Author Topic: Clinton Big Money Donor Wanted for Grand Theft (and other Democrat Misdeeds)  (Read 151070 times)

Soul Crusher

  • Competitors
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 39256
  • Doesnt lie about lifting.
Court refuses to drop corruption charges against Menendez
The Hill ^ | July 29, 2016 | Harper Neidig
Posted on 7/29/2016, 2:30:19 PM by jazusamo


A federal appeals court on Friday refused to drop corruption charges against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), according to The Associated Press.

Menendez's attorneys had argued that his actions on behalf of a campaign donor were protected because he's a sitting senator, but the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

Prosecutors allege that Menendez received bribes from Salomon Melgen, an ophthalmologist and wealthy Florida donor, in the form of campaign donations and extravagant gifts.

In return, Menendez allegedly set up meetings with government officials to arrange favors for Melgen.

Both men pleaded not guilty last year.

In February, Menendez’s lawyers argued that the meetings he held with government officials were not favors for Melgen, but rather routine policy discussions that are constitutionally protected.

The court disagreed on Friday, ruling that "the acts alleged in this case were essentially lobbying on behalf of a particular party and thus, under the specific circumstances here, are outside the constitutional safe harbor."

The Justice Department alleges that Melgen supplied Menendez with gifts including the use of private jets, a Caribbean villa, a luxury hotel room in Paris and an exclusive Dominican resort. Melgen also donated to a legal defense fund set up to pay for legal fees associated with federal and congressional ethics investigations.




Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Pennsylvania Attorney General Resigns After Perjury Conviction

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Tuesday, 16 Aug 2016

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced her resignation on Tuesday, one day after a jury convicted her of perjury and other crimes for leaking sealed grand jury material to a news reporter.

"I have been honored to serve the people of Pennsylvania and I wish them health and safety in all their days," Kane said in a statement. Her deputy, Bruce Castor, is scheduled to address the media later on Tuesday.

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/pennsylvania-attorney-general-kathleen-kane-resign/2016/08/16/id/743814/#ixzz4HWUwyF70

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Disgraced Pennsylvania AG Kathleen Kane Slapped With Jail Time For Politically-Motivated Grand Jury Leak, Perjury
Matt Vespa
Posted: Oct 25, 2016


Pennsylvania’s two-year ordeal with its Attorney General Kathleen Kane has come to an end. The first female Democrat elected to the office (it became an elected position in 1980) was handcuffed and led out in total disgrace after being found guilty of politically-motivated disclosures of a grand jury investigation that went nowhere and for perjury. Kane was sentenced to a 10-23-month jail sentence yesterday, closing a rather toxic chapter in public life for the Keystone State (via The Morning Call):

"This case is about ego, ego of a politician consumed with her image from Day One," Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy said during Kane's sentencing Monday in Montgomery County Court. "And instead of focusing solely on the business of fighting crime, her focus was on defeating these perceived enemies."

Demchick-Alloy noted Kane, once a rising Democratic Party star, ascended quickly to become the state's top law enforcement officer, arriving as a political novice and neophyte. Kane, however, failed to make the transition from politician to public servant once she took office, the judge said.

"Ego must be set aside after the election with the sole purpose to serve the public in order to ensure the public's confidence in you and the system," Demchick-Alloy said.

Demchick-Alloy noted Kane's crimes, orchestrating the release of secret information about an abandoned fraud probe targeting a Philadelphia civil rights leader and lying about it under oath, damaged the backbone of Pennsylvania's justice system

So, how did Kathleen Kane go from a rising Democratic star, rumored to be a name floated to challenge Sen. Pat Toomey, to a disgraced former attorney general whose bloated ego poisoned her office, demoralized her staff, and rendered her incapable of transitioning from campaigner to law enforcer? Well, it goes back to Porngate and the Jerry Sandusky case involving child abuse at Penn State. Amber Phillips of The Washington Post has a great rundown of where her fall from grace began, the rivalries involved, and the inevitable grand jury that brought her down.

. . . .

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2016/10/25/disgraced-ag-kathleen-kane-slapped-with-1023-month-jail-sentence-for-politicallymotivated-grand-jury-disclosures-perjury-n2236474

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Clinton Big Money Donor Wanted for Grand Theft (and other Democrat Misdeeds)
« Reply #381 on: December 12, 2016, 09:36:24 AM »
Fattah sentenced to 10 years in prison
By JOHN BRESNAHAN 12/12/16

Former Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah (Pa.) was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday by a federal judge in Philadelphia.

Fattah, 60, served 22 years in Congress before losing a Democratic primary in April.

Fattah was convicted in June on a number of federal corruption charges, including bribery, racketeering, money laundering, bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, and filing false statements. The long-running criminal scheme was related to paying back a loan from Fattah's unsuccessful run for Philadelphia mayor in 2007.

The Pennsylvania Democrat's son, Chaka Fattah Jr., is already in prison on bank and tax fraud charges. The younger Fattah is serving a five-year sentence.

"Those in high places will certainly know what happens in this courtroom today," said U.S. District Judge Harvery Bartle, III, as he sentenced Fattah, according to WPVI, a Philadelphia TV station.

Bartle noted that Fattah and his wife, a TV news anchor, made more than $500,000 in combined income, placing them in the top 1 percent of Americans.

