Our Editorial: House sex scandal needs more answers

Institutions that investigate themselves have a tendency to miss things, sometimes very important things. That’s why a broader, independent probe is necessary into whether state Reps. Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser abused taxpayer resources to cover up their illicit affair.

The House Business Office was given the assignment of examining whether the two Republican lawmakers committed misconduct. It produced a report it handed over to a special legislative committee that will determine whether expulsion proceedings are merited.

From the truncated summary of the report, there are indications Courser and Gamrat, both married to other people, crossed ethical lines in attempting to use their staff to execute a scheme to divert attention from rumors of their romance.

Whether their behavior also broke laws is less clear, in large part because House Speaker Kevin Cotter won’t release the full report. He’s hiding behind a convenient exemption the Legislature granted itself from the Freedom of Information Act.

We have no reason to doubt the House Business Office did a thorough job. But neither can we fully trust an inside investigation without seeing the complete results. And at least three times in the summary, the authors say “further investigation is warranted.”

Agreed. An independent investigation by the state attorney general’s office would go further in building trust that the House is not hiding public information because it would be embarrassing to the institution.

With the Gamrat/Courser scandal expected to play a role in next year’s battle for control of the House, it is within the realm of possibility that the Republican speaker would not want to give Democrats more ammunition than he has to.

But there is the possibility that illegal acts have been committed. For example, if hotel rooms for personal business were booked at state expense, it could rise to a criminal offense. The House has no expertise in conducting a criminal investigation.

The attorney general’s office does have such experience. It can not only deliver a more comprehensive report, but can also make recommendations on what needs fixing to avoid future incidents.

Taxpayers have a right to know what happened in the state-funded offices of these two lawmakers, and the extent to which any misconduct violated the law or misused state funds.

The attorney general should be asked to find out.