ was then built around the radio host’s tour,” the Office of Congressional Ethics said in its report.

Stutzman, his wife, their two sons and family friends attended dinner with the radio host’s tour group aboard the Queen Mary and toured the Reagan Library with them.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman defends taking family on California trip

When the bill came for the $712 cost, Stutzman’s chief of staff wrote in an email to DelToro that Stutzman wanted to know whether the cost could be covered by the campaign.

“How is this at all a campaign expense? Taking the family to the Reagan library?” the campaign manager asked.

Stutzman paid for those activities out of personal funds, but he resisted paying for his sons’ plane tickets to California because it appeared that was allowable under Federal Election Commission rules.

When the trip became an issue in Stutzman’s unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for Senate this year, he reimbursed his campaign for the cost.

Stutzman’s wife, Christy, had posted photos of the Reagan Library trip on Facebook, calling it a family vacation. Christy Stutzman told the Office of Congressional Ethics that was “probably a mistake on my part because to me I just try to make the most of everything and have fun.”

A Hallmark Channel executive referred to “The Stutzman Family Vacation” in an email to Christy Stutzman about the upcoming trip and having dinner with the company’s CEO.

Marlin Stutzman said he viewed the family’s tour of Capitol Records as campaign-related because the company has a political action committee and he wanted “to develop the relationship for campaign support.”

Although Stutzman did pay for the dinner on the Queen Mary and tour of the Reagan Library, he told the Office of Congressional Ethics it would have been OK for the campaign to pick up the cost because the events involved meeting constituents and voters.

“Just because an event is not directed solely at fundraising does not mean that it isn’t campaign-related,” his lawyer argued to the House Ethics Committee.

The lawyer also said Stutzman erred in not paying for the cost of the dinner with the Hallmark Channel CEO and not reporting as an in-kind contribution the cost of a lunch with producer Michael Landon until after inquiries from the Office of Congressional Ethics. But the lawyer argued those mistakes were trivial and don’t merit investigation by the Ethics Committee.

The Howe Republican has represented northeast Indiana since November 2010. He won a special election to replace former Rep. Mark Souder, who resigned after admitting an extramarital affair with an aide.

Email Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mgroppe.

Stutzman repays campaign for trip with his family