We do not know whether Congress will pass an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws; we do not know whether such a bill would follow the House's preference for border enforcement or the Senate's preference for amnesty for those already here plus increased ceilings on the number of legal immigrants for those aspiring to come. We do not know how the debate over this contentious and emotional issue will be resolved--to date the conventional wisdom has proven to be a bit off target, to say the least. One thing that apparently has been resolved, however, is that whatever results from the immigration debate, the solution will be implemented by a private company:
Continue readingJustice Gives Ground on Jefferson Docs:
The Justice Department is willing to give Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) the opportunity to view the documents that the FBI took in a late night raid on his office. According to the Los Angeles Times, Jefferson would get access to all of the seized documents and "would then be given an opportunity to raise objections about whether individual documents were properly seized." A judge would settle whether or not Jefferson's objections were valid.
Continue readingLobbyist Fundraisers:
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) doesn't know when to quit. The Billings Gazette reports that Burns is attending a lobbyist fundraiser at the offices of Patton Boggs despite the fact that the Senator has been under investigation in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.
The Patton Boggs fundraiser will be hosted by five lobbyists at the firm, three of whom list one of their specialties as "appropriations" on the firm's Web site. Burns is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. One of the hosts, Kevin O'Neill, has "secured more than $100 million in federal appropriations for his clients," according to the Web site."Senator, could you pass me that croissant. And I'll have that $50 million appropriation while you're at it. By the way, here's your $500 check." The event is $500 per person and $1000 per PAC. Continue reading
Transparency for Government Contracts
When we created Sunlight we made a point to note that the issue of greater transparency for government actions was a nonpartisan issue. We saw support for it across party lines in our initial polling and we see it again today in an editorial in the conservative newspaper -- the Examiner --which endorses transparency for government grants and contracts. The paper strongly supports Sen. Tom Coburn's Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590) that would make all information about federal contracts and grants available to the public free of charge in a searchable, downloadable online format on the Internet. (Coburn is the original sponsor of the proposal, and the measure is co-sponsored by the unlikely bedfellows of Sens. Barack Obama, Tom Carper and John McCain, R-Ariz.)
Continue readingA Picture Can Say A Thousand Words:
This photograph is an absolute career killer. (Appearing in the picture are Neil Volz and Ralph Reed on the left, Bob Ney and David Safavian in the middle, and Jack Abramoff on the right.)
Champion!:
Jack Abramoff developed contacts with high-level officials in government whom he referred to as "champions", according to Neil Volz, the former chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) who testified against David Safavian, a former "champion". Volz, who left Ney's office to work for Abramoff and recently pled guilty to a number of charges, also provided details of the attempted purchases of the Old Post Office Building and land in Maryland. In those details the case against Bob Ney begins to unfold:
Safavian, who formerly worked with Abramoff, arrived at GSA as chief of staff in May 2002. He and Abramoff began e-mailing each other about two properties controlled by the GSA. One was land in White Oak, in Montgomery County, where Abramoff hoped to relocate a Jewish academy he founded. On advice from Safavian, Volz said, the lobbyists first tried to insert language in an election reform bill. "We had a champion in the Congress who had already agreed to attach another provision," Volz testified, identifying the lawmaker as "Congressman Ney." Ney had agreed to try to add language to the same bill that would have aided a Texas Indian tribe represented by Abramoff. When that did not work, Volz said, Ney told him of another "potential vehicle" on the legislative agenda, a line of questioning U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman cut off as "hearsay" evidence. Volz sought help in receiving information on the land from GSA through an inquiry by the chief of staff to Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), but backed off when the GSA asked Capito's office why she wanted the information. The second property Abramoff sought was the Old Post Office building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Abramoff, with a tribal client, wanted to convert it into a luxury hotel and sought to have GSA tailor the bid specifications to the advantage of the tribe. "We were trying to rig the rule so our client could get the best chance," Volz said. He and Williams solicited letters to GSA from Reps. Don Young (R-Alaska) and Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio), though in the end their efforts were not "the golden plan we were hoping for," Volz said. Nonetheless, he said, Safavian "concurred with my advice that it was better to have the letter from the Hill before the bid was set."The prize for being an Abramoff "champion" looks pretty bad. I mean who wants to win a federal investigation of your activities by an aggressive Public Integrity Unit. That's a bad prize. Continue reading
