Brown is at the center of a U.S. Department of Agriculture Inspector General's investigation prompted by two Forest Service officers. They say the 1st District Republican invoked the wrath of his House Budget Committee and asked for retroactive changes in the law to avoid paying firefighting costs and a $250 fine.

Half a dozen ranking Agriculture officials refused to allow officers to ticket Brown or bill him for extinguishing the blaze, according to the complaint, which says a Bush administration official ultimately ordered the matter dropped.

"I've been working for a long time in the Forest Service, 34 years, and this is the worst abuse of anything I've ever seen in terms of poor decision-making and arrogance," said Jack Gregory, special agent in charge of the Forest Service's southern region.

[Forest Service official John] Sadler, however, suggested Brown had another reason for not wanting to pay the fine: fear of political repercussions.

During a telephone conference in March, Sadler said, the congressman told him and other Forest Service officials that he feared his political opponents would use an admission of a criminal violation against him.

Sadler took notes of the conversation.

According to the whistle-blower documents, instead of agreeing to pay the fine and the firefighting costs, Brown threatened congressional scrutiny of the agency. He also said he would try to get the agency's regulations changed to make it more difficult to pursue such cases in the future, according to the complaint.