Justin's Political Corner
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) could face a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged campaign finance violations during her bid for the Republican presidential nomination last year, the Daily Beast reported Monday. The allegations are currently being investigated by the non-partisan Office of Congressional Ethics, which has about three months to decide whether to recommend cases for further investigation to the Ethics Committee.
As the Daily Beast report details, this is not the only campaign-related investigation Bachmann is currently facing.
h/t: TPM
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted Monday of racketeering conspiracy after prosecutors said he presided over a breathtaking profit machine by rigging contracts and demanding bribes.
The racketeering count carries up to 20 years in prison.
Kilpatrick was convicted of at least six other criminal counts and acquitted of one, and jurors said they were unable to reach a verdict on two. Kilpatrick was charged with 30 federal crimes. The verdict was still being delivered in federal court in Detroit.
Jurors began deliberating Feb. 18.
Kilpatrick, 42, was charged with bribery, extortion and tax evasion, among other crimes. His father, Bernard, and Bobby Ferguson, a friend of Kilpatrick’s and a city contractor, are also defendants.
Prosecutors said that Kilpatrick, a Democrat, steered $83 million in city contracts to Ferguson in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks. They also told jurors that the ex-mayor raided his own nonprofit for personal expenses.
Kilpatrick’s lawyer told jurors that Kilpatrick never extorted anyone and that he only helped Ferguson win city business because he knew Ferguson would hire people who live in Detroit.
Kilpatrick was considered a rising Democratic star when he was elected in 2001, but his tenure was scarred by allegations of cronyism, nepotism and out-of-control spending.
He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in 2008 for lying in a civil trial during which he denied having an affair with his former chief of staff and plotting with her to fire the deputy police chief. He resigned and spent three months in jail.
h/t: NBCnews.com
Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who spent as much as $150 million on independent expenditures to bolster Republicans in the 2012 election, has informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that his Las Vegas Sands Corporation “likely violated a federal law against bribing foreign officials.”
“[T]here were likely violations of the books and records and internal controls provisions” of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the company said in its annual regulatory report published on Friday. Late last year, Adelson reportedly held meetings with at least one House GOP leader to discuss “possible changes to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” arguing that he had been the target of federal investigations under the Act as retribution for his strong support for Republican candidates.
Right wing corruption on a grand scale, paid for by the government of Malaysia and completely undisclosed until now: Covert Malaysian Campaign Touched a Wide Range of American Media.
Remember - these are some of the same conservative writers who’ve spent the last month hyperventilating about Chuck Hagel’s hypothetical payments from foreign entities.
The Huffington Post has deleted Joshua Trevino’s articles attacking pro-democracy Malaysian Anwar Ibrahim, with the following Editor’s Note:
This post was removed from The Huffington Post after it was revealed that the author violated our blogger guidelines by not properly disclosing financial ties that amounted to a serious conflict of interest.
Here’s Google’s cache of Trevino’s paid propaganda: Joshua Treviño: What Anwar’s Trial Really Means.
The nearly three-year-old John Doe investigation into aides and associates of Gov. Scott Walker is closed, the judge who is overseeing that probe said Friday.
Neal Nettesheim, a retired state appeals court judge, said he entered an order Feb. 21 concluding the probe. The decision was made public after Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm concluded paperwork in the case.
No new charges will come from the John Doe investigation, Nettesheim said.
Chisholm confirmed the end of the investigation in a statement. “After a review of the John Doe evidence, I am satisfied that all charges that are supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt have now been brought and concluded. As a consequence, last week my office petitioned for, and Judge Nettesheim has granted, the closure of the John Doe investigation.”
Milwaukee prosecutors launched a secret John Doe investigation into aides and associates of Walker nearly three years ago. Walker’s chief of staff contacted prosecutors over suspicions that more than the $11,000 was missing from Operation Freedom, a fund used to pay for an annual event to honor veterans and their families.
The investigation later was broadened into other areas, including another embezzlement case involving Operation Freedom money and two county employees in Walker’s office doing campaign work while at their taxpayer-paid county jobs.