Justice Responds; Jefferson Hid Papers:
The Justice Department responded today to the fierce reaction by Congress against the raid of Rep. William Jefferson's (D-LA) congressional office. Apparently the Justice Department investigators could not trust Jefferson to hand over documents because he had previously hid them from federal agents. Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker explains:
But beyond the legal argumentation, prosecutors supply the most detailed version of their case against him so far. And they explain why it is that they needed to raid his office - because they don't trust him to turn over evidence. According to an FBI agent's affidavit appended to the filing, Jefferson tried to "surreptitiously remove" documents while the FBI was searching his home in August of last year.Jefferson took documents and hid them in a blue bag that had already been searched. An FBI agent observed his actions and explained them in the affidavit. The Washington Post provides more information on what Jefferson is alleged to have done:
"After a copy had been brought to him and he reviewed it, I observed Congressman Jefferson then take the subpoena and the documents he had been reading earlier and place them together under his elbow on the kitchen table." At one point, she said, he moved to the living room, which had just been searched, and sat on a recliner. While sitting, he slipped the subpoena and the documents into a blue bag that he knew had already been searched, Kent's affidavit said. "After several minutes, I approached Congressman Jefferson and told him that I needed to look at the documents that he had placed into the bag," the agent stated. "Congressman Jefferson told me the documents were subpoenas." He finally pulled out the documents that were from a B.K. Son. The search warrant had asked for all communications between Jefferson and Son, the affidavit said. Son is the chief technology officer of iGate. If this is true it is unbelievably shocking behavior by a member of Congress. This ranks up there with Duke Cunningham's bribe menu as the most offensive and ugly thing a member could do. Beyond that, the issuance of this affidavit shows that the Justice Department is not playing around and that they are clearly dealing with a man who could use the privacy of his congressional office to hide information relevant to the investigation. Continue reading
“He Just Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”:
Well then, it looks like Virginia has three Senators. This from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Before every election, the Post-Gazette routinely sends letters to the candidates seeking material for the Voters Guide. Back in March, as part of that process for the primary, the newspaper sent a letter to Rick Santorum at his home address, at least the one that he claims. Back from Penn Hills came the letter with a sticker from the U.S. Postal Service checked as "Not Deliverable As Addressed -- Unable To Forward." That is all you need to know about the nasty dispute between the Republican Sen. Santorum and his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey Jr., in the November election. The whole thing is rooted in one inconvenient fact for Sen. Santorum: He doesn't live here anymore.This controversy has been going on for some time and now it is really bubbling over. It also raises ethical questions about Rick Santorum and what kind of person he is to use an entire state like this. Continue reading
Sunlight Goes West
Mike Klein, Micah Sifry and I just returned from a few days in Seattle and San Francisco -- a trip well worth the range of discussions we had about Sunlight's goals and how to achieve them. We had simulating meetings with Martin Collier at the Glaser Progress Foundation and with Bill Gates, Sr. in Seattle. And our conversations in San Francisco were chocked full of advice out of the thinking of some of the great pioneers in the technology world, namely Mitch Kapor, Craig Newmark, David Sifry to name just a few. Chris Nolan hosted a terrific evening event for us.
The longest conversation of the trip that we had was with Mitch Kapor at his Open Source Applications Foundation. Before the meeting we knew we were pretty much on the same wave length on the issue of transparency because at a conference a few years ago, Mitch talked about the issue:
Continue readingIt’s Not Rude to Point Fingers in a Court Room:
Neil Volz brought out his pointer finger today as he testified at the tiral of David Safavian. According to the Associated Press, Volz stated that he "received assistance from several Republican congressmen including, Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, and Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio." Denials of wrong doing by spokesmen for the four congressmen are forthcoming. "The congressman did not have a legislative relationship with that lobbyist!"
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