{"id":36642,"date":"2015-07-21T21:01:49","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T21:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2015\/07\/21\/pentagon-admiral-s-remarks-were-not-illegal-lobbying\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:48:13","slug":"pentagon-admiral-s-remarks-were-not-illegal-lobbying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2015\/07\/21\/pentagon-admiral-s-remarks-were-not-illegal-lobbying\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon: Admiral&#8217;s remarks were not illegal lobbying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Pentagon investigators\u00a0say\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">A Defense Department inspector general investigation has cleared <\/span>President Obama&#8217;s nominee to become the Navy&#8217;s next top officer did not break the law when he encouraged a special interest group\u00a0to seek congressional support for\u00a0a multibillion-dollar weapons program, Navy Times has learned<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">\u00a0Adm. John Richardson of wrong doing after accusations that he illegally engaged in grass-roots lobbying for the Ohio Replacement Program<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group,\u00a0had accused Adm. John Richardson<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">, who has been nominated as the next Chief of Naval Operations, in June<\/span> of violating <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">breaking of <\/span>anti-lobbying laws with his public remarks last fall\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">when he appealed to special interest groups to contact their congressmen <\/span>about <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">supporting <\/span>the <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">nearly <\/span>$80 <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">&#8211;<\/span>billion Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine replacement program. Richardson is pending Senate confirmation to become the next chief of naval operations. Obama nominated him for the post in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Department of Defense Inspector General Investigations of Senior Officials Directorate investigated the allegation and did not substantiate the allegation,&#8221; wrote Brad Carson, the Pentagon&#8217;s acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, in an undated letter <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">sent <\/span>to Sen. John McCain, chairman of the\u00a0Senate Armed Services Committee<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> chairman John McCain<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>The allegations <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">of improper lobbying <\/span>stem from comments Richardson <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">and Rear Adm. Joe Tofalo <\/span>made in October at the <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">annual public meeting of the <\/span>Naval Submarine League&#8217;s annual meeting<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">\u00a0in October<\/span>. Richardson told the audience that,\u00a0despite momentum for funding <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">towards getting <\/span>the Ohio replacement program<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">\u00a0funded<\/span>, he foresaw the potential for failure and that they could help by contacting their elected representatives<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">\u00a0members needed to drive home their case for more money<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another senior Navy officer in attendance at the meeting, Rear Adm. Joe\u00a0Tofalo, <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">currently the director of undersea warfare, <\/span>spoke after <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">followed <\/span>Richardson. He told the audience <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">saying <\/span>that <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">if <\/span>anyone with <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">had any <\/span>questions about <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">on <\/span>how to speak to Congress was welcome to<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">, they could<\/span> call his office for guidance.\u00a0Tofalo, currently the director of undersea warfare,\u00a0also was <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">has also been <\/span>cleared of wrongdoing, according to a Navy official with knowledge of the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"3000\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635730931943418881-radm-tofalo5jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-70224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635730931943418881-radm-tofalo5jpg.jpg 2400w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635730931943418881-radm-tofalo5jpg.jpg?resize=240,300 240w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635730931943418881-radm-tofalo5jpg.jpg?resize=768,960 768w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635730931943418881-radm-tofalo5jpg.jpg?resize=819,1024 819w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635730931943418881-radm-tofalo5jpg.jpg?resize=1229,1536 1229w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635730931943418881-radm-tofalo5jpg.jpg?resize=1638,2048 1638w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Joe Tofalo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span>Rear Adm. Joe Tofalo<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span>Photo Credit: Navy<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Navy&#8217;s chief spokesperson, Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler, said <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">the <\/span>Navy Secretary Ray Mabus trusts Richardson and\u00a0stands by his <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">their <\/span>nomination <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">of Richardson <\/span>to become the next CNO<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> and Mabus moving forward.\u00a0&#8220;Secretary Mabus has full trust and confidence in Adm. Richardson and fully supports his nomination to be Chief of Naval Operations,&#8221; Cutler said in a statement to Navy Times<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RELATED:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/scoopdeck.navytimes.com\/2015\/06\/10\/reporters-notebook-on-john-richardson-fat-leonard-and-the-self-licking-ice-cream-cone\/\">Reporter&#8217;s Notebook: Lobbying rules trip up CNO nominee<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span class=\"rte rte-comment\">POGO head <\/span>Danielle Brian, who heads the Project on Government Oversight, wrote in June that the comments by Tofalo and Richardson violated <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">were a violation of <\/span>the 1913 Anti-Lobbying Act that &#8220;prohibits the use of taxpayer funds by federal agencies to conduct grassroots lobbying efforts to pressure Congress to support &#8216;any legislation or appropriation by Congress.'&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Taken together, these remarks seem to indicate a troubling coordinated campaign by Navy leadership to engage in grassroots lobbying to secure support for the Ohio Replacement Program,&#8221; Brian said in a letter to U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Experts who evaluated <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">looked at <\/span>the allegations for Navy Times called <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">said <\/span>the admirals&#8217; comments <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">were <\/span>objectionable but not a clear violation of the law. David Sheldon, a prominent Washington <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">D.C. <\/span>attorney who handles military <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">law <\/span>cases, said <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">the comments weren&#8217;t specific enough for <\/span>Richardson and Tofalo <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">to have violated the law.\u00a0&#8220;The admirals have certainly <\/span>&#8220;entered a gray area<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> when speaking<\/span>, &#8230; but I do not think it was specific enough to be categorized as indirect lobbying, such as suggesting an individual lobby a particular senator or congressman.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investigators say Adm. John Richardson did not break the law when he encouraged congressional support for new submarine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":70222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3231],"class_list":["post-36642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"PRCG7HIRXZGJVLD7XIMN4MXB3Y","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2015\/07\/21\/pentagon-admiral-s-remarks-were-not-illegal-lobbying\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pentagon: Admiral&#039;s remarks were not illegal lobbying - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Investigators say Adm. John Richardson did not break the law when he encouraged congressional support for new submarine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pentagon: Admiral&#039;s remarks were not illegal lobbying\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Investigators say Adm. John Richardson did not break the law when he encouraged congressional support for new submarine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2015\/07\/21\/pentagon-admiral-s-remarks-were-not-illegal-lobbying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-21T21:01:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T19:48:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David B. Larter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David B. 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