Longtime Walker aide Timothy D. Russell pleaded guilty Nov. 29 to stealing more than $21,000 in Operation Freedom money. He was sentenced to two years in prison in January. Kelly Rindfleisch, who worked for Walker in the county executive’s office in 2010, was sentenced Nov. 19 to six months in jail for campaign fundraising at the courthouse using a secret email system installed there.
Democratic Party officials were still critical of the Republican governor, even though he was not charged in the probe.
“That Scott Walker avoided prosecution is no feather in his cap,” Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski said. “He clearly was connected to criminal activity and he spent a half million dollars, through his unprecedented criminal defense fund, to waylay charges. The crimes convicted flow directly from Scott Walker’s belief that he is above the law.”
BULLSHIT!
H/T: JSonline.com
(via News 4 calls out questionable charity for veterans, its organizer | KMOV.com St. Louis)
(KMOV.com) — You work hard for your money, so when someone asks you to donate to a good cause you want to make sure it’s legit.
But News 4 met a guy who’s a little hazy about his identity, his war record, and he’s using unsuspecting women to help him do it.
This guy is working all over town and was less than thrilled when News 4 called his credentials into question.
You would think a war veteran selling raffle tickets to raise money for the troops would be happy to get some publicity, but he was not happy when Chris Nagus showed up.
In fact the response was “it’s none of your f***ing business, it none of anyone’s f***ing business … if my face is on TV I’m going to sue you guys.””
Meet Matt Buckingham, but sometimes he gets a little confused and forgets his name; at least when he’s recruiting women to work for him, that’s when he introduces himself as Tyler Matthews.
We checked with the U.S. Army, Marines, Homeland Security and the Coast Guard and they have not heard of Matt Buckingham.
But it’s part of his recruiting pitch; it’s not the first time News 4 has dealt with a member of the Buckingham family.
Last year Chris Nagus confronted Matt’s dad Larry, who was running a lawn service and claiming some of the profits were going to the troops.
He told our producer that they were going to donate 20 percent of their profits to veterans.
In January, Larry registered a new charity for veterans and he’s got Matt out selling raffle tickets to support the troops.
But when Chris Nagus confronted Matt about his claims and charity, he got an angry response.
He told News 4 “if you do this I’m going to sue you … I’m probably going to sue you for putting my name on last time.”
Lesson to learn here: ONLY donate to valid and legitimate charities, NOT scammers like Matt Buckingham. Also, this guy is a phony “military hero.”
Freshman U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, did not cooperate with the Office of Congressional Ethics in its initial probe of alleged campaign finance violations by U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria.
“The OCE infers that the information Mr. Davis refused to provide, taken together with the factual findings in this referral, supports the conclusion that there is substantial reason to believe that the alleged violation occurred,” the OCE said in a report made public Wednesday.
The report recommends that Davis and three other non-cooperating witnesses be subpoenaed.
The investigation, now before the House Ethics Committee, deals with allegations that Schock solicited donations of more than $5,000 per donor for a super political action committee. The OCE report says Davis, then an aide to U.S. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, was identified by the super PAC’s managing director as the contact person for five potential donors before the 2012 primary election.
The report deals with efforts by a super PAC called the Campaign for Primary Accountability to help raise money for what turned out to be a successful primary challenge by U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Manteno, to former U.S. Rep. Donald Manzullo, R-Leaf River.
“In early March 2012, CPA managing director learned that a House staffer, Rodney Davis, planned to have contributions sent to CPA from various donors for television commercials opposing Representative Manzullo,” the report states. It also says that the CPA development coordinator told the OCE that Davis was the contact person for a total of $120,000 in donations from five donors.
Both Davis and Schock represent parts of the city of Springfield.
At the time of the Kinzinger-Manzullo race, Davis was not yet a candidate for Congress. He was chosen by GOP county chairmen to run in the 13th Congressional District after the primary election winner, former U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, dropped out of the general election race.
WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee said Wednesday it will continue an investigation of Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock over allegations he solicited donations of more than $5,000 per donor to a super political action committee. The committee also said it’s continuing a probe of whether a trip New York Democrat Bill Owens took to Taiwan was arranged by lobbyists for the country’s government.
Both cases had been referred to the House committee by the Office of Congressional Ethics, a separate, outside ethics office. The House committee announced its decision to continue looking into each case on Wednesday, while releasing OCE’s report on both cases.
In a statement, the ethics committee said that in both cases merely “conducting further review … does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the committee.” The committee also said it would refrain from further comment pending completion of initial reviews.
Both Schock and Owens said they expect to be exonerated by the House committee.
Schock’s case involves an allegation he asked House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to contribute $25,000 from his leadership PAC to a super PAC that backed Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., in a House primary against Rep. Don Manzullo. Kinzinger won the March 2012 primary. Redistricting following the 2010 census put the two congressmen in the same and the primary.
According to the OCE report, the Super PAC backing Kinzinger, the Campaign for Primary Accountability, received a minimum of $115,000 that came from “efforts of Rep. Schock and his campaign committee.”
Schock told investigators that he never requested the $25,000 from Cantor. According to the OCE report, Cantor told investigators that Schock had asked him if he would give the $25,000 donation to back Kinzinger. Cantor said he then gave money from his committee to the super PAC backing Kinziger in the primary.
The case involving Owens relates to a December 2011 trip he and his wife took to Taiwan. Owens and his wife were invited by the Chinese Culture University of Taiwan. But the trip may have been arranged by lobbyists for the country. Lawmakers are prohibited from taking trips that are paid for by lobbyists.
Owens said he expected the investigation would clear him of wrongdoing.
H/T: Huffington Post
Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker transferred another $40,000 into his criminal defense fund on the final day of the 2012 calendar year.
This latest transfer of money has raised more eyebrows about the ongoing “John Doe” investigation in Wisconsin, in which Darlene Wink, Kevin Kavanaugh, Kelly Rindfleisch, and Tim Russell, all former political confidants of Walker, have either been convicted or have plead guilty as part of the John Doe probe.
Scott Walker himself has yet to be charged with any wrongdoing, however, he has a criminal defense fund, he has NOT been cleared of any wrongdoing, and he has NOT been granted immunity in the John Doe probe. Wisconsin state law only allows the incumbent governor to establish a criminal defense fund if the governor, one or more agent(s) of the governor, or someone who is dependent upon the governor and/or one or more agent(s) of the governor, is a target of a criminal investigation, has been indicted, or has been convicted.
h/t: BlueDownstate
Mitt and Ann Romney may have earned between $15 million and $115 million from the auto bailout, but failing to report the windfall in his federal Candidate Disclosure Form may very well be a violation of the law.
Last week a formal complaint was filed with the Federal Office of Government Ethics by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), the United Auto Workers (UAW), along with other labor and nonpartisan watchdog groups.
In short, the allegations concern Delphi, a former General Motors subsidiary whose auto parts remain essential to GM’s production lines.
Back in 2009, Ann Romney partnered with Paul Singer to secretly purchase controlling interest in Delphi. [Bear in mind that billionaire Singer is one of Mitt Romney’s key campaign donors.] Elliot Management, Singer’s hedge fund, then threatened to cut off GM’s supply of steering columns and other key auto components unless GM, along with the government’s TARP auto bail-out fund provided them with large payments. The United States Treasury complained that this was “extortion”, but Delphi ultimately received $12.9 billion in taxpayer generated subsidies as no bailout of the auto industry could have worked without saving Delphi. Singer’s group then eliminated every UAW job in the company and then moved nearly its entire production operation to China and Mexico where Delphi now employes 25,000 auto parts workers at the expense of about that same number of jobs in the USA. [These allegations are particularly noteworthy considering the lies spread and later debunked by the auto industry itself, Detroit media the campaign misquoted, the Obama campaign and Pres. Bill Clinton. See Romney Called Out By Auto Industry, the Obama Campaign and Bill Clinton for Lying]
The resulting windfall for the Romneys means that shares Ann purchased for 67 cents are now worth over $30 for a 4 thousand percent gain earning the Romneys tens of millions of dollars. Additionally, one cannot forget billionaire Paul Singer who was identified by Forbes as one of Romney’s key campaign donors, Singer has given more than $1 million to the Romney SuperPAC known as Restore Our Future.
