Today's Washington Post front page story on Rep. [sw: William Jefferson] (D-LA) gives the best summary of what he is accused of doing and the network of businesses and front groups that he set up to receive bribes in seven different deals.
For Jefferson, 59, the money-making schemes were supposed to be all in the family, involving his wife, two brothers, five daughters and two sons-in-law. As a member of the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee, Jefferson has traveled repeatedly to Nigeria and other western African countries and met with their leaders. ... At first, Jefferson promoted iGate's technology without asking for anything in return. But in early 2001, according to court documents, he informed Jackson that his services would no longer be free. On Jan. 19 of that year, the Jefferson family started the ANJ Group, with Jefferson's wife, Andrea Green Jefferson, as manager, and his five daughters listed as company members. On Rep. Jefferson's instructions, court records show, ANJ was to receive $7,500 a month in consulting fees from iGate, along with 5 percent of gross sales over $5 million a year, 5 percent of capital investments in iGate secured by Jefferson and 1 million shares of the company. Between 2001 and 2005, iGate transferred $455,446 to ANJ, some of which covered Jefferson's travel costs to Africa, according to an FBI search warrant. ... The seed of Jefferson's current troubles was planted in 2004 when Netlink Digital Television abruptly backed out of a one-year-old agreement with iGate to provide access to Nigeria's cable television and Internet market. That breach sent Jefferson and Jackson scrambling for new investors, court records show. They found Lori Mody.Mody, of course, wound up turning Jefferson and Jackson into the FBI after she realized that she was being played. You can read the rest if you need to get a full understanding of what underlies the Jefferson corruption story. Continue reading
Private Travel Tops $50 Million:
The Center for Public Integrity did a study of private travel taken by members and staff since 2000 and found that outisde organizations -- often non-profits set up by lobbyists or headed by lobbyists -- paid $50 million to ferry lawmakers and their staffs around the world. Medill News Service provides the story:
Outside groups representing interests as diverse as nuclear energy and telecommunications have paid nearly $50 million since 2000 to shuttle members of Congress and their staffs around the world, from Kazakhstan to Kansas City, Paris to Palm Springs. In fact, staffers often outpace their bosses in the number and the costs of trips that they took to far-flung edges of the world. Overall, members of Congress went on globe-trotting excursions costing $18.9 million. But private interests paid much more -- $30 million -- to finance the trips of congressional staff members, who often are instrumental in shaping policy. ... Republican congressional offices traveled more than Democrats, accounting for 56% of the dollars spent. With Republicans controlling Congress, the GOP has all the committee chairmanships, and consequently more staffers. Republican leadership offices had the most-traveled staffers. Hastert's staff took the most trips and had the highest tab of any congressional office. Other Republican leadership staffs, including those of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, were among the offices with the most travel. But Democratic members of Congress were on the road more than Republicans, with more than $10 million worth of trips. Republican members' trips totaled about $8.5 million.You can watch the announcement of the study at the Center's website www.publicintegrity.org. Continue reading
Another Probe Heats Up:
This is how it always starts. A lawmaker is said to be under investigation and then a lobbyist connected to that legislator has their clients subpoenaed. Then it snowballs. In this case the lawmaker is the powerful Appropriations Chairman [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-CA), the lobbyist is actually three lobbyists, Bill Lowery, Jeffrey Shockey, and Letitia White, and there are four clients that have been subpoenaed. Last week two of the subpoenaed clients were revealed to be the City of Redlands and San Bernadino County. Today, Roll Call reports that Cal State University San Bernadino and Riverside County, California were both issued subpoenas as well. Saturday's New York Times ran an article profiling Letitia White, known as the "Queen of Earmarks". Her story is the classic story of the revolving door. She began as a receptionist for Rep. Lewis and worked her way up to being his gatekeeper, controlling access to him from members and lobbyists seeking earmarks. She then cashed in her connections for millions of dollars when she joined the lobbying firm of Lewis friend Bill Lowery. Today's Roll Call story states that federal investigators are looking closely at the actions of Jeffrey Shockey. Shockey is another graduate of that official lobbying university known as the United States Congress. Shockey, like White, worked for Lewis and then left to work for Lowery as a lobbyist. Unlike White, Shockey decided to come back to work for Lewis when the congressman took the Appropriations Chair. Perhaps Shockey needed another degree, or perhaps he's just a switch hitter. Either way his move back to the Hill is cause for worry considering that Lowery's law firm gave him a $600,000 severance package and hired his wife as a lobbyist as soon as he left. This is just the beginning for this tale of Congressional ethics. Since the Pulitzer Prize was bestowed onto the great investigative work of the San Diego Union-Tribune in uncovering Duke Cunningham's corruption and the Washington Post digging into Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay more newspapers will be intent on pursuing these corruption stories. The New York Times story indicates that the national media is intent on paying attention to the story. The local paper in this story is the San Bernadino Sun, which put seven reporters on the story last week. Consider this story on low, but increasing, heat.
