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John McCain, according to a revelatory article in The New Republic, was almost certainly the source for illegal leaks during the Keating Five investigation — leaks that, if proven, would have been cause for his expulsion from the United States Senate for perjury.  Additionally, according to a report by Sam Stein in today’s Huffington Post, John McCain lied to the Keating Five investigators about the extent of his family’s financial ties to Charles Keating.  These lies could also have been cause for his fellow Senators to expel McCain from their ranks, had they been discovered at the time.

How did John McCain escape expulsion from the Senate? Leaking details of the investigation, lying under oath about those leaks, and lying to investigators about the details of one’s family’s business dealings with Charles Keating are certainly valid reasons for being expelled from the Senate. 

First, the leaks from the Senate Ethics Committee investigation.  Sahil Mahtani reports in The New Republic (my bold):

Yet the Ethics Committee’s was not the only investigation into the scandal. There were two other probes at the time that got barely any public attention–both of which largely focused on McCain himself. These were probes into illicit leaks about the proceedings of the Ethics Committee–leaks that repeatedly benefited McCain and hurt his Keating Five colleagues. One of those senators described the leaks at the time as a "violation of ethical behavior at least as serious as anything of which we senators have been accused."

The leaks, if they were coming from a senator, were also illegal. All five senators–including McCain–had testified under oath and under the U.S. penal code that the leaks did not come from their camps. The leaks were also prohibited by rules of the Senate Ethics Committee; according to the rules of the Senate, anyone caught leaking such information could face expulsion from the body. These, then, were not the usual Washington disclosures: Discovered, they could have stopped the career of any Washington politician in his tracks.

The two investigations into the leaks suggested McCain’s involvement but were officially inconclusive. New evidence, obtained in recent weeks, again points back to the McCain camp. The investigator of those leaks now says that he does not doubt that they came from McCain or his team. A reporter who possessed evidence in the Keating case now says he believes that McCain was the source and got away with it. Finally, a senator who has emerged as a key backer of McCain’s presidential campaign turns out to have authored a letter stating flatly that McCain was the source of the damning leaks. Put together, a large record of evidence now points in the direction of Senator McCain. Far from McCain’s reputation of putting "country first," these leaks depict a formidable politician willing to go through great lengths to maintain his standing. More than McCain’s relationship with Keating, it is the story of the Keating investigation leaks that voters should know. 

Second, the untruths McCain actually told the Keating Five investigators about his family’s business dealings with Charles Keating. Sam Stein reports:

But this is not be the only instance in which McCain defied the rules of the Senate when seeking to absolve himself of any wronging in the Keating affair. Public records in Arizona reveal that the Senator was also dishonest in discussing the extent of financial transactions he and his family had with the disgraced Savings and Loans chief.

In a three-and-a-half hour interview with investigators on February 13, 1990, McCain told the Ethics Committee that "other than the Fountain Square project [a property deal in which Keating and McCain's family were jointly invested] there were no other financial dealings between him or his family and ACC [American Continental Corporation]."

This, it seems, was not true.

Before this campaign ends, John McCain must answer these new questions about the Keating Five investigation. Did he thwart it by illegal leaks? Did he lie to investigators? Did he escape expulsion from the Senate by subterfuge and dissembling?

Did John McCain put country first? Or did he put John McCain first, as always?