The UAW complaint calls for Romney to reveal exactly how much he made off Delphi — and continues to make.
At a press conference last week in Toledo, Bob King, President of the United Automobile Workers, announced that his union and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) have filed a formal complaint with the US Office of Government Ethics in Washington stating that Gov. Romney improperly hid a profit of $15.3 million to $115.0 million in Ann Romney’s so-called “blind” trust.
H/T: Samuel-Warde.com
CHICAGO (CBS) – A former U.S. attorney representing embattled Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. is negotiating a plea deal with the federal government, CBS 2 has learned.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine has the exclusive details.
The plea deal would end Jackson’s 17-year career as a congressman representing Chicago’s South Side and suburbs.
At least some jail time would appear to be inevitable for Jackson, the son of civil-rights icon Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and spouse of Chicago 7thWard Ald. Sandi Jackson.
The Congressman is currently being treated for a bi-polar disorder, both at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and as an outpatient at his home in Washington. He has been on medical leave since June and did not campaign in-person to be re-elected to his 2nd Congressional District seat. He won his bid Nov. 6.
Those who have seen and spoken with Jackson say there are serious doubts as to whether health issues would ever permit his return to Congress.
As for a timetable for the agreement, a source familiar with those negotiations said as soon as possible and probably by the end of the year.
If Jackson resigns, as expected, a special election will determine his successor. Jackson himself replaced the disgraced U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds in 1995.
H/T: Chicago.cbslocal.com
Voting rights advocates are asking a federal court to step in and stop what they call an eleventh hour move by the Ohio secretary of state that could disenfranchise thousands of Ohio voters. Lawyers representing plaintiffs in a case regarding how provisional ballots will be treated in Tuesday’s election filed an emergency motion challenging a directive to elections supervisors, issued by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted late Friday, after the court had closed.
Husted’s order requires poll workers to not count provisional ballots where voters make any errors in filling out their provisional ballot and affirmation, including the part of the form detailing what forms of identification they are presenting in order to vote. The problem: Ohio law states that filling out the ID portion of the form is the responsibility of poll workers, not voters. Ohio Revised Code Section 3505.181 (B)(6) states that “the appropriate local election official shall record the type of identification provided” by the voter.
“The voter is just supposed to write their name on the ballot form and affirmation and sign it,” Subodh Chandra, an attorney representing the plaintiffs in a case over how provisional ballots will be treated if voters are directed by poll workers to the wrong precinct told theGrio. “The election worker is not only supposed to write down the form of ID, they’re supposed to certify that they have told the voter what to do to verify that their vote counted. They’re supposed to provide guidance and they’re supposed to verify it.”
Husted changed the voter affirmation form, moving the portion where the ID information is entered above the signature line, despite the fact that by Ohio statute, it is supposed to be below the voter’s signature, in the section of the form to be filled out by a poll worker.
“I thought, this doesn’t make any sense, why he’s trying to disqualify ballots based on mistakes on ballot affirmation” Chandra said.
Voting rights activists fully expected Husted to issue a directive regarding how provisional ballots would be treated in the wake of the ruling, so Chandra sent a letter to Husted’s counsel, asking that Husted be sure to clarify in his order that an errors on the form made by poll workers not be counted against the voter. Chandra said Husted never responded to the request, or to a follow up telephone call.
“We were getting increasingly suspicious about what the directive would say, so we filed the emergency motion” requesting clarification from the federal court. “And then they issued the directive after business hours, without giving us any notice.” Chandra said.
