Silence isn't golden

More than two weeks have passed since a longtime aide to U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah appeared to implicate the congressman in a plea deal on campaign-finance fraud charges. Yet Fattah has not addressed the matter other than in radio interviews in which he said he has "never engaged in any illegal conduct."

Whether it is arrogance, or fear of self-incrimination, that has made Fattah reticent, his silence serves as an affront to Second District voters, who in two months must decide whether to return him to Congress for another term.

Fattah's former aide, Gregory Naylor, told federal investigators he helped a person assumed to be Fattah, but identified in court documents only as "Elected Official A," to funnel federal and charitable dollars through two nonprofit groups and other private companies to pay off a $1 million campaign loan that Fattah received while running for mayor in 2007.

Fattah hasn't been charged with any crime. But the congressman can't deny sharing some responsibility as Naylor's boss for crimes his aide has admitted he committed while working for Fattah. If Fattah doesn't know how money meant for education programs and college scholarships for schoolchildren was actually being spent, he needs to explain why he was blind to what Naylor says he did.

Fattah put Naylor in a position to access those funds. By making Naylor both the chief of staff of his congressional office and his top political consultant, Fattah created an environment in which Naylor free-floated in the netherworld between government and politics for decades. Through all that time, was Fattah clueless about Naylor's activities? If he wants the public to believe that, he has to explain why.

Naylor's plea deal details what happened when the contributor of the illegal $1 million loan to Fattah's failed mayoral campaign asked for his money back. The loan exceeded the city's $5,000 donation limit. In a breathtakingly sophisticated series of money swaps, the loan was partly repaid with a federal grant routed through nonprofits and political consultant firms associated with Fattah.

If Fattah can explain how money he obtained from government agencies and donors ended up being used to cover his campaign debt, he should do so. The longer he waits, the more it looks like he is trying to hide the truth. His constituents are owed more than a generic denial of wrongdoing. They deserve some assurance that a vote for Fattah won't be voided later by a judge.

Like anyone else, Fattah should be presumed innocent. But even he if his only crime is that he trusted someone he shouldn't have trusted, Fattah needs to make that case before voters go to the polls.