"While you have done much good, you also engaged in grave and widespread criminal activity," Bartle added. "You abused your trust, time and time again."

Fattah told Bartle that he had helped "tens of millions of people" during his time in office, despite the crimes he'd been convicted of committing.

"I've helped tens of millions of people," Fattah said. "[That] has nothing to do with the fact that I've been found on the wrong side of these questions by a jury."

While it was one the harshest sentences ever handed out to a one-time member of Congress, federal prosecutors had asked for a longer term behind bars. The Justice Department wanted Fattah incarcerated for 17 to 21 years.

Fattah was a former state lawmaker and Philadelphia official who was elected to Congress in 1994. He won a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, where he was able to steer millions of dollars in earmarks back home.

Yet despite his safe congressional seat, Fattah always wanted to be a power player back home in Philadelphia, where he was born, and it was this desire that ultimately led to his downfall and federal conviction.

Fattah's criminal acts were part of a years-long scheme related to his unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Philadelphia. Fattah and several of his co-defendants, who include former campaign and congressional aides, obtained an illegal $1 million loan for him during the 2007 mayor’s race. Once he lost that race and faced a large debt, Fattah and his inner circle illegally used federal and charitable funds to help repay the loan. Fattah and the other co-conspirators submitted false billing statements to his mayoral campaign in order to keep the loan secret.

In addition, Fattah received bribes from Herbert Vederman, a former deputy mayor of Philadelphia who served as an aide to his mayoral campaign. Fattah used the money to pay personal expenses, including his taxes.

In return, Fattah reportedly pushed for an ambassadorial position for Vederman or for appointment to the U.S. Trade Commission, including hand-delivering a letter to President Barack Obama on the issue. Fattah also hired Vederman’s girlfriend in his Capitol Hill office.

The FBI spent years investigating Fattah, and it long looked as if he would escape federal indictment. But he was charged in 2015, and then convicted on all counts the following year.

Fattah supporters have raised questions about whether he received a fair trial, noting that one of the jurors was dismissed from the case. Philadelphia news outlets have filed a motion to unseal court documents related to that dismissal.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/chaka-fattah-sentencing-10-years-232507

Skeletor

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 15513
  • Silence you furry fool!
Re: Clinton Big Money Donor Wanted for Grand Theft (and other Democrat Misdeeds)
« Reply #382 on: December 12, 2016, 06:17:42 PM »
Fattah sentenced to 10 years in prison
By JOHN BRESNAHAN 12/12/16

Former Democratic Rep. Chaka Fattah (Pa.) was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday by a federal judge in Philadelphia.

Fattah, 60, served 22 years in Congress before losing a Democratic primary in April.

Fattah was convicted in June on a number of federal corruption charges, including bribery, racketeering, money laundering, bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, and filing false statements. The long-running criminal scheme was related to paying back a loan from Fattah's unsuccessful run for Philadelphia mayor in 2007.

The Pennsylvania Democrat's son, Chaka Fattah Jr., is already in prison on bank and tax fraud charges. The younger Fattah is serving a five-year sentence.

"Those in high places will certainly know what happens in this courtroom today," said U.S. District Judge Harvery Bartle, III, as he sentenced Fattah, according to WPVI, a Philadelphia TV station.

Bartle noted that Fattah and his wife, a TV news anchor, made more than $500,000 in combined income, placing them in the top 1 percent of Americans.

"While you have done much good, you also engaged in grave and widespread criminal activity," Bartle added. "You abused your trust, time and time again."

Fattah told Bartle that he had helped "tens of millions of people" during his time in office, despite the crimes he'd been convicted of committing.

"I've helped tens of millions of people," Fattah said. "[That] has nothing to do with the fact that I've been found on the wrong side of these questions by a jury."

While it was one the harshest sentences ever handed out to a one-time member of Congress, federal prosecutors had asked for a longer term behind bars. The Justice Department wanted Fattah incarcerated for 17 to 21 years.

Fattah was a former state lawmaker and Philadelphia official who was elected to Congress in 1994. He won a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, where he was able to steer millions of dollars in earmarks back home.

Yet despite his safe congressional seat, Fattah always wanted to be a power player back home in Philadelphia, where he was born, and it was this desire that ultimately led to his downfall and federal conviction.

Fattah's criminal acts were part of a years-long scheme related to his unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Philadelphia. Fattah and several of his co-defendants, who include former campaign and congressional aides, obtained an illegal $1 million loan for him during the 2007 mayor’s race. Once he lost that race and faced a large debt, Fattah and his inner circle illegally used federal and charitable funds to help repay the loan. Fattah and the other co-conspirators submitted false billing statements to his mayoral campaign in order to keep the loan secret.

In addition, Fattah received bribes from Herbert Vederman, a former deputy mayor of Philadelphia who served as an aide to his mayoral campaign. Fattah used the money to pay personal expenses, including his taxes.

In return, Fattah reportedly pushed for an ambassadorial position for Vederman or for appointment to the U.S. Trade Commission, including hand-delivering a letter to President Barack Obama on the issue. Fattah also hired Vederman’s girlfriend in his Capitol Hill office.

The FBI spent years investigating Fattah, and it long looked as if he would escape federal indictment. But he was charged in 2015, and then convicted on all counts the following year.

