WASHPO: Marion Barry reprimanded but cleared of violating D.C. law

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Excerpt:

By Nikita Stewart

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Five months after D.C. Council member Marion Barry was censured and stripped of his committee chairmanship for giving a contract last year to an on-again, off-again girlfriend, the Office of Campaign Finance has admonished the former mayor but cleared him of violating city law.

Cecily E. Collier-Montgomery, director of the campaign finance office, reprimanded Barry (D-Ward 8) in an official order posted Monday after the office found that he did not follow the city's regulations for employee conduct.

She wrote that Barry "failed to disclose his personal and financial relationship with Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. Disclosure of the relationship would have resulted in the transparency of the transaction and removed any cloud from the contract process."

But Barry called the order a "vindication" at a news conference Monday and had harsh words for high-profile lawyer Robert S. Bennett, who led the D.C. Council's independent investigation into the contract and into several earmarks Barry gave to groups in Ward 8.

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