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Grimm's Threat Against Reporter May Have Broken House Ethics Rules: Report

By Nicholas Rizzi | June 26, 2014 4:36pm
Rep. Michael Grimm Accosts NY1 Reporter
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STATEN ISLAND — Rep. Michael Grimm may have broken House ethics rules when he threatened to throw a NY1 reporter off a balcony and break him in half after an interview in January, the Office of Congressional Ethics concluded in a report.

In a one-page report released on Wednesday by the House Ethics Committee, the office unanimously voted that Grimm's threat against NY1 reporter Michael Scotto created a fear of "immediate injury" and warrants a further review, the New York Times first reported.

However, the House Ethics Committee said in a statement that they will defer investigation into the incident at the request of the Justice Department.

The report said that "there is substantial reason that Representative Grimm's actions in threatening a reporter with bodily harm and engaged in a threatening or meaning act that created a fear of immediate injury, in violation of the D.C. code and House rules." 

After the president's State of the Union address, Scotto tried to ask Grimm about investigations into his 2010 campaign fundraising when Grimm abruptly cut him off, threatened to throw him off a balcony and "break him in half."

"Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this f-----g balcony," Grimm can be heard telling Scotto.

"You're not man enough. I'll break you in half. Like a boy," Grimm later said.

After the incident, Grimm was initially less than apologetic to Scotto but eventually called to apologize and invite him out to lunch.

Grimm did not immediately respond for requests for comment on the ethics vote.

The report is the latest difficulty for Grimm this year. In April, the congressman was hit with a 20 count indictment after feds said he hid more than $1 million in profits for an Upper East Side restaurant his used to own.

Grimm, a former marine and FBI agent, decried the charges as a "political witch hunt" and vowed to fight the charges and continue to serve Staten Island and Brooklyn.

"Time and time again I have shown that I don't abandon my post. I didn't abandon my post when I was fired on in combat... I'm not abandoning my post now," Grimm said in April.