Fattah supporters have raised questions about whether he received a fair trial, noting that one of the jurors was dismissed from the case. Philadelphia news outlets have filed a motion to unseal court documents related to that dismissal.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/chaka-fattah-sentencing-10-years-232507

Was about to post this. How many others like him?

"I've been found on the wrong side of these questions by a jury." ::)


Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Such hypocrisy. 5 years seems too light, especially considering his position.

Ex-Calif. State Sen. Leland Yee, gun control champion, heading to prison for weapons trafficking

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/02/25/ex-calif-state-sen-leeland-yee-gun-control-champion-heading-to-prison-for-weapons-trafficking/


Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
D.A. Seth Williams indicted on corruption, bribery-related charges
Updated: March 21, 2017
Seth Williams has been under investigation for possible financial irregularities.   
by Jeremy Roebuck, David Gambacorta & Chris Brennan - Staff Writers 
   
Investigators accused the city’s cash-strapped top prosecutor of repeatedly selling his influence and offering to intervene in a case on behalf of one wealthy benefactor. In exchange, they said, Williams accepted luxury trips to foreign locales, a used Jaguar convertible and other gifts ranging from a $205 Louis Vuitton necktie to a Burberry watch.

When even that wasn’t enough to cover the costs of his lush life, Williams allegedly resorted to stealing from his own mother – draining more than $20,000 of Social Security and pension income intended to pay for her nursing home to cover his mortgage and electricity bills.
 
“The alleged misconduct … is brazen and wide-ranging, as is the idea that a district attorney would so cavalierly trade on elected office for financial gain,” said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Michael Harpster at an afternoon news conference announcing the charges. “The immense authority vested to law enforcement has to be kept in check, and that requires decision makers and leaders with a steady ethical compass.”

The criminal case brought to a head rumors that have dogged Williams for years and put a damning footnote on his eight-year career in office – one that began in 2010 with accolades for sweeping changes he promised to implement within the city’s justice system, only to be overshadowed more recently by a series of scandals.

As he announced his decision last month to forgo a reelection bid, Williams, 50, apologized for bringing “embarrassment and shame” to the District Attorney’s Office through repeated ethical lapses and vowed to win back the trust of the public and his employees.

But hours after Tuesday’s indictment, Williams offered no indication of whether he now intended to resign. His lawyer, Michael Diamondstein, vowed that Williams would fight the charges in court.

“Mr. Williams vehemently denies that he ever compromised any investigation, case or law enforcement function,” he said.

Sources familiar with the course of the investigation said that Williams rejected a plea deal from prosecutors earlier this week. He spent the day at home with his family, an office spokesman said, and was expected to surrender and be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

But inside Williams’ office of 300 prosecutors, the allegations hit like a bomb. In an internal memo, his top deputy, Kathleen Martin, assured the staff that the office was cooperating with the investigation and that no other employees had been accused of wrongdoing.

“I understand and appreciate that you may be angry and frustrated with the unwanted spotlight placed upon our office, emotions that you are certainly justified in feeling,” she wrote.

Outside, the city’s political and legal leaders offered swift condemnation.

Mayor Jim Kenney called the Williams’ alleged actions “deeply shameful” and a “flagrant violation of the law.”

"At a time when our citizens’ trust in government is at an all-time low, it is disheartening to see yet another elected official give the public a reason not to trust us," the mayor said in a statement. "That this comes at the heard of our justice system is even more troubling.” 

Deborah R. Gross, chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, called for Williams to step aside immediately.

“The charges against him cast a shadow on the District Attorney’s Office, our legal community and the entire City of Philadelphia.  It truly is an embarrassment," she said.

But the case against Williams, which involves charges of honest services fraud and other bribery-related counts, hardly came as a surprise.

Known to frequent cigar bars and the tony Union League, Williams has been open about his financial problems since the FBI and IRS began poking into his finances two years ago. He has complained of his inability to pay for alimony stemming from a 2011 divorce and private school tuition for his daughters, despite his $170,000-a-year salary.

In January, the Philadelphia Board of Ethics assessed the largest fine in its 10-year history for Williams’ failure to report for years more than $175,000 in gifts he had accepted including a new roof, luxury vacations, Eagles sidelines passes and the use of a defense attorney’s home in Florida.

And Williams, as investigators described it Tuesday, was not shy about asking for handouts.

“I am merely a thankful beggar and don’t want to overstep my bounds in asking,” he said in one February 2012 text message to a donor in reference to a second planned Caribbean vacation on the donor's tab. He told another in 2013 that he “never want[ed] to feel like a drag on your wallet,” yet he allegedly returned again and again to seek the man’s help in funding trips to California, Florida and Las Vegas.

Some of those gifts featured prominently in Tuesday’s indictment, including a $3,000 trip Williams took in 2012 with his then-girlfriend to the Dominican Republic, where they stayed in a presidential suite complete with access to a private beach and personal butler.

The excursion was bankrolled by Mohammad N. Ali, a Bucks County businessman who sold old prepaid telephone cards and who, according to the indictment, spared no expense in showering Williams with other gifts, including a $3,212 custom sofa and cash payments of $9,000.

In exchange, prosecutors say, Williams offered in to help one of Ali’s friends who faced criminal charges by drafting a plea deal that would shorten the man’s sentence and keep him out of the state prison system.

