
News Stories
- This Election Season Will Deliver Drama, Upheaval
February 4, 2010 - Trouble at home for Mollohan
February 1, 2010 - Americans grow tired of ‘Politics of Deception’
January 31, 2010 - House Should Pursue Probe
January 30, 2010 - W.Va. voters will judge Rep. Mollohan
January 28, 2010 - DOJ Ends Mollohan Probe; Is Ethics Next?
January 27, 2010 - 4-year probe ends into finances of West Virginia congressman
January 27, 2010 - Justice Dept. halts its Mollohan funds inquiry
January 27, 2010 - Rep. Mollohan Probe Ends With No Charges
January 27, 2010 - Justice Dept. ends probe of Rep. Mollohan
January 26, 2010 - Feds end probe of W.Va. congressman; no charges
January 26, 2010 - Mollohan cleared of wrongdoing
January 26, 2010 - DOJ ends Mollohan probe, but questions remain on earmarks, political favoritism
January 26, 2010 - Dem Rep Mollohan In The Clear As Feds Close Years-Long Probe
January 26, 2010 - Hoppy Kercheval: Is Mollohan in trouble?
January 8, 2010 - THEIR VIEW: Could Mollohan be next to drop out?
January 8, 2010 - Mollohan, Rockefeller Rank High in Riches
December 14, 2009 - Mollohan's conflict: Pelosi punts
November 29, 2009 - Dem Rep Controls DOJ Budget While Under DOJ Investigation
November 24, 2009 - Justice probing lawmaker with oversight over department
November 24, 2009 - Justice Department investigates Mollohan
November 24, 2009 - Mollohan Conflict of Interest Scrutinized by Washington Post
November 24, 2009 - Ethics inquiry looks into several House panel members
November 1, 2009 - House members under ethics scrutiny
October 31, 2009 - Ethics probe may have a political price
October 31, 2009 - Leaked House Ethics Doc: Less Than Meets The Eye?
October 30, 2009 - Mollohan still being investigated by Justice Department, newspaper says
October 30, 2009 - Federal investigation into Mollohan continues
October 30, 2009 - Will Ethics Probe Take Down any Lawmakers?
October 30, 2009 - Dozens in Congress under ethics inquiry
October 30, 2009 - Mollohan Scandal Property Goes to Foreclosure
October 20, 2009 - Mollohan Property Faces Foreclosure
October 16, 2009 - Congressman's questionable real-estate deal now in foreclosure
October 15, 2009 - More Mollohan earmark muck disclosed by West Virginia Watchdog
October 12, 2009 - Mollohan and Vandalia Team Up Again for Armory
October 12, 2009 - Conservative Leaders Decry Continuing Culture of Corruption
October 7, 2009 - Republicans take aim at W.Va.'s Mollohan
October 2, 2009 - WV Congressman Alan Mollohan on Watchdog List
September 28, 2009 - Corruption Probe Hangs Over Mollohan
September 27, 2009 - Democrats now comprise majority of ‘most corrupt in Congress’ list
September 16, 2009 - Watchdog CREW lists most corrupt members of Congress
September 16, 2009 - Mollohan calls corruption report ‘nonsense’
September 16, 2009 - Dirty Money Watch: Rep. Alan Mollohan
August 26, 2009 - 13 Democrats Facing Probes As Recess Begins
August 3, 2009 - Earmarked Disappointment
May 18, 2009 - W.Va. Gets Lots of Pork
May 11, 2009 - Turnover on Panel Slows Progress
April 14, 2009 - Lawmakers Slow to Comply With New Filing Requirement
April 6, 2009 - Firms Mum on PMA Plans
April 1, 2009 - Work to Do
April 1, 2009 - Flake Won’t Give Up on PMA
March 18, 2009 - "Roll Call" Cites Congressman
March 13, 2009 - Mollohan Charity Got Rent Deal
March 10, 2009 - Lawmakers Return Money Tied to Troubled Lobby Firm
February 19, 2009 - 3 Lawmakers Will Return Money Tied to Lobbyist
February 18, 2009 - Inappropriate Appropriations
February 11, 2009 - Six Degrees of Alan Mollohan
January 29, 2009 - Democrats Are the New Ethics Story
December 19, 2008
The 15 most corrupt members of Congress
- Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
- Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL)
- Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
- Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA)
- Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
- Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
- Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)
- Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA)
- Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY)
- Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA)
- Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-IN)
- Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
- Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Dishonorable mentions
Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV)

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Representative Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV) is a fourteen-term member of Congress, representing West Virginia’s 1st congressional district. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee, where he is chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; he is also a member of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies and the Subcommittee on Homeland Security.
