As the D.C. Council plans a vote on July 9 to remove Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans as the chairman of the Finance and Revenue Committee, the councilmember beset by ethics woes is telling his colleagues to hold their horses and hear his perspective.

“Taking away a councilmember’s committee is a drastic action,” Evans said at the D.C. Council breakfast on Tuesday morning, his first public statement since an FBI raid on his home last Friday, in which he questioned the allegations against him.

D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said he would undertake that very action and hold a vote in July to strip Evans of his chairmanship, following the release last week of a memo detailing the Ward 2 councilmember’s alleged ethics violations as the chairman of the Metro Board of Directors. Mendelson has broad support for the move among D.C. councilmembers.

“It’s extraordinary to be removing someone as the chair,” Mendelson said on Monday. “I think the situation warrants it in this case.” But the chairman scheduled an administrative meeting so Evans can present his side of the story a week before the vote.

The Metro board’s ethics committee hired law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel to investigate Evans in March, and the memo presented evidence that he “attempted to and did help his friends and clients and served their interests, rather than the interests of WMATA.” Evans has since announced his resignation from the Metro board.

But Evans said that the memo in question “has many problems,” including that he had never seen the document. He also said the lawyers who wrote the memo did not contact Colonial Parking, a company central to the allegations against him. The memo says that Evans was paid $50,000 annually by Colonial Parking, an arrangement he never disclosed to Metro, and worked on behalf of the company to replace the transit agency’s parking vendor with Colonial. Evans added that, of the 16 violations outlined in the memo, the Metro ethics committee rejected all but one.

As of early last week, Evans maintained publicly that he had been cleared entirely by the ethics committee. He only reversed course after Metro’s general counsel released a document that showed the committee had found that Evans had a conflict of interest related to Colonial Parking. Among those apparently misled by Evans about the results of Metro’s investigation were his colleagues on the D.C. Council. Mendelson, for one, said on Monday that he was “not happy” about it, and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh told the Washington Post last week that she felt a “deep sense of betrayal.” Cheh was among the councilmembers calling for Evans to be censured, though she told NBC Washington on Tuesday that she was “rooting for Jack” to be able to refute the report.

The day after the Washington Post published the memo, Evans’ Georgetown home was raided by federal agents. He is also the subject of a federal inquiry.

Still, Evans said that he thinks it’s too hasty to remove him as chairman. “I believe that if my colleagues hear my side of the story, and I respond to all of your questions, you will not take any action at this time,” he said at the breakfast, framing it as an issue of due process and fairness.

Mendelson will grant Evans his request—the council chairman has scheduled an administrative meeting on July 2, during which the longest-serving councilmember can share his perspective a week before the vote is slated, per Lindsey Walton, Mendelson’s spokesperson.

Even though the council has not yet voted to strip Evans of his chairmanship, Mendelson announced Monday that the legislative body would re-refer bills initially sent to the Finance Committee to other committees. The D.C. Council will also separately investigate the allegations against Evans through a special committee made up of councilmembers and with the help of an outside law firm. The committee will work over the council’s summer recess, Mendelson said, though he has yet to determine the scope of the investigation.

The D.C. Council reprimanded Evans in March and removed some oversight responsibilities away from the Finance Committee, after emails were released that showed he used his elected office for personal gain.

Previously:
The D.C. Council Will Investigate Jack Evans. Here’s Where Members Stand On Their Scandal-Plagued Colleague
Jack Evans Resigns From Metro Board After Doozy Of A Report About His Ethics Violations
Jack Evans Admits He Violated The Metro Board Ethics Code (After First Denying It)
Council Votes To Strip Jack Evans Of Some Finance Committee Responsibilities In Wake Of Ethics Scandal
Reprimand? Investigate? Sanction? Here’s Where Local Officials Stand On Jack Evans’ Ethics Scandal
D.C. Councilmembers Receive Subpoenas For Their Conversations With Jack Evans
Notes On A Scandal: WTF Is Going On With Ward 2’s Jack Evans?

This story has been updated with comment from Lindsey Walton.