Prosecutors did not say Tuesday whether Williams ever followed through with his promise. Ali did not respond to requests for comment.

“In the future,” he told Ali in an August 2012 text message quoted in the indictment, “always give me at least a week to help a friend. I have no problem looking at anything.”

In other instances, Williams’ allegedly offered to intervene with other law enforcement offices on behalf of his friends. Ali purportedly sought his help a year later to avoid enhanced TSA screening as he returned to Philadelphia International Airport from trips abroad.

Another donor – Michael Weiss, co-owner of  Woody's, a well-known Center City gay bar – allegedly sought the district attorney’s help in untangling a legal mess for another bar he owned in California.

Authorities in that state attempted in 2013 to yank Weiss’ liquor license after discovering he had pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges in three years earlier.

But Williams, according to the indictment, wrote a letter vouching for Weiss and, in an effort to prove his friend’s upstanding character, appointed him as a special advisor to the District Attorney Office, complete with a badge and leather carrying case.
   
Weiss showed his gratefulness, prosecutors said Tuesday, with paying for Spring Break vacations to Florida and San Diego for Williams and his daughters. He also gave Williams his old 1997 Jaguar XK8 convertible worth $4,160, the indictment says.

Weiss did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

“Dude,” Williams reportedly texted Weiss. “I never want to feel like a drag on your wallet … but we are ALWAYS ready for an adventure.”

Williams’ prosecution is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey, after Justice Department officials in Philadelphia recused themselves due to their frequent collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/DA-Seth-Williams-federal-charges-Philadelphia.html

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Ex-Rep. Corrine Brown guilty on fraud, tax evasion charges
Published May 11, 2017
Fox News
 
Former Democratic Rep. Corrine Brown was found guilty on 18 fraud and tax evasion charges Thursday afternoon in a Jacksonville federal court.

The charges stemmed from accusations she illegally siphoned thousands of dollars from her charity into her own bank account for lavish parties, trips and shopping excursions.

Brown was found not guilty on four of the 22 total charges.

Brown served as a Florida representative in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 until 2017. She was defeated in her 2016 primary race.

The indictment came after an investigation into the charity One Door for Education Foundation Inc., which federal prosecutors say was purported to give scholarships to poor students but instead filled the coffers of Brown and her associates.

Earlier this year, One Door President Carla Wiley pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud after it as determined that she had deposited $800,000 into the foundation's account over four years. Over that time, federal prosecutors say it gave one scholarship for $1,000 and that Wiley transferred herself tens of thousands of dollars.

"Congresswoman Brown and her chief of staff are alleged to have used the congresswoman's official position to solicit over $800,000 in donations to a supposed charitable organization, only to use that organization as a personal slush fund," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Leslie Caldwell, chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, said in a statement earlier this year.

Brown's former chief of staff, Elias "Ronnie" Simmons, and the charity's president pleaded guilty after their federal indictments for misusing the charity's funds, and testified against Brown.

Brown said she was left in the dark about the goings-on with One Door's money, and blamed the theft on Simmons.

Brown said she left those details to Simmons and other hired staffers, and said she should have paid more attention to her personal and professional finances.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/11/ex-rep-corrine-brown-guilty-on-fraud-tax-evasion-charges.html

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Anthony Weiner Pleads Guilty to Federal Obscenity Charges
NYT's ^ | 5/19/17 | BENJAMIN WEISER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Posted on 5/19/2017, 3:56:56 PM by ColdOne

“I engaged in obscene communications with this teenager,” Mr. Weiner said, his voice high and shaky, and his body trembling. Those communications “included sharing explicit images and encouraging her to engage in sexually explicit conduct,” just as he had done with adult women, he said.

Mr. Weiner, 52, will have to register as a sex offender where he works and lives,

SNIP

Federal prosecutors said in the plea agreement that a sentence in the range of 21 to 27 months would be “fair and appropriate.” The decision ultimately lies with Judge Loretta A. Preska of Federal District Court in Manhattan; sentencing is set for Sept. 8.

SNIP

But Mr. Weiner quickly dissolved into tears as he read from a written statement when the judge asked that he describe what he had do.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
A corrupt district attorney? Impossible...

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams pleads guilty in his federal corruption trial

Seth Williams resigned as Philadelphia’s district attorney and was led out of court in handcuffs Thursday after abruptly ending his trial on federal bribery charges with a guilty plea.

Williams, who saw embarrassing details about his messy personal life and financial struggles dragged out into open court during the nearly two-week trial, pleaded guilty to one count related to accepting a bribe from Bucks County businessman Mohammad Ali.

“I have a guilty plea from the highest law officer in the city that he betrayed his office and he sold his office … I am appalled by the evidence that I heard,” Diamond said before ordering Williams jailed. “I simply do not credit this defendant’s testimony. I do not believe him.”

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/philadelphia/philly-da-seth-williams-xxxxxxxx-20170629.html

It seems he was part of the "I'm with her" crowd:





Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Wasserman Schultz' ex-IT aide indicted on 4 counts
Published August 17, 2017
Fox News
 
Imran Awan, a former IT aide for Democratic Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was indicted Thursday on four counts including bank fraud and making false statements.

The indictment also includes his wife Hina Alvi.

The grand jury decision in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia comes roughly a month after Awan was arrested at Dulles airport in Virginia trying to board a plane to Pakistan, where his family is from.

