The strange case of Oklahoma City Rep. Ajay Pittman grows stranger by the week.
The Oklahoma Ethics Commission has now sued the four-term Democrat in Oklahoma County District Court, alleging she created false documents in an attempt to evade a 2024 settlement over campaign-finance violations.
Separately, state investigators searched Pittman’s Capitol office and home, citing probable cause to believe she committed forgery, embezzlement and violations of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.
Among the allegations:
Pittman submitted a fake $2,500 cashier’s check to the Ethics Commission “showing” she was making payments on the $35,000 settlement agreement to cover civil penalties and to reimburse her campaign account for spending unrelated to her office or campaign.
She also presented the commission with a bogus letter supposedly from a building manager who claimed water damage destroyed her campaign records.
According to authorities, Sovereign Bank confirmed the cashier’s check was never issued and evidence gleaned from Pittman’s computer suggests the document-destruction letter was created instead by her mother, former state Rep. Anastasia Pittman.
A third-grader’s idea of a slick cover-up? Or the slapstick stuff of Capitol comedy legend? Either way, it’s conduct unbecoming an elected public official. Or should be.
Those of a certain age will remember the collective shock when Americans learned President Eisenhower – our World War II hero! – lied about the U-2 spy plane shot down over Soviet air space.
Or when President Nixon resigned in disgrace amid revelations he worked to cover-up the burglary and bugging of the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters.
Or when it was revealed President Clinton, in fact, did “have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”
Alas, what once was unacceptable now is regarded indifferently by many Americans, who elected a president to a second term even though he made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his first term and was convicted of 34 felony business fraud counts for his efforts to hide hush money payments to a porn star.
Pittman’s alleged misconduct may seem laughable by comparison. But it is not. Her inability – or perhaps unwillingness – to follow state ethics laws is a serious breach of public trust directly affecting the 39,000-plus residents of HD 99 who elected her to represent their best interests at the state Capitol.
How so?
Well, in the wake of the Ethics Commission lawsuit and an ongoing Attorney General’s office investigation, House Democrats stripped Pittman of caucus membership and urged Republican House Speaker Kyle Hilbert to suspend her from all committee assignments, which he did.
“I have taken the minority caucus’ recommendation and have removed Rep. Pittman from all committee assignments, in addition to her previous removal from the State Tribal Relations Committee,” Hilbert said. “These are serious findings from the Ethics Commission, in addition to an ongoing criminal investigation, so I feel this additional step is warranted.”
It’s important to note Pittman has not been charged with any crimes. And that she is to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
But these sorts of cases are rarely resolved overnight. The district court lawsuit – which depicts Pittman’s antics as “intentional, malicious” and “in reckless disregard of the Commission’s enforcement authority and statutory duties” – could drag on for months, perhaps years. Who knows how long the AG’s investigation will take – or whether it will yield criminal charges?
In the meantime, Pittman’s constituents twist in the wind. Yes, she can vote on measures that come before the full House. But she can’t participate in committees – a vital stage in the sausage-making process.
For the good of her district and her state, Pittman should resign.