Rep. Mollohan’s ethics issues stem primarily from misuse of his position on the Appropriations Committee, from which he has steered hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks to family, friends, former employees and corporations in exchange for contributions to his campaign and political action committees. In addition, Rep. Mollohan misreported his personal assets on his financial disclosure forms. He is currently the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. The congressman was included in CREW’s 2006, 2007, and 2008 reports on congressional corruption.
Earmarking of Funds for His Personal Benefit
Over the past ten plus years, Rep. Mollohan has earmarked $369 million in federal grants to his district for 254 separate programs. Between 1997 and 2006, $250 million of that total was directed to five nonprofit organizations that were created by Rep. Mollohan and staffed by his friends. During the same period, top-paid employees, board members and contractors of these organizations gave at least $397,122 to Rep. Mollohan’s campaign and political action committees.
If Rep. Mollohan accepted campaign donations in direct exchange for earmarking federal funds to the nonprofits run by these donors he may have committed bribery and honest services fraud in violation House rules prohibiting dispensing special favors and engaging in conduct that does not reflect creditably on the House.
In June 2004, Rep. Mollohan, his wife, and two top aides took a five-day trip to Bilbao, Spain. The trip, arranged by the West Virginia High Technology Consortium and costing over $36,000 ($7,800 of which constituted the Mollohans’ expenses), was paid for by a group of government contractors to whom Rep. Mollohan funneled more than $250 million in earmarked funds. By soliciting funding for his trip to Spain from TMC Technologies one month after TMC received a $5 million contract as a result of an earmark from him, Rep. Mollohan appears to be in violation of the illegal gratuity statute as well as House travel rules.
Rep. Mollohan continues to maintain a close relationship with several companies that either have office space in the complex run by a non-profit sponsored by the congressman or are clients of Robison International, a lobbying firm that has been a major campaign supporter.
Also, Rep. Mollohan’s family foundation has received free rent and administrative services from a Mollohan backed non-profit while it accepted donations from companies supported by the congressman through earmarks.
Financial Disclosure Forms
Between 2000 and 2004, Rep. Mollohan went from owning assets of less than $500,000, generating less than $80,000 in income in 2000, to at least $6.3 million in assets earning $200,000 to $1.2 million in 2004. As of 2005, Rep. Mollohan’s reported personal assets were worth at least $8 million and his liabilities were in excess of $3.43 million. In June 2006, Rep. Mollohan was forced to file two dozen corrections to his past six financial disclosure forms. If Rep. Mollohan knowingly filed inaccurate financial disclosure statements he broke the law prohibiting false statements.
Department of Justice Investigation
Because of the pending Department of Justice (DOJ) criminal investigation, in January 2007, when Rep. Mollohan was named as the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Related Agencies, he recused himself from working on matters related to the DOJ’s budget. The FBI has subpoenaed financial records from the non-profit organizations that have benefitted from federal funding steered to them by Rep. Mollohan. In addition, at least one witness has been subpoenaed to testify about Rep. Mollohan’s finances before a grand jury. Despite legal questions surrounding some of Rep. Mollohan’s previous earmarks, Rep. Mollohan requested a $1 million earmark to allow the Department of the Interior to expand a wilderness area abutting property owned by the congressman, thereby increasing his property’s value.
Rep. Mollohan spent over $157,000 on legal fees and services in the 2008 election cycle. Despite the ongoing investigation, Rep. Mollohan did not recuse himself from working on the 2010 Commerce, Science and Justice appropriations bill.