Awan and other IT aides for House Democrats have been on investigators’ radar for months over concerns of possible double-billing, alleged equipment theft, and access to sensitive computer systems. Most lawmakers fired Awan in February, but Schultz had kept him on until his arrest in July.

The indictment itself, which merely represents formal charges and is not a finding of guilt, addresses separate allegations that Awan and his wife engaged in a conspiracy to obtain home equity lines of credit from the Congressional Federal Credit Union by giving false information about two properties – and then sending the proceeds to individuals in Pakistan.

The case has put renewed scrutiny on Wasserman Schultz for keeping Awan on the payroll for months, even after a criminal investigation was revealed and he was barred from the House IT network. 

Awan and other family members for years had a lucrative arrangement for IT-related work on Capitol Hill for House Democrats. According to The Daily Caller, the members of the Pakistani family made at least $4 million since 2009.

In a recent interview published in the Sun Sentinel, Wasserman Schultz blamed the “right-wing media circus fringe” for the attention on Awan.

The former head of the Democratic National Committee suggested it's all part of an effort to distract from the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign and possible ties to President Trump's team.

“Any opportunity they can to pull people’s eyes and ears away from that they take,” Wasserman Schultz told the newspaper.

Her colleagues in Congress, though, say there are serious security implications in her former staffer's case.

“We have to investigate how our systems may have been compromised,” Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., recently told “Fox & Friends.”

Though Awan was barred from the IT network, Wasserman Schultz’ spokesman David Damron told Fox News their office worked with the House Chief Administrative Officer to arrange for the employee to keep providing “valuable services without access to the House network.”

Awan, 37, of Virginia, earlier pleaded not guilty to a single count of bank fraud.

Attorney Christopher Gowen told Fox News  that federal authorities have no evidence of misconduct by Awan relating to his IT duties.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/17/wasserman-schultz-ex-it-aide-indicted-on-4-counts.html

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
This should probably go into the "Dem crime spree" thread but I all dem crimes should be brought for the forefront every chance I get. Sorry if this is a repost.


http://thehill.com/homenews/house/113309-house-ethics-committee-charges-waters-on-three-counts



Rep. Waters charged on three counts
By Susan Crabtree and Jordan Fabian - 08/10/10

The House ethics committee on Monday outlined its charges against Rep. Maxine Waters, who is accused of helping a bank in which her husband owned stock secure federal bailout funds.

The committee charged the 10-term California Democrat with three counts of violating House rules and the federal ethics code in connection with her effort to arrange a 2008 meeting between Treasury officials and representatives with OneUnited bank.

The panel said Waters, who sits on the Financial Services Committee, broke a House rule requiring members to behave in a way that reflects “creditably” on the chamber. The committee said that by trying to assist OneUnited, she stood to benefit directly, because her husband owned a sizable amount of stock that would have been “worthless” if the bank failed.
The committee also accused Waters of violating the “spirit” of a House rule prohibiting lawmakers from using their positions for financial gain, as well as a government ethics statute banning the dispensing of “special favors.”

Waters has vehemently denied wrongdoing and said she would rather defend herself at an ethics trial than admit to “something I did not do.”

In a motion to dismiss the charges, which the ethics panel has denied, Waters’s attorney, Stanley M. Brand, said the congresswoman had done nothing wrong.

“This committee asserts that Rep. Waters improperly used her position to ‘preserve her husband’s investment in OneUnited,’ ” he wrote. “Yet, after its exhaustive investigation, it cannot identify a single active step taken by Rep. Waters in furtherance of that goal.”

The release of the formal charges comes at a bad time for Democrats, as Waters is the second party lawmaker heading to a public trial after the August recess — with time running out before the November midterms. In late July, the House ethics committee charged Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) with 13 counts of breaking House rules and federal ethics statutes.

Now, for the third straight week, as House lawmakers return from recess Tuesday to pass a $26 billion state aid package, Democratic leaders must watch their legislative agenda take a backseat to ethics scandals that Republicans already are using against them.

The ethics committee last week released a detailed report, by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), on Waters’s alleged wrongdoing in the OneUnited matter, but it did not outline the formal charges against her until Monday.

The panel’s investigative subcommittee, to buttress its case, released more information Monday about Waters’s involvement with OneUnited and a meeting she helped arrange between the National Bankers Association (NBA), a trade group of minority owned banks of which OneUnited is a member, and Treasury officials. Three of the four attendees NBA invited had ties to OneUnited, according to the OCE report.

OneUnited asked for $50 million in assistance to cover expected losses from the collapse of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but Treasury lacked the authority to grant the request, the ethics committee said.According to the 10-page Statement of Alleged Violation, Waters “did not instruct” her chief of staff, Mikael Moore, to stop assisting OneUnited after she told Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) she would halt her outreach.

In early September, Frank had warned Waters against getting involved because of her husband’s ties, telling her he would handle all contact on behalf of the bank, according to the report, even before he knew about her husband’s OneUnited stock. It is unclear when Frank learned about his holdings.

But Moore, who is Waters’s grandson, contacted OneUnited executives in late September, sending them publicly available draft legislation of a broad Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bill that would have permitted Treasury to buy certain assets of banks.

OneUnited CEO Kevin Cohee and OneUnited senior counsel Robert Cooper exchanged several e-mails with Moore that September. In one, Cooper wrote: “Thank you for all your hard work!”