Continue readingFollowing Frequent Fliers
Here's more information on the Center for Public Integrity's upcoming report on congressional travel sponsored by third parties. The Center has put together a database and a package of stories and analysis looking at the sponsors and the travelers--both elected representatives and their staff. As I mentioned below, I suspect that we'll find that Congress is flying as frequently on the dimes of special interests as it did in the past, although I'm curious to see whether the sponsors have changed all that much. When CPI looked at that same phenomenon for the 1998 book The Buying of the Congress by Charles Lewis, we analyzed a year and a half of travel disclosures--from 1996 and the first six months of 1997. Back then, we found, among the top 20 sponsors, the Aspen Institute, the Nuclear Energy Institute, AIPAC, the Securities Industry Association, the Florida Sugar Cane League, the Edison Electric Institute, the Tobacco Institute, and the National Cable Television Association, to name a few.
Continue readingUpcoming Fundraisers
As promised, I'm posting a PDF of the upcoming fundraisers. I figure it's more useful to highlight ones that haven't happened yet. There are 39 pages of them, including some being held outside D.C. (Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D.-Calif., has Bill Clinton as a guest of honor for her $1,000 per person event, Rep. Randy Kuhl, R-N.Y., invited lobbyists to join him at the Watkins Glen Raceway in New York, and Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., are hosting a golf tournament in Las Vegas). Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) is holding a fundraiser in the offices of Winston & Strawn, LLP (one of D.C.'s more prominent lobbying firms), Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., is hosting a fundraiser in the "Owner's Skybox" at Oriole Park (Baltimore is playing the Toronto Blue Jays that night), Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is raising money for the Prosperity PAC with a preview of Monty Python's Spamalot at the National Theater; Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., is having a breakfast to discuss transportation industry issues, and so on.
Continue readingLegal But Unsettling:
The New York Times today confirmed that it was legal and constitutional for the Justice Department to raid the congressional offices of Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), but that it "unsettled widely shared understandings of constitutional relationships and freedoms that have existed for generations."
In the search case, there is broad academic consensus that the constitutional protection for Congressional speech and debate does not extend to evidence of criminal conduct, even if it is in a Congressional office. That means the Justice Department was probably entitled to seek — and a federal judge probably correct in authorizing — a warrant to search the offices of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, notwithstanding objections by leaders of Congress. But having the legal power to conduct a search of another branch of government does not mean it is a wise or prudent thing to do. No other administration has ever done it. In ordering a 45-day cooling-off period, during which the solicitor general will hold the seized materials, President Bush seemed to allow time for reflection on the difference between what the executive branch may do and what it should do.It is certainly true that this raid is not something that should be a regular occurance and I have always, in supporting the raid, thought that this was a particularly unique circumstance. Jefferson was clearly uncooperative in the investigation and was also determined to be untrustworthy, as demonstrated by the allegations that he attempted to remove documents in a blue bag during the search of his New Orleans home. Raids on congressional offices certainly should not become a regular occurance in Washington, but neither should members like Jefferson become a regular occurance. The executive and Congress need to sit down and hash this out and come up with a workable proceedure so that the confusion and bitter attacks that came after the raid does not have to happen again. Then the Congress needs to get back to enforcing its own ethics rules and drop the current motto of "what happens in Congress, stays in Congress." In the end, Congress is the one to blame because they did not police their own membership -- they failed in their constitutional responsibility and left the FBI and Justice to do what they refused to. And finally to put this in perspective here is an article that I read over at John Cole's Balloon Juice:
Police may enter Californians’ homes without warrants to arrest those suspected of driving under the influence, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a case testing the scope of the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. ... Under the Fourth Amendment, authorities are prohibited from entering a home and making an arrest without a warrant unless so-called “exigent” circumstances are present. Those include “hot pursuit” of a fleeing felon, imminent destruction of evidence and the risk of danger to the police or other persons inside or outside of a house, among others. In this case, Justice Marvin Baxter wrote that the loss of evidence at issue was obtaining a measurement of the suspect’s blood-alcohol level. Baxter added that a contrary ruling would allow “the corruption of evidence that occurs when the suspect takes advantage of any delay to ingest more alcohol—or to claim to have done so—or when the suspect evades police capture until he or she is no longer intoxicated.”Citizens don't always get to have a warrant served on them and don't always get the protection of the Fourth Amendment. Members should not get their own personal Cayman Islands Holding Corporations in an office building at Independence Ave and 1st Street. Continue reading
Ethics Liquidators:
Great animation by Mark Fiore on congressional corruption called "Ethics Liquidators". Check it out. (hat tip: Paid for by...)
