Rep. Maxine Waters: 'I Have Not Violated Any House Rules'

Embattled Rep. Maxine Waters on Friday questioned why the Bush administration did not meet with a trade  group representing minority-owned and women-owned banks as she fended off charges that she helped a minority bank with financial ties to her husband obtain federal bailout funds in late 2008.

The California Democrat explained in a news conference that she reached out to then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson when his department failed to respond to the National Bank Association's request for a meeting.

"The question at this point should not be why I called Secretary Paulson, but why I had to," she said. "The question at this point should be why a trade association representing over 100 minority banks could not get a meeting at the height of the crisis."

Waters is accused of helping OneUnited Bank secure federal bailout funds. Her husband, Sidney Williams, served as a member of OneUnited's board of directors from January 2004 until April 2008, and was a stockholder in the bank.

But Waters argued that her meeting with Treasury officials was held on behalf of the organization, not OneUnited, which eventually got $12 million in bailout money.

Waters pushed for a speedy trial, slamming the ethics committee for not setting a date for the hearing.

"Such a delay is unacceptable, considering that the investigation has dragged on for almost one year," she said. "It does not provide due process."

"I have not violated any House rules," Waters said.