In October, the legislation authorizing the TARP contained language intended to apply to OneUnited, according to Frank. The bank eventually applied for TARP funds and received $12 million in December.

The ethics committee valued Williams’s stock holdings at over $350,000 at the end of 2007, between 4.6 and 15.2 percent of the couple’s net worth, according to Waters’s financial disclosure reports. By the end of September 2008, the stock’s value plummeted more than 50 percent, to $175,000, because of the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“If OneUnited failed, [Waters’s] husband’s investment would have been worthless,” the subcommittee wrote.

The panel also reported that Cohee had previously hosted a fundraiser for Waters at his home and that he and his wife contributed to her campaign on “numerous occasions.”

The investigative subcommittee denied two motions filed by Waters: one to provide further clarification of the charges against her and another to dismiss the case.

The fact that her grandson handled the OneUnited matter for her raises even more ethics concerns, watchdogs argue. House rules bar members from hiring for their congressional offices nearly anyone with a family relationship, though not grandchildren.

“Congress has anti-nepotism rules, which sadly don’t rule out members from hiring their grandchildren,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Public Citizen’s Craig Holman said, “The family and the business relationship is just so close — it defies credibility that he would be acting on his own without her knowledge.”

Waters plans a vigorous defense this week. Her attorneys previously have argued that Moore acted without her knowledge and compared her office’s activities to those of Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), whom the committee exonerated last year.

Graves had invited a business partner of his wife’s to testify before a committee. The hearing covered the industry in which the witness and Graves’s wife were investors, and he failed to disclose the relationship at the hearing.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/113309-house-ethics-committee-charges-waters-on-three-counts

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Menendez mess: Trial threatens to sideline senator just as Dems plot Trump resistance
By Alex Pappas
Published August 25, 2017
Fox News
 
The upcoming bribery trial for New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez could have damaging consequences for his party whether or not he's convicted, by sidelining him from Congress just as Democrats gear up to fight the Trump agenda.

The senator is now pleading with a federal judge to alter the trial schedule on certain days so he can return to Washington to vote.

So far, however, the court has rejected these requests, which the Trump Justice Department has decried as a bid for "special treatment."

The timing of the trial, set to begin Sept. 6, is critical. It would fall as Congress returns from the August recess and Republicans prepare to vote on President Trump’s legislative agenda -- potentially covering everything from tax reform to health care to the budget and debt ceiling.

Neither party can afford to lose a single member from the Senate floor. Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority, and it’s possible the absence of a single reliable Democratic vote could tip the balance on key votes this fall, including possibly another attempt at repealing President Obama’s health care law.

Mindful of this, Menendez earlier this week asked for a trial delay, along with other possible alternative concessions, only to be denied by U.S. District Judge William Walls. While Menendez would be free to skip his trial to attend Senate session, doing so could hurt his standing at the trial -- a scenario he's trying to avoid.

As jury selection began this week in New Jersey, the senator's lawyers came back with a more refined request, asking the judge to alter the trial schedule on select days so he can be present for key Senate votes.

“As the recent vote on whether to repeal the Affordable Care Act demonstrated, the Senate is divided by razor-thin margins on consequential legislation, making Senator Menendez’s absence from any particular vote potentially determinative,” his motion stated.

MENENDEZ TRIAL OUTCOME COULD SHIFT BALANCE OF POWER IN SENATE

The Justice Department fired back in its own brief, saying:

"A bedrock principle of our criminal justice system is that the law does not recognize wealth or title. Many defendants try to evade their criminal trials—but only a United States Senator can try to hide behind the very office he corrupted to avoid accountability to the public for his actions. Every defendant should be treated equally, and no defendant should receive special treatment based on power or privilege. This Court should reject defendant Menendez’s effort to let politics in Washington dictate the trial schedule in Newark."

Congress is poised to hold a number of important votes, including on the federal debt limit, a spending deal to avoid a government shutdown and on a Republican tax reform plan.

But there's more at stake in the Menendez case than this fall's votes. Republicans are salivating over the prospect of a more lasting political consequence should Menendez be convicted and should he leave Congress in the next few months: New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie would name his replacement, meaning the GOP could pick up another vote in the Senate.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, asked about the legislative ramifications of the Menendez trial, said Thursday that the president will continue to push Congress to repeal Obama’s health care law.

“I’m not sure about the specifics of that case. I know there’s still ongoing judicial process taking place, so I’m not going to get into that,” Sanders said. “But I can tell you that the president continues to be committed to repealing and replacing ObamaCare and making sure that America has good health care and the health care that they deserve."

Menendez is accused of using his Senate seat to help the business interests of Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen in return for campaign donations and expensive trips. In April, Melgen was convicted in federal court on Medicare fraud charges.

Menendez, who along with Meglen has denied the accusations, has argued it’s important the jury see him in attendance during the trial.

