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April 10 (Bloomberg) — Republican U.S. Senator Rick Santorum said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay should reveal his actions regarding reports that he went on a lobbyist-funded trip and that his wife and daughter were paid by his political action committee.
“I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves,” Santorum, 46, of Pennsylvania, said during an interview today on ABC’s “This week.”
Allies of DeLay, 57, are organizing a public relations campaign to counter ethics questions and preserve the Texas Republican’s power, the Washington Post reported today, citing people participating in planning sessions. DeLay, a top fund- raiser for Republican candidates, was admonished three times last year by the House ethics committee.
The Washington Post reported last week that DeLay accepted a 1997 trip to Moscow financed by lobbyists for the Russian government. DeLay had reported that a Washington-based nonprofit group funded the $57,000 trip, the Post said. DeLay told CNN the report was an “attempt by the liberal media to embarrass me” and that members of Congress couldn’t be responsible for investigating the funding of nonprofit groups.
Separately, the New York Times reported that DeLay’s wife, Christine, and his daughter, Dani DeLay Ferro, were paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by DeLay’s political action and campaign committees. DeLay aides told the Times that both family members played central roles in his fundraising efforts.