DeLay's replacement says staff deleted records and files

[Jon8503]

JOE STINEBAKER
Associated Press

HOUSTON - Just three days after being sworn in, U.S. Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs wants Congress to investigate the destruction of files in her office by former staff members of her predecessor, Tom DeLay.

Sekula Gibbs said the staffers walked out of her office Tuesday, resigning en masse. A Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, reported the staffers didn't like the way she was treating them.

Sekula-Gibbs said in a statement Thursday that seven employees in her Washington office and the district office in Stafford, Texas, outside Houston, "deleted records and files without my knowledge or permission" before quitting.

Spokeswoman Lisa Dimond told The Associated Press that the congresswoman had not yet gotten a response to her request for an investigation by the House's chief administrative officer.

Sekula-Gibbs, who is serving out the last seven weeks of DeLay's term, said the walkouts were "suspicious" in that the seven took the time to delete files before leaving without notice.

Dimond said other staffers discovered the work-related files were missing when they tried to access them.

Sekula-Gibbs has raised a few eyebrows on Capitol Hill in her first three days in office, largely because of the mass resignation.

She prompted chuckles in The Washington Post and other national publications by telling reporters she planned to resolve such thorny issues as tax cuts, immigration reform and the Iraq war - all in less than two weeks of a lame-duck Congress. And then her staff walked out without warning.

The aides' departure left her with a Washington staff of two former Houston City Council aides, an intern on loan from Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Flower Mound, and a congressional aide.

(link deleted, takes U to the Ft. Worth signin page - this is all of the article anyway)

[stepnw1f]

1. Obstruction of Justice

Accident or not....

[Kagemusha]

3. The aides said they're required by the rules to do that.

Congressional rules.

Either they are, or they're not, and I would like to know which ASAP

Edit: And it's PRECISELY the kind of response like post #2 below that inspired me to write the above when I saw this new posted article did not contain the relevant claim by one of those ex aides. :(

[Virginia Dare]

2. Round them all up and water board them...

until we get to the bottom of it.

[AdvancedProgress]

4. Really?

:wtf:

[texpatriot2004]

5. Here's another thread on the topic - link below

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2619299&mesg_id=2620175

[HereSince1628]

6. She probably told them no more skyboxes and no more inside trading

that made her an enemy of the state.

[annabanana]

7. I find her behavior kind of. . . .

cute.

(I see a madcap comedy movie . . . maybe with the "new" Reese Witherspoon, whoever that is)

[ashling]

8. Her arrival in Washington was DeLayed

:rofl:

[izzie]

9. Always fun to have nine year olds run the country.

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