“I want the jury to understand that I fervently believe in my innocence,” Menendez told the Associated Press last week. “If there is a moment where there is a critical vote, I have the constitutional right to go ahead and cast a vote and not be at the trial. I also have a constitutional right to be at the trial. So I will decide which of those constitutional rights I will exercise at any given moment.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/25/menendez-mess-trial-threatens-to-sideline-senator-just-as-dems-plot-trump-resistance.html

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Clinton Big Money Donor Wanted for Grand Theft (and other Democrat Misdeeds)
« Reply #391 on: September 12, 2017, 03:56:06 PM »
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray to resign following multiple accusations of sexual abuse
Published September 12, 2017
Fox News

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has announced plans to resign following multiple accusations of sexual abuse.  (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has announced plans to resign following multiple accusations of sexual abuse after a fifth accuser -- who is the mayor's younger cousin -- came forward and alleged that Murray repeatedly molested him in the 1970s.

Murray, 62, announced Tuesday that he will step down effective 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The mayor had already said that he wouldn't seek a second term.

Accuser Joseph Dyer, who is a dialysis technician and Air Force veteran, says the molestation occurred in New York when he was a teen, according to The Seattle Times.

The 54-year-old Dyer — Murray's first cousin once removed — told the newspaper that he wants the mayor punished for the alleged actions, saying, "I have had enough. ... Something has got to be done."

Murray has denied the accusation, attributing it to a longstanding family schism.

CALLS GROW FOR SEATTLE MAYOR TO RESIGN

"While the allegations against me are not true, it is important that my personal issues do not affect the ability of our City government to conduct the public's business," the mayor said in a statement.

Dyer reportedly said the incidents occurred when he was 13, while Murray, who was then in his early 20s, shared a bedroom with Dyer in his mother’s Long Island home.

"There would be times when I would fake sleeping because I didn't want him touching me," Dyer told the newspaper.

Four men had previously accused Murray of sexually abusing them. Murray has denied all of the allegations.

Before being elected mayor in 2013, Murray was a long-time Democrat state lawmaker who led the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington state.

As mayor, Murray pushed to raise the city's minimum hourly wage to $15.

"To the people of this special city and to my dedicated staff, I am sorry for this painful situation," Murray said.

Fox News' Frank Miles and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/12/seattle-mayor-ed-murray-to-resign-following-multiple-accusations-sexual-abuse.html

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Re: Clinton Big Money Donor Wanted for Grand Theft (and other Democrat Misdeeds)
« Reply #392 on: September 14, 2017, 10:56:17 AM »
Not sure if all of these are Democrats, but this is an epidemic. 

At Least 11 Mayors Accused Of Child Sex-Related Crimes Since 2016

PETER HASSON
Associate Editor
09/13/2017
 
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray resigned on Wednesday after a fifth man publicly accused the Democrat of molesting him as a child.

But Murray isn’t alone. At least 11 then-current and former mayors have been accused of child sex abuse-related crimes since 2016. The allegations range from child porn to physical abuse. The alleged victims were as young as four years old.

Stillwater, New York Mayor Rick Nelson resigned earlier this month after being arrested on child porn charges. Nelson has a decades-long history of alleged sexual misconduct involving teenagers and children. The child porn charges marked the fifth such accusation against Nelson, the Times Union reported, including allegations of rape and sodomy.

Nelson was never convicted for the previous alleged abuses, which allegedly included inappropriate behavior with a five year old in 1982 on the school bus that Nelson was driving at the time.

Nelson is the father of Patrick Nelson, a Democratic 2018 congressional candidate who served as one of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Just last week, 78-year-old Dale Kenyon, former mayor of Clayton, New York was indicted on charges of sexually abusing a teenager over the course of three years. (RELATED: De Blasio Staffer, Rising Democrat, Caught With Child Porn)

Dwayne Schutt, 61-year old mayor of Randolph, Nebraska, was arrested in July on multiple child sexual assault charges, KTIV reported. Police say Schutt repeatedly sexually abused a minor over a period of four years, beginning when the victim was 13-years-old.

Schutt, whose trial is ongoing, remains Randolph’s mayor today.

Former Ohio mayor Richard Keenan, a Democrat, was handed a life sentence in April 2017 after he pled guilty to repeatedly raping a four-year-old girl, WFMJ reported.

Keenan, who was first indicted in August 2016, will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years. He claimed during the trial that the four-year-old was a “willing participant.”

Anthony Silva, then-mayor of Stockton, California, was arrested last August on charges that he provided teens with alcohol at a camp for underprivileged youth that he ran before recording them playing strip poker, the AP reported.

Silva, who claimed he accidentally recorded the strip poker game after interrupting it, pled no contest to the lesser charge of providing alcohol to a minor. He was sentenced to 40 hours of community service. Silva, a Republican, was later accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the camp in a case that is ongoing.

Kenneth Lewis Barrett, then-mayor of Winston, Oregon, was one of four men arrested on March 19 as part of a sex sting, KPIC reported. Authorities say the four men believed they were meeting a 14-year-old girl for sex. Barrett was carrying a concealed handgun when he showed up to the meet, police say.

The trial of a Georgia man last year convicted of molesting and raping an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl took a dark twist when the girl said that Christopher Wright, then a Georgia mayor, had also raped her and forced her to perform oral sex on him, KTOC reported.

Wright, who was first elected mayor as a Democrat in 2012 at the age of 22, was indicted in June 2016, WALB reported. Wright pled no contest to child sex abuse and rape in January 2017 but was let off without a prison sentence. He was sentenced to 20 years probation — during which time he can’t seek public office — and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

Former Rockdale, Texas mayor Darral Gene Walker was indicted in June 2016 on charges of sexual misconduct. “A copy of the indictment said Walker engaged in sexual contact with a child younger than 17 years of age by touching the boy’s genitals,” TDTNews reported. “Walker admitted that the events happened at his home in Rockdale, but said it was for purely educational reasons, not for sexual gratification.”

