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GOP Congressional Scandal Continues...
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| GOP Congressional Scandal Continues...
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| Fdubya247 |
"Ex-Ney aide pleads guilty to conspiracy"
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 52 minutes ago
The top aide to convicted former Rep. Bob Ney pleaded guilty Monday to federal conspiracy charges stemming from a congressional bribery scandal that downed his boss.
Smiling nervously at times, William Heaton, 28, acknowledged accepting a golf trip to Scotland, expensive meals, and tickets to sporting events between 2002 and 2004 as payoffs for helping clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Heaton worked for Ney, R-Ohio, from September 2001 to July 2006, ultimately serving as his chief of staff.
"You received things of value in exchange for performing functions for Mr. Abramoff and other lobbyists who worked for him, as well as a foreign businessman. Is that correct?" U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle asked Heaton during the 20-minute hearing.
"Yes, your honor," Heaton replied in a firm voice. He pleaded guilty to one count of federal conspiracy.
He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines, but probably would serve between 18 and 24 months as outlined under federal sentencing guidelines. No date was set for sentencing.
Heaton has agreed to give the Justice Department information that might be useful in an ongoing investigation that has targeted lobbyists, lawmakers, their aides and members of the Bush administration.
Among other things, Heaton acknowledged accepting trips to New Orleans and Lake George, N.Y., an Adirondack resort village. He also took what Assistant U.S. Attorney James A. Crowell IV and other prosecutors described as thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips from a foreign businessman at a casino during a travel stop in London. The unnamed businessman was hoping to sell U.S.-made airplanes and airplane parts in a foreign country.
In exchange, Heaton said he helped Ney insert an amendment into election reform legislation to benefit at least one Indian tribe in Texas that was an Abramoff client. And he lobbied the State Department for a travel visa for the daughter of another Abramoff client in Russia.
Heaton underreported how much the Scotland trip was worth and its purpose on Ney's congressionally required travel disclosure forms. He admitted he helped conceal some of the money Ney received, storing it in a safe in the congressman's office.
He also lied on his own House financial disclosure forms, describing the golf trip as official travel and failing to report gifts Abramoff gave him.
Heaton, a 2000 graduate of the College of William & Mary, declined to comment to reporters as he left Huvelle's courtroom. Before becoming Ney's chief of staff, he was a floor assistant to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and worked for the Committee on House Administration, which Ney once chaired.
Ney was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in January for trading political favors for golf trips, campaign donations and other gifts in the Abramoff lobbying scandal. Ney was the first congressman charged in the affair. |
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| ChaseDC |
"Ney was the first congressman charged in the affair."
And he isn't going to be the last. |
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| Fdubya247 |
Quote: Originally posted by ChaseDC
"Ney was the first congressman charged in the affair."
And he isn't going to be the last. |
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Don't be so sure...:
February 26, 2007
Editorial Observer
"Why Have So Many U.S. Attorneys Been Fired? It Looks a Lot Like Politics"
By ADAM COHEN
Carol Lam, the former United States attorney for San Diego, is smart and tireless and was very good at her job. Her investigation of Representative Randy Cunningham resulted in a guilty plea for taking more than $2 million in bribes from defense contractors and a sentence of more than eight years. Two weeks ago, she indicted Kyle Dustin Foggo, the former No. 3 official in the C.I.A. The defense-contracting scandal she pursued so vigorously could yet drag in other politicians.
In many Justice Departments, her record would have won her awards, and perhaps a promotion to a top post in Washington. In the Bush Justice Department, it got her fired.
Ms. Lam is one of at least seven United States attorneys fired recently under questionable circumstances. The Justice Department is claiming that Ms. Lam and other well-regarded prosecutors like John McKay of Seattle, David Iglesias of New Mexico, Daniel Bogden of Nevada and Paul Charlton of Arizona — who all received strong job evaluations — performed inadequately.
It is hard to call what’s happening anything other than a political purge. And it’s another shameful example of how in the Bush administration, everything — from rebuilding a hurricane-ravaged city to allocating homeland security dollars to invading Iraq — is sacrificed to partisan politics and winning elections.
U.S. attorneys have enormous power. Their decision to investigate or indict can bankrupt a business or destroy a life. They must be, and long have been, insulated from political pressures. Although appointed by the president, once in office they are almost never asked to leave until a new president is elected. The Congressional Research Service has confirmed how unprecedented these firings are. It found that of 486 U.S. attorneys confirmed since 1981, perhaps no more than three were forced out in similar ways — three in 25 years, compared with seven in recent months.
