Teapot Dome Scandal - continued 3
However, the following day, Wyoming Democratic Senator John B. Kendrick introduced a resolution that would
set in motion one of the most significant investigations in the Senate's history. Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. arranged for the Senate Committee
on Public Lands to investigate the
matter. At first, La Follette believed Fall was innocent. However, his suspicions deepened
after his office was ransacked. Despite the Wall Street Journal's report, the public did not take
much notice of the suspicion, the
Senate Committee Investigation, or the scandal itself. Without any proof and with more ambiguous
headlines, the story faded from the public eye. However, the Senate kept
investigating. The investigation and its outcome Doheny testifying before the Senate
Committee investigating the Tea Pot Oil Leases. La Follette's
committee allowed the investigation panel's most junior minority member, Montana Democrat Thomas J. Walsh, to lead what most expected to be a tedious and
probably futile inquiry seeking answers to many questions. For two years, Walsh
pushed forward while Fall stepped backward, covering his tracks as he went. The
Committee continually found no evidence of wrong doing, the leases seemed legal enough, and records simply
kept disappearing
mysteriously. Fall had made the leases of the oil fields appear to be legitimate, but his acceptance
of the money was his undoing.