FBI releases files on ex-Senator Stevens, little on corruption case
The FBI released some of its expansive files on former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens who died last year in a plane crash, offering tidbits about threats against him, accusations of corruption and some correspondence he had with the FBI.
There was very little in the thousands of pages about the federal corruption investigation into Stevens beyond press clippings and court filings previously made public. The senator was initially convicted by a jury in October 2008 but the case was later dropped after a federal judge found that federal prosecutors withheld critical evidence from Stevens’ defense team.
Still, there were a few interesting tidbits, including details of contacts with foreign officials, several threats against him and also his work dating back to the 1950s when was a federal prosecutor in Alaska.
One FBI note talks about allegations that an attorney made a contribution to the Alaska Republican Party but it was allegedly illegally directed to Stevens’ re-election campaign and later the attorney received an appointment to be a federal judge with the senator’s support.
Another memo talked about an allegation that the former owner of the Fairbanks Daily News Miner who died and gave Stevens a $400,000 yacht in his will in exchange for his past help winning federal funds for projects in the city. The files do not offer details of investigations into the allegations. Stevens was never charged in those incidents.
One interesting document in Stevens’ FBI file included correspondence about the senator’s contacts with a diplomat from the Chinese Embassy in 1982, Ji Chaozhu, and the FBI’s request for advance notice of meetings in the future. (page 334 in this file)
“As you know, your letter is very helpful to us in fulfilling our counterintelligence responsibilities,” then FBI Director William Webster said in a letter to Stevens. “Edward J. O’Malley, Assistant Director of our Intelligence Division, has suggested to me that if you have an opportunity to do so, similar notification of future meetings you may have with officials of the People’s Republic of China would be of interest.”
U.S. officials seek to shelve Karzai tensions
Tensions, what tensions?
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew arrived back from Afghanistan and Pakistan on Friday, touting the performance of several ministers in Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government.
His visit came at a particularly tense time in U.S.-Afghan relations after Karzai made some corrosive statements in recent weeks against his donors, blaming the West for much of the corruption in his country and drawing critical comments from the White House.
Hours after landing home, Lew went out of his way to single out several Afghan ministers, including the finance and agriculture ministers, who he said were “extraordinary leaders.”
He cited a dinner two days ago in Kabul where he was seated next to former presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani and the current finance minister.
“Sitting there between these two leaders of a country — with so much ground to catch up in so many ways — one was left with such a strong impression at the same time that there were extraordinary leaders there, who frankly were on par or above the leaders of many countries that are considered highly developed,” Lew gushed.
“That doesn’t mean there is not a lot of work to do but leadership does matter and it was very heartening,” he added.
Blago says he’s “blacker than Barack Obama”
Believe it or not, Rod Blagojevich is African-American — and more so than President Barack Obama. At least, that’s what the former Illinois governor tells Esquire magazine in a new interview. “It’s such a cynical business, and most of the people in the business are full of (expletive deleted) and phonies, but I was real, man — and am real. This guy, he was catapulted in on hope and change, what we hope the guy is. What the (expletive deleted)? Everything he’s saying’s on the teleprompter,” Esquire quotes Blago as saying about the president, without the expletives deleted.
“I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived. I saw it all growing up,” he explains.
Blago is, in fact, a white Democrat who gained prominence for introducing big male hair to the national political arena during a corruption probe that led to his indictment on charges of trying to sell Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat. He denies the accusations.
Esquire doesn’t say whether Blago thinks Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid should resign for calling Obama a “light-skinned” black man “with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one.” Reid’s comments were made in private but published in the new book, “Game Change,” by Time magazine reporter Mark Halperin and New York magazine writer John Heilemann.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who actually is black, says Reid should go — just like former Senate Republican leader Trent Lott went in 2002 after praising former segregationist and long-time Senator Strom Thurmond. Reid has apologized for “using such a poor choice of words” and Obama has accepted the apology.
But Blago does let the magazine in on the legal strategy he’s contemplating for his upcoming trial in Chicago.
“I’m absolutely going to testify,” Blago promises Esquire. “Absolutely. I’m going to go up there and tell the whole truth — and the complete truth.”
I do not believe that “Blago” was speaking about color when said the word “Black”. I think this was a metaphorical take on his position in the Democrat Party right now.
