Projects Seen as Cogs in a Political Machine

WASHINGTON — For the past several years, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) fervently maintained that “Renewing American Civilization” was a routine college course that promoted citizenship.

He insisted that the “American Opportunities Workshop” was a television program that encouraged viewers to become actively involved in their communities.

He contended that “American Citizens’ Television” was merely an updated version of the same TV workshop.

However, in a sharp rebuke issued Friday, the bipartisan House Ethics Committee swept aside these assertions and portrayed all three programs as pieces of Gingrich’s political machine--an elaborate, multifaceted enterprise infused with partisan politics and fundamentally designed to advance the Republican agenda.

The committee concluded that Gingrich’s college course and two TV programs were used to improperly attract more than $1 million in tax-exempt charitable contributions to help get Republican candidates elected to Congress.

In each case, “there was an effort to have the material appear to be nonpartisan on its face yet serve as a partisan, political message for building the Republican Party,” James M. Cole, special counsel for the Gingrich investigation, told the committee during a special hearing.

Cole added: “There was such a clear political partisan intent to these projects. . . . It should have set off a lot of alarms and bells. . . .”

The ethics panel concluded there was a “pattern” of Gingrich using tax-deductible donations to launch “political projects” that were motivated in part by “political” goals, according to the committee’s 213-page report.

The committee’s tax expert, Washington attorney Celia Roady, found a “clear violation” of federal tax law because evidence showed that the speaker’s course and TV projects were intended to benefit Gingrich, his GOPAC political fund-raising organization and other Republican candidates.

But the Ethics Committee, while recommending a reprimand and assessing a $300,000 fine against Gingrich for engaging in unethical conduct and providing the committee “inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable” information, steered clear of making any judgment of whether he violated tax laws.

That does not mean Gingrich has no worries on this front. Tax experts said that the panel’s findings could lead to further action by the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department.

“This case is still potentially open for the IRS or the Justice Department to come to a different, stronger conclusion as to what the consequences could be for Gingrich, his associates and the organizations he used,” said Gregory L. Colvin, a widely recognized expert on tax-exempt law.

The Ethics Committee’s yearlong investigation involved about 90 subpoenas or requests for documents, 150,000 pages of records, and interviews with about 70 people. Gingrich was interviewed twice by Cole and appeared before the committee to answer questions on two other occasions.

The panel noted in its report that Gingrich was familiar with federal tax laws that require tax-exempt organizations to operate exclusively for charitable purposes and prohibit any form of partisan activity. Before the speaker initiated his college course and television workshops, he and his cadre of political advisors in 1986 created the American Campaign Academy, a training program to teach campaign workers how to win elections.

A federal judge rejected the school’s attempt to gain tax-exempt status because officials had sought to hide the Republican Party connections.

“I lived through that case,” Gingrich told the ethics subcommittee in November. “I mean, I was very well aware of what the [American Campaign Academy] did and what the ruling was.”

That statement appears to contradict Gingrich’s assertion last month--made when he admitted violating House rules in connection with several charitable organizations--that he was “naive” about federal tax law.

Until last month, Gingrich had vehemently denied that his college course or television workshops were utilized to promote the GOP’s partisan interests. He had insisted that both projects were strictly nonpartisan, legal and ethical, and he criticized Democrats for inventing “spurious” charges and “misusing the ethics system in a deliberate, vicious and vindictive way.”

In 1993, Gingrich offered to teach a nationally televised course at Kennesaw State College in his congressional district. Gingrich said he designed the course, called “Renewing American Civilization,” to teach the concepts of freedom and progress and help people improve their daily lives.

Three years earlier, Gingrich had developed a television program called the “American Opportunities Workshop” that he said would communicate basic American values and build a movement intended to increase citizen involvement. Later that year, the program became “American Citizens’ Television,” or ACTV.

But the Ethics Committee detailed what it termed “striking” similarities in the development and financing of the college course and the television workshops:

Gingrich’s political action committee, GOPAC, initiated the projects as part of its objective to elect a Republican majority in Congress, the committee concluded. Also, GOPAC turned to charitable foundations when it needed new sources of money for the two projects.

Gingrich’s college course, which was broadcast nationwide via satellite and cable television, spent about $1.2 million in mostly tax-deductible funds through the Kennesaw State College Foundation and the Progress & Freedom Foundation. The committee found that the course was financed by GOPAC donors and produced by GOPAC employees.

The ACTV project spent about $260,000 in tax-deductible donations through the Abraham Lincoln Opportunity Foundation, a Colorado-based charitable group created in 1984. The committee found that this foundation, while financing the TV project, operated out of GOPAC offices and virtually all of its officers and employees were GOPAC staffers.