GOP Paid Reporters and Fake News # 5

March 28, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional investigators will probe whether the Bush administration violated any laws when it paid syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher to help promote a marriage initiative, Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy and Frank Lautenberg said.

The Government Accountability Office informed the senators of the probe in a letter sent March 24. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, is already looking into the Education Department's relationship with several public relations firms, including the agency's $240,000 contract with syndicated columnist and TV personality Armstrong Williams.

The Education Department had hired Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind law. The two senators had asked the GAO to expand its investigation to include Gallagher.