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Paying The Price Talk about ethics charges! Breaking the rules will cost Newt Gingrich $300,000. By Richard Lacayo/TIME

Newt's Day Of Deliverance But an intercepted cellular call gives him and the Democrats more ethical problems. By George J. Church/TIME

Newt's Influence Slips Away Gingrich worked the phone hard to save his job, but no matter what the outcome of the vote for Speaker, his influence is already greatly diminished. By Richard Lacayo/TIME

Related Sites

Ethics Committee Hearing Transcript, Jan. 17, 1997

Download or read special counsel James Cole's full report.

The House Ethics Committee Report

House Ethics Manual

Newt Gingrich's Dec. 21, 1996 Statement

GOPAC

Newt Gingrich's Sixth District Home Page

U.S. House of Representatives

The Official Friends of Newt Gingrich

CQ: David Bonior Biography

CQ: Newt Gingrich Biography

CQ: Nancy Johnson Biography

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Gingrich's Ethics

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David Bonior

David E. Bonior. Rep. Bonior, a Democrat who represents the suburbs northeast of Detroit, has been one of Newt Gingrich's harshest critics ever since Republicans took control of the House in 1994. Bonior, who serves as minority whip, has kept up a steady drumbeat of criticism, taking Gingrich to task on various matters including the fund-raising for his college course. After Bonior led the attack on Gingrich for accepting a $4.5 million advance for a book, Gingrich agreed to take $1 instead.

James Cole

James M. Cole. Cole is a former Justice Department prosecutor who serves as special counsel for the House ethics committee in the Gingrich investigation. Cole, a partner in a Washington law firm, spent 13 years with the Justice Department where he handled the first prosecution of a lawmaker under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act.

Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. The official name of the House ethics committee. Its members are Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Porter Goss (R-Fla.), David Hobson (R-Ohio), Steven Schiff (R-N.M.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Robert A. Borski (D-Pa.) and Tom Sawyer (D-Ohio).

Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich. When the GOP took control of the House in 1994, Newt Gingrich became the first Republican speaker in 40 years. Articulate and energetic, Gingrich prepared to reshape the nation's agenda along conservative lines and engineered votes on many parts of the Republicans' "Contract With America." But Gingrich's combative style and the recurring government shutdowns during budget negotiations with the Democrats caused his popularity to slide, and some House Republicans tried to distance themselves from Gingrich during the 1996 elections. Depending on its final outcome, the ethics probe could cut into Gingrich's power even if, as appears likely, he retains his speakership. A former history professor, Gingrich was elected to the Congress in 1978.

GOPAC. A political action committee that Newt Gingrich ran from 1986 through 1995, GOPAC trains Republican activists to run for political office. In February 1996, in a major victory for Gingrich, a judge threw out a government lawsuit alleging campaign finance violations.

Nancy Johnson

Nancy L. Johnson. A moderate Connecticut Republican, Johnson chaired the House ethics committee considering Gingrich's case. She served on the ethics committee starting in 1991 and stepped down from the post after the committee completed work on the Gingrich case.

John and Alice Martin. This Florida couple, longtime Democrats and active in the National Education Association, taped a cellular telephone conversation between Gingrich and several GOP allies which dealt with a strategy for responding to the ethics committee charges against the speaker. The Martins say they began taping the conversation while on a Christmas shopping excursion simply because they thought it would make a good gift for their soon-to-be-born grandchild. Realizing its possible significance, they contacted their congressional representative, Rep. Karen Thurman (D-Fla.), who sealed the tape in an envelope. Thurman gave the tape back to the Martins who delivered the tape in person to Rep. McDermott on a trip to Washington, D.C. The taping and distributing cellular conversation is illegal, and the Justice Department, now in possession of the tape, has launched an investigation.

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Jim McDermott. McDermott, the ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee, broke the ethics committee's code of silence in late September to complain Republicans were dragging their feet on the probe. One of Gingrich's fiercest critics, McDermott found himself in hot water over his handling of a possibly illegal tape recording of a cellular telephone conversation involving Gingrich and several Republican allies. McDermott recused himself from the Gingrich case on Jan. 14 over the tape incident.

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