In arguments before the Circuit Court, Husted deflected any concerns about potential voter disenfranchisement by reasserting that it is indeed the poll worker’s responsibility to ensure that the form of ID presented was recorded, adding that voters should not be disenfranchised due to a poll worker’s “failure to write something down.” Having made that argument, Husted nonetheless is now ordering elections supervisors to throw out provisional ballots where the ID is improperly recorded.
On Saturday, NEOCH, Progress Ohio and State Senator Nina Turner held an emergency press conference, in which they accused Husted of orchestrating a stealth form of voter suppression.
- Related: Ohio Secretary of state installs untested software on voting tabulators
- Related: For Democrats, suspicion of Husted runs deep
“Husted’s edict deliberately seeks to disenfranchise eligible voters whose votes should be counted,” a press release from Progress Ohio read. “In a close election, it could come down to provisional ballots and this 11th hour directive could be a game changer and is nothing short of voter suppression. Husted’s actions are now the subject of emergency motions which have been filed in federal court in Columbus by the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.”
h/t: TheGrio.com
Over the past nine months, a question plaguing Willard Mitt Romney is when he left as CEO of Bain Capital due to conflicting state and federal SEC and FEC filing statements contradicting his retroactive retirement contention. It is pertinent to know why he fled Bain Capital in August 2001, and why he cited February 1999 as his official separation date when he was CEO the entire time. Organized crime figures develop elaborate schemes to avoid Department of Justice (DOJ) investigations and in Romney’s case it was Bain Capital’s bankruptcy fraud he was desperate to avoid.
MoveOn.org filed a complaint with the DOJ over Romney’s disclosure claiming he was 100% stock holder and paid Bain Capital executive in 2002 despite his contention left active management in 1999. The period between Feb 1999 and Aug 2001 is when Romney, Bain Capital, and their corrupt operatives conspired to commit bankruptcy fraud guaranteeing Bain Capital could plunder a company they managed with impunity.
A similar scenario unfolded when Bain Capital took eToys into bankruptcy. Bain Capital’s secret law firm, MNAT, colluded with Romney’s bankruptcy gang by committing perjury to represent the debtors’ counsel and creditor’s counsel to give the appearance of being on opposite sides and conceal the fact eToys was not broke. Controlling both sides, Bain Capital’s corrupt gang colluded to plunder the company’s assets without opposition, and give Bain Capital eToys for free.
Romney was head of Bain Capital while his team of conspirators committed fraud on the court, and when they were reported to the Department of Justice he “retroactively retired” to conceal his involvement and avoid a Department of Justice investigation. George W. Bush’s appointment of a lawyer from Bain Capital’s secret law firm as U.S. Attorney guaranteed Romney would not be investigated, but retroactive retiring does not change public docket records or FEC and SEC filings showing he profited from corruption, fraud, and racketeering (RICO) as head of Bain Capital, and as he was a corrupt vulture capitalist, he will be a corrupt president.
H/T: PoliticusUSA
The United Auto Workers (UAW), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and other groups plan to file an ethics complaint against Mitt Romney for allegedly failing to disclose his profits from the auto bailout, the UAW has told The Huffington Post.
The groups are calling for an investigation by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to investigate Romney’s alleged violation of the Ethics in Government Act, which requires presidential candidates to disclose their personal finances. The ethics complaint comes on the heels of an Oct. 17 article in The Nation, which alleged that Romney has hidden his personal gains of at least $15.3 million from the auto bailout.
“He made his fortune off the misfortune of others,” Bob King, president of the UAW, told The Huffington Post on Wednesday. “Why should we have to find out from the media about this?”
The Romney campaign could not be immediately reached for comment.
The allegations are ironic given that Romney has been a staunch critic of the auto bailout. Romney called for the government to let the auto industry go bankrupt in an op-ed in The New York Times in 2008. The Romney campaign also released a misleading ad in October that claims Chrysler has moved all production of Jeeps to China following the auto bailout.
Romney and his wife allegedly made millions from the auto bailout through their investments in the hedge fund Elliott Management, which held a stake in the auto bailout recipient Delphi Automotive, according to The Nation.
H/T: Huffington Post