It is not just the large numbers. The firing of H. E. Cummins III is raising as many questions as Ms. Lam’s. Mr. Cummins, one of the most distinguished lawyers in Arkansas, is respected by Republicans and Democrats alike. But he was forced out to make room for J. Timothy Griffin, a former Karl Rove deputy with thin legal experience who did opposition research for the Republican National Committee. (Mr. Griffin recently bowed to the inevitable and said he will not try for a permanent appointment. But he remains in office indefinitely.)
The Bush administration cleared the way for these personnel changes by slipping a little-noticed provision into the Patriot Act last year that allows the president to appoint interim U.S. attorneys for an indefinite period without Senate confirmation.
Three theories are emerging for why these well-qualified U.S. attorney were fired — all political, and all disturbing.
1. Helping friends. Ms. Lam had already put one powerful Republican congressman in jail and was investigating other powerful politicians. The Justice Department, unpersuasively, claims that it was unhappy about Ms. Lam’s failure to bring more immigration cases. Meanwhile, Ms. Lam has been replaced with an interim prosecutor whose résumé shows almost no criminal law experience, but includes her membership in the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.
2. Candidate recruitment. U.S. attorney is a position that can make headlines and launch political careers. Congressional Democrats suspect that the Bush administration has been pushing out long-serving U.S. attorneys to replace them with promising Republican lawyers who can then be run for Congress and top state offices.
3. Presidential politics. The Justice Department concedes that Mr. Cummins was doing a good job in Little Rock. An obvious question is whether the administration was more interested in his successor’s skills in opposition political research — let’s not forget that Arkansas has been lucrative fodder for Republicans in the past — in time for the 2008 elections.
The charge of politics certainly feels right. This administration has made partisanship its lodestar. The Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran revealed in his book, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” that even applicants to help administer post-invasion Iraq were asked whom they voted for in 2000 and what they thought of Roe v. Wade.
Congress has been admirably aggressive about investigating. Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, held a tough hearing. And he is now talking about calling on the fired U.S. attorneys to testify and subpoenaing their performance evaluations — both good ideas.
The politicization of government over the last six years has had tragic consequences — in New Orleans, Iraq and elsewhere. But allowing politics to infect U.S. attorney offices takes it to a whole new level. Congress should continue to pursue the case of the fired U.S. attorneys vigorously, both to find out what really happened and to make sure that it does not happen again. |
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| Hater |
| FDubya - the US attorney situation is deplorable...thank God it's well documented...i pray that there is retribution for that bullshit... |
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| Fdubya247 |
Quote: Originally posted by Hater
FDubya - the US attorney situation is deplorable...thank God it's well documented...i pray that there is retribution for that bullshit... |
..."Separate but equal" branches of government...ahhhh the good 'ol Constitution...how quaint. |
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| Hater |
Quote: Originally posted by Fdubya247
..."Separate but equal" branches of government...ahhhh the good 'ol Constitution...how quaint. |
the blatant firing of admin critics is so USSR...what are we becoming?
i wouldn't be surprised to see forced labor camps for 'polictical prisoners' in the next 10 years... |
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| Fdubya247 |
Quote: Originally posted by Hater
the blatant firing of admin critics is so USSR...what are we becoming?
i wouldn't be surprised to see forced labor camps for 'polictical prisoners' in the next 10 years... |
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...Yeah, just extrapolate Guantanamo...but there is hope my friend...people seem to slowly be waking up. Never that ~ 27% wing-nut contingent, but enough. If we (America) doesn't, and "Con"servatives maintain power, well then:
* "I will decide who is a Jew!" -- Hermann Goering |
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| Billyfromsphily |
| Hopefully the new President in 2009 will obey the Constitution! |
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| Hater |
Quote: Originally posted by Fdubya247
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...Yeah, just extrapolate Guantanamo...but there is hope my friend...people seem to slowly be waking up. Never that ~ 27% wing-nut contingent, but enough. If we (America) doesn't, and "Con"servatives maintain power, well then:
* "I will decide who is a Jew!" -- Hermann Goering |
Thank God for the internet...we are no slowly beginning to see the return of accountability...it's hard to get away with shit these days when anybody with an IP and a tv can be a sleuth... |
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| patcracker |
| If Congress reappeals the unPatriot act that would strip AG Gonzalez of his power to fire anyone he deems as an enemy in the DoJ. This is just another in a long line of Constitutional abuses that the whole Admininstration should be impeached for. |
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| Billyfromsphily |
| There are still millions of sheep who believe that they are kept safe by the stripping of these Constitutional rights |
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