Lawyers for Idaho Sen. Craig ask ethics panel to reject a complaint against him

WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Sen. Larry Craig asked the Senate ethics committee Wednesday to reject a complaint based on the Idaho Republican's guilty plea in a police undercover operation in an airport men's room, saying the events were "wholly unrelated" to official duties.

"Assertion of jurisdiction over this matter by the committee would be literally unprecedented and would create deleterious consequences for the Senate as a whole," the lawyers wrote.

The letter was hand-delivered to the ethics committee hours after Craig served notice that he was reconsidering his weekend pledge to resign his seat.

Craig pleaded guilty last month to a charge of disorderly conduct following his arrest by an undercover police officer stationed in the airport men's room who said the senator had behaved like a man soliciting sex. Craig subsequently denied guilt.

Republican leaders publicly and privately pressured Craig to resign, and made it clear they considered the episode closed.

But his spokesman threw doubt on that pledge Tuesday night. "We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight — and stay in the Senate," said Sidney Smith.

Craig has hired a Minnesota lawyer, apparently in hopes of withdrawing his guilty plea, and retained Washington attorney Stanley Brand to represent his interests before the Senate ethics committee.

In his letter, Brand wrote that the committee should dismiss the complaint "to avoid creating precedence for the filing of future complaints over purely personal conduct unrelated to the performance of official duties."

He added he was unaware of a "single case where either the full Senate or the ethics committee has taken cognizance of a complaint ... which in no way implicated official action by the subject senator."

To take action on Craig's case, Brand added, would lead the Senate down a path of dealing with "a host of minor misdemeanors and transgressions."

Craig's evident change of heart would present Republican leaders with a tricky political situation, particularly since it was their own complaint that threw the case to the ethics committee last week.