Editing Jesse Helms (section)

=== Keating Five investigation ===
On August 5, 1991, Helms made public a special counsel report calling for California Senator [[Alan Cranston]] to be censured by the Senate on charges of reprehensible conduct.<ref name=NYT1991>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/05/us/cranston-censure-urged-by-counsel.html|title=CRANSTON CENSURE URGED BY COUNSEL|first=Richard L.|last=Burke|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 5, 1991 }}</ref> The document had been delivered to members of the Senate Ethics Committee the previous month. Helms stated that his move came from the belief that the release would cause the panel to act faster,<ref name=NYT1991/> additionally citing the panel members with being at odds on how much of the report should be released as a reason for not closing an inquiry into [[Charles H. Keating Jr.]] and his role in the [[savings and loan scandal]] of the late 1980s.<ref name=NYT1991/>

The Senate Ethics Committee subsequently voted to investigate Helms for releasing the confidential document.<ref name=NYT19912>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/08/07/us/helms-defends-disclosure-of-ethics-panel-report.html|title=Helms Defends Disclosure of Ethics Panel Report|first=Richard L.|last=Berke|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 7, 1991 }}</ref> Helms issued a statement saying in part that it was "a fascinating suggestion that I may have somehow violated some unspecified 'rule' when I released, over the weekend, my own signed report regarding the Keating Five investigation".<ref name=NYT19912/> Helms welcomed the investigation into himself, along with one into the handling of the [[Keating Five]] case (five senators who received financial contributions from Keating Jr.) by the Senate Ethics Committee, calling the panel's investigation "long, arduous and expensive" and noting a potential public investigation "may disclose that the committee labored and brought forth a mouse".<ref name=NYT19912/>