5 months ago
WASHINGTON,DC (WUSA) -- Angry City Council members Friday agreed to hire an outside investigator to probe the propriety of a personal service contract awarded by Ward Eight Councilman Marion Barry to a woman he was dating when that contract was granted.
In addition, the investigation will examine the process by which council members are allowed to award these contracts and may offer recommendations on how to change the process that allows public money to be awarded unilaterally by council members to friends.
The investigation is being led by high-profile Washington super lawyer Robert Bennet, a former prosecutor who conducted a corruption investigation for the Senate Ethics Committee in the notorious Keating Five scandal nearly 20 years ago.
Bennet also represented then President Clinton in the sex scandal that plagued Clinton in the 1990s.
The action comes at the end of a week dominated by news about Barry and his former girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, whose confrontation with Barry in Anacostia Park on July Fourth led to Barry's arrest on a stalking charge. Prosecutors decided to drop that charge earlier this week.
"I believe an independent review is a logical first step," said Council Chairman Vincent Gray.
"We believe that it should be independently investigated and to do the best job that we can to make sure that there were no rules that were broken in the District of Columbia by this contract and also, frankly the question that was raised about public perception as very important. We want the public to be as satisfied as they possibly can that this situation has been thoroughly investigated and that we've gotten at what the facts are," Gray said.
Shortly after Barry took the podium to proclaim his innocence, three council members walked out of the room, one muttering "I can't take this any more." Council sources tell 9News Now that council members were surprised when Barry rose to speak, and did not want to be seen as supporting him by their presence.
Bennet is performing the investigation at no charge, and hopes to conclude it soon.
