|
West Virginia First District Congressman Alan Mollohan is fighting for his political life in a district that has widely supported him.
Mollohan says the facts have been distorted and manipulated, in recent attacks regarding his skyrocketing wealth, funneling money to non-profits and misrepresentations on his financial statement.
The Congressman says the facts prove that claims from the National Legal and Policy Center are "exaggerated."
"They've mixed apples and oranges and associated perfectly appropriate, honorable things, investments by my wife and I, my wife have worked in investments for ten years, that's her job, managing real estate. And they've attacked us for that and attacked us for being appropriators and attacked us for creating non-profits," he said.
Mollohan released detailed financial disclosure forms covering a period of years, starting in the late 1990s, more disclosure than other elected officials have made.
"I invite anyone to review it carefully," says the Congressman.
The National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative policy group, sent a 500-page report to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, detailing 200 alleged discrepancies in Mollohan's financial report.
Mollohan says, after his own review he made 19 changes, describing them as 'unintentional and immaterial.'
"My release is totally transparent. It just gives everybody all the information and clearly shows that all of the assets ... all that we've invested, comes from us, nobody else."
Mollohan says he has done nothing wrong.
"The National Legal and Policy Center, they come out and make these charges and people think, 'oh my goodness, nobody would make these charges if they weren't true.' Well, yes, organizations like this do. And they are very tied into the national right wing movement, not the conservative movement, not the traditional Republican movement, but the right wing movement," says Mollohan.
The full report from the National Legal and Policy Center has not been released.
Excerpts from the report alleged a connection between the non-profit groups that benefit from federal budget earmarks that Mollohan secures and the people who donate to his campaigns plus those involved in real estate investments.
Mollohan says his disclosures should put that to rest.
| 
