Stan in The Hill on Renzi's Failure to Disclose

“Speaking generally, failure to disclose is always a signal to investigators of an intent to conceal,” said Stan Brand, an ethics lawyer who has advised many lawmakers on how fill out their personal financial disclosure reports.

“You’re always better off listing a transaction, even if it falls in a gray area, and I don’t think this falls in a gray area,” he said of the reported $200,000 payment to Renzi. “Failure to disclose always sets you up for a charge of intent to conceal.

“I don’t see how you avoid that,” he said of reporting such a large payment. “It’s hard for me to imagine how you avoid disclosing that if you have interest in a transaction. If you’re getting proceeds, how do you avoid reporting that?”

Brand noted that indictments related to the scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff cited failures to report gifts on disclosure records as evidence of intent to conceal conduct.

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