Continue readingCitizen Muckraker
Jeffrey Birnbaum has a tremendously thoughtful piece in the Washington Monthly exploring what the ongoing corruption investigations and prosecutions that stem mostly from Jack Abramoff’s exploits. Full disclosure, I’m a pessimist by nature, so take that into account, but as I read Birnbaum’s piece, I can’t help thinking that his notion that we might be seeing an end to legalized bribery—by which he primarily means the system by which we finance campaigns—is overly optimistic and a little premature.
Continue readingThe Two Sides of William Jefferson:
The Los Angeles Times article on Rep. [sw: William Jefferson] (D-LA) paints the man as both highly ambitious and in search of that holy dollar bill and a tireless advocate for the people that sent him to Congress. Here is a story about one side of the man:
An accomplished attorney and aspiring politician, Jefferson became known early on for a pursuit of money that earned him the nickname "Dollar Bill." As local legend goes, the name came from Jefferson's mentor — legendary New Orleans Mayor Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial. Morial had asked his protege for some legal work and was given it — along with a staggering bill. Outraged, Morial coined the moniker. It followed Jefferson harmlessly enough until last month, when the FBI reported capturing the eight-term congressman on videotape accepting a leather briefcase with $100,000 in alleged bribe money from an undercover informant in front of a northern Virginia hotel. Of those marked bills, $90,000 wound up in Jefferson's freezer, the FBI said after a search of Jefferson's Washington home.But Jefferson also worked to benefit his people:
A member of the influential Ways and Means Committee and an advocate of trade to alleviate poverty in Africa, Jefferson continued his education even while in Congress. He earned a master's degree in tax law from Georgetown University in 1996, and after Hurricane Katrina he helped pass tax-related legislation to benefit New Orleans.Jefferson, whose alleged actions are beyond the pale, certainly is not the text book example of a greedy politician. Many in New Orleans feel that Jefferson's turn to bribery and backroom deals is a real shame, for him and for their community:
"We are so traumatized," said Stephen Sabludowsky, a New Orleans-based attorney and publisher of BayouBuzz.com, a website about everything Louisianan. "We're going through so many things, we don't want the world's attention on us again." Sabludowsky has urged Jefferson to resign rather than saddle the beleaguered city with a distracted congressman. He did so reluctantly, though, describing Jefferson this way: "Incredible … just in terms of his intelligence, his political acumen, the influence that he has…. "That's what makes this such a shame," Sabludowsky said.Continue reading
Burning Up the Fundraising Trail:
Hotline On Call Blog shows that Sen. [sw: Conrad Burns] (R-MT) is burning up the fundraising trail:
Senator Burns Upcoming Events/ June 2006 6/8 Dinner with Senator Burns and Special Guest Senator Lott 6:30 pm-Cocktails, 7:00 pm-Dinner The Caucus Room 401 9th Street, NW, Eisenhower Room $2,000 Per Sponsor/$1,500 Per PAC/ $1,000 Per Person 6/21 Breakfast with Senator Burns and Special Guest Senator Grassley 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Patton Boggs 2550 M Street, N.W. $2,000 Per Host / $1,000 Per PAC / $500 Per Person 6-20 Reception with Senator Burns at the Home of Senator and Mrs. Bill Frist, M.D. 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. The Frist Residence: 2860 Woodland Drive, N.W. $5,000 Per PAC Hosts (4 Tickets) / $2,500 Per PAC Sponsor (2 Tickets) General Tickets: $1,500 PAC and $1,000 Individual 6-29 Breakfast with Senator Burns and Special Guest, Senator Robert Bennett 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM Charlie Palmer’s 101 Constitution Avenue, NWContinue reading
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