Ex-House Republican aide pleads not guilty to corruption charges
An aide to former House Majority Leader Richard Armey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of receiving valuable sports and concert tickets as well as free meals in a corruption case related to disgraced U.S. lobbyist Jack Abramoff.Horace Cooper, through his lawyer, pleaded not guilty during a brief arraignment in U.S. District Court, and while he will have to surrender his passport, Cooper won’t have to post any bail and will still be able to travel around the country giving speeches.Wearing a pink dress shirt, sport coat and slacks, Cooper hastily put on a necktie as he appeared before Judge John Facciola who informed him of his rights to a speedy trial and to counsel if he could not afford one.Cooper was indicted last month on five counts of conspiracy, making false statements, concealment and obstruction of justice from his time working with Armey as well as later at the Voice of America and the Labor Department.In one titillating detail in the indictment, Cooper complained to Abramoff that he was charged $141 at the lobbyist’s restaurant Signatures, saying “I think there may have been a little glitch at the restaurant.”Cooper’s attorney, white collar crime defense lawyer Sol Wisenberg, asked the court to permit his client to continue traveling throughout the United States without advance court approval so he can give speeches which is one of his current sources of income. He said that Cooper was “not in any way a flight risk.”Facciola approved the request, but ordered that Cooper give a week’s advance notice of his travel plans.Click here for more Reuters political coverage.- Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria (Abramoff outside a Florida courthouse.)
I hope the democratic supporters don,t have the audacity to respond to this posting.The frequency of different allegations of recent democratic impropriety could supply a script writer with sufficient material to develop a crime series for many seasons.
Aide to former House Republican leader indicted in Abramoff case
An aide to former U.S. House Majority Leader Richard Armey was indicted on corruption charges in connection with disgraced U.S. lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including taking free sports tickets and helping his clients with a government contract.
Horace Cooper, who served as a legislative counsel to Armey, was charged with conspiracy, concealing his actions, making false statements and obstruction of justice, according to the indictment filed in U.S. district court.
Prosecutors accused the legislative aide of receiving valuable tickets to events like Washington Redskins football games and concerts including rock singer Bruce Springsteen between 1998 and 2000, when Cooper worked for Armey.
Cooper knew that Abramoff, his firm and their clients “had numerous issues pending before the U.S. House of Representatives,” the indictment said.
In 2001, when Cooper became chief of staff at the Voice of America, which is a U.S. government-run news outlet, he is accused of telling Abramoff to let him know if he can be helpful to his firm.
Abramoff told staff at the restaurant he controlled, Signatures, to provide Cooper with complimentary meals and drinks and arranged for a free Super Bowl party for him and 25 of his friends at another Abramoff restaurant called Stacks, the indictment said.
The indictment accused Cooper of helping Abramoff and an associate in 2002 in their efforts to participate in a VOA broadcasting project and obtaining $10 million-$15 million in funding from the State Department.
Statements from Obama surrogates like infohunter trying highlight corruption accusations against isolated republicans ,when we are seeing an epidemic of corruption entrench the democratic party both nationally and nationally, enhances the mistrust that average americans have against the democrats having the integrity to oversee a huge spending expansion like the proposed national health plan.
Attorney General warns prosecutors after Stevens debacle
(UPDATE: clarifies first two paragraphs about Holder talking to prosecutors)
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder had some pointed words for prosecutors on Wednesday after the fumbling of the corruption case against former Republican Senator Ted Stevens that the government ultimately had to drop because evidence was withheld from the defense team.
He warned government lawyers at a conference that the case had threatened to undermine the Justice Department’s credibility for providing defendants all the material against them as required by law.
“Our adversarial system for criminal trials can only result in justice if the discovery process is conducted by the government fairly, ethically, and according to the rule of law,” Holder said at a National Black Prosecutors Association luncheon in Memphis.
He said that the agency was reviewing its compliance and that “we will correct any errors and we will see to it, once again, that justice is our primary goal.”
In October a federal jury found Stevens guilty of seven counts of lying on a Senate disclosure form to conceal $250,000 in gifts and home renovations from an oil executive and other friends.
In one of his first decisions after being confirmed as President Barack Obama’s chief law enforcement officer, Holder ordered the case against the long-time Alaska senator be abandoned after a review showed that prosecutors did not turn over to the defense information that could have helped Stevens’ case.
As ghostwriter of Ji Chaozhu’s autobiography, “The Man on Mao’s Right,” I was fascinated to find that the FBI had to ask Sen. Stevens to keep the Bureau in the loop on Mr. Ji’s contacts with the Senator. I always thought the relationship, which Ji described as quite sincere and useful to both sides, was a classic case of odd bedfellows: the conservative and the communist breaking bread instead of heads. Ji was a product of America as well as China, having spent most of his youth until Harvard here, then returning to China out of a sense of duty. I hope more details of the US interest in this relationship turns up. I had always wanted to interview Sen. Stevens about it but never got the chance. — Foster Winans