McCain-Palin Campaign Conference Call Setting The Record Straight On Keating Five

Just a couple of key points I think that everyone ought to keep in mind is that from the time the initial allegations were made by the New York Times and Archibald Cox, John was completely open both with the public and with the Senate and in particular the Senate Ethics Committee." -- John Dowd

Today, the McCain-Palin campaign held a press conference call with John Dowd, partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, to set the record straight on John McCain and the Keating Five:

John Dowd: "Good Afternoon. This is John Dowd. I'm a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, and I represented John McCain before the Senate Ethics Committee during the period of November 1990 through January 1991. Just a couple of key points I think that everyone ought to keep in mind is that from the time the initial allegations were made by the New York Times and Archibald Cox, John was completely open both with the public and with the Senate and in particular the Senate Ethics Committee. He fully cooperated. He and his wife Cindy produced all documents requested by Bob Bennett, who was the special counsel. He gave interviews, he gave sworn testimony by way of deposition, and he testified at the hearing conducted by the Senate Ethics Committee.

"Probably the key point for John is he was the only Republican in that hearing and so it had some political overtones given that a number of Democrats were in deep trouble. So that colored the hearings except that it was helpful to have Bob Bennett as Special Counsel to call things straight. And the bottom line was that John had not violated any rule of the Senate or any law of the United States.

"Charlie Keating and Continental, you should recall, were constituents of John. We had a bank that employed some 2,000 people in Arizona, so he had to pay attention to it. But he resisted all importuning of Mr. Keating to negotiate with the bank board and the importuning of the Senior Senator DeConcini to negotiate with the bank board and get more involved. He did make inquiries. The Senate Committee cleared him completely and terminated the investigation. They only found they thought it was poor judgment for him to intervene with the regulators.

"That's not something that as his counsel I accepted. I think what he did was perfectly appropriate given the criticism by a very prominent accounting firm of the way in which the board was handling Continental. But in any event that's the net of it and I'm happy to respond to any questions you have.

...

"No it doesn't surprise me it's come up, but you know, as Bob Bennett with tell you, there was no merit, the allegations against John, and he should not have gone to a hearing and the committee should have so ruled. But you know Senator Mitchell was the Majority Leader and Howell Heflen was his stooge and he was doing what he was told because the rest were Democrats in the hearing. So it's sort of a classic political smear job on John. On the other hand, I think the merits are the merits, and Bob Bennett will tell you that John had not done anything wrong. If anything he had taken a number of affirmative actions such as the, you know the plane trips when he was a House member, when he discovered that he hadn't reimbursed. He not only reimbursed but he disclosed that to both the House and the Senate, which is a terrific act of integrity. I doubt if you'd find any member of the House or the Senate today that would do the same thing. And then he faced the issue squarely when it was brought up and he was honest about what he had done and he tried to be very careful in the handling of it, and when he discovered that Keating was pushing too hard he threw Keating out of his office and ended all relations with him. So he put his oath first like he always does."

Listen To The Conference Call