By Pete Williams, NBC News Justice Correspondent
The U.S. Senate's ethics committee seems to have been more concerned with what Senator Larry Craig did after his arrest in an airport bathroom in June 2007 than with the conduct itself that led to the arrest.
In its "Public Letter of Admonition," addressed to Sen. Craig and released Wednesday night, the committee reviewed the airport incident but did not characterize how it reflected on his Senate colleagues. Instead, the bulk of the letter dealt with what he did in response to his arrest.
The letter noted that Craig gave his business card to the policeman who began an interrogation of the senator at another location in the airport. Craig asked, "What do you think about that?" The Committee concluded that "a reasonable person ... could view your action and statement as an improper attempt by you to use your position and status as a United States Senator to receive special and favorable treatment."
The committee said it did not believe Craig's claim that he wanted to withdraw his plea because he didn't know what he was doing when he entered it. Instead, the committee said trying to withdraw his plea amounted to trying to evade the legal consequences of what he did. "It is a course that a United States Senator should not take," the letter said.
And finally, the committee noted that Sen. Craig has spent over $213,000 from his campaign funds to pay legal fees. The committee said that sort of thing can be done, but only after asking for the Senate's permission, which Craig didn't do.
This decision to admonish Sen. Craig publicly is not the least the committee could have done: it could have simply let the matter drop. But this is the mildest form of public punishment. Some senators in the past have been "severely admonished." And the committee could even have referred this to the full Senate, which can censure and even expel a senator.
"While I am disappointed and strongly disagree with the conclusions reached by the Senate Ethics Committee, from the outset I have encouraged the committee to act in a timely fashion and they have done so. I will continue to serve the people of Idaho," Craig said in a brief statement Wednesday night.
The letter ended the Ethics Committee's handling of the case. Sen. Craig is still seeking to withdraw his guilty plea, and issue that is pending in the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
Click here to see the full PDF of the committee's letter to Craig.