Walker pled guilty to a lesser assault charge in August 2016 after striking a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to avoid registering as a sex offender.

Former Millbrook, New York mayor Donald H. Briggs was indicted on felony charges in December 2016, in relation to “alleged inappropriate sexual contact with a person younger than 17,” according to local news reports.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/13/at-least-11-mayors-accused-of-child-sex-related-crimes-since-2016/

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Clinton, Obama finally appalled by Weinstein as The New Yorker runs sexual assault allegations
Howard Kurtz By Howard Kurtz, Fox News

'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz weighs in Ronan Farrow's bombshell New Yorker expose on Harvey Weinstein and on A-list actors speaking out against Weinstein only after he's been fired from his company.

For nearly six days, Hillary Clinton’s silence was deafening.

She finally spoke out against Harvey Weinstein yesterday, just as the allegations against him reached a more disturbing level. Clinton is "shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein," and "the behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated."

But it sure took time for Hillary, who had no problem denouncing Donald Trump’s treatment of women, to become shocked and appalled.

Weinstein, a major Democratic donor, had thrown a fundraiser for the former presidential candidate. There was a well-circulated picture of her laughing with him at some gathering. Other Democrats were giving back or donating contributions from the movie mogul.

But Clinton, as cautious as she was during the campaign, said nothing.

Barack Obama, also the beneficiary of a Weinstein fundraiser, spoke out late yesterday. He said in a statement: "Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein. Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status."

I don’t blame anyone outside of his circles for being friendly with, or taking money from, a guy who was churning out Oscar-winning movies. But once the New York Times disclosed the sexual harassment allegations, and his own company suspended and then fired him, there was little reason to remain silent.

It looked like the story might be dying down, except for lingering questions about why the allegations remained an open secret and whether the Weinstein Co. can survive without its brand-name leader.

But yesterday brought a devastating piece in the New Yorker. It’s written by Ronan Farrow, Mia Farrow’s son, who might be seen as having a special interest in the subject. He washed out as an MSNBC daytime host, but was dogged in pursuing this 10-month investigation.

Two well-known actresses, Mira Sorvino and Rosanna Arquette, said they believe Weinstein dissuaded people from hiring them after they rejected his advances.

Here are the key passages:

"I was told by thirteen women that, between the nineteen-nineties and 2015, Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them, allegations that corroborate and overlap with the Times' revelations, and also include far more serious claims.

"Three women—among them Argento and a former aspiring actress named Lucia Evans—told me that Weinstein raped them, allegations that include Weinstein forcibly performing or receiving oral sex and forcing vaginal sex. Four women said that they experienced unwanted touching that could be classified as an assault …

"Sixteen former and current executives and assistants at Weinstein’s companies told me that they witnessed or had knowledge of unwanted sexual advances and touching at events associated with Weinstein’s films and in the workplace. They and others describe a pattern of professional meetings that were little more than thin pretexts for sexual advances on young actresses and models."

A Weinstein spokeswoman gave the magazine this statement:
“Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances. Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual. Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.”

What is truly chilling is an audiotape—part of a police sting—obtained by the magazine. An Italian model named Ambra Battilana, who says that Weinstein groped her breasts the day before, tries to fend him off as he tries to badger her into going into a room with him. Weinstein is heard describing the previous conduct as something he is "used to."

The case got a bit of press attention before the Manhattan district attorney declined to press charges. Listen to the tape and decide for yourself.

Here’s just part of what Sorvino said, describing a time when she worked with Weinstein on the movie "Mighty Aphrodite":

"He started massaging my shoulders, which made me very uncomfortable, and then tried to get more physical, sort of chasing me around."

With so many of Weinstein’s colleagues now saying they were aware of his behavior, it’s amazing that this stayed quiet for so long. And it’s a political problem for the Democrats.

The Times, meanwhile, has a new piece with allegations from Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, among others, that Weinstein harassed them.

Ronan Farrow concludes that "Weinstein and his legal and public-relations teams have conducted a decades-long campaign to suppress these stories." And it worked—until now.

Footnote: The Huffington Post reports that Farrow's investigation was in NBC's hands as recently as August, but passed on it, even though he is an NBC contributor. A network source told the website that the story then was not what was published in The New Yorker.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/11/clinton-obama-finally-appalled-by-weinstein-as-new-yorker-runs-sexual-assault-allegations.html

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
Nets Yawn as Federal Prosecutors Rest Case in Menendez Bribery Trial
By Nicholas Fondacaro | October 11, 2017

Justice Department prosecutors rested their case against Democratic New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez on Wednesday, much to the silence of the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). With dozens of charges against him, prosecutors allege Menendez and his associate Dr. Salomon Melgen were responsible for an expansive quid-pro-quo scheme that spanned years. The case had all the hallmarks of a spicy courtroom drama, but the networks were more interested in covering for the Democrat.

“After six weeks of trial and 35 witnesses, the prosecution rested today in the bribery trial of New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez,” reported Anchor Bret Baier during Fox News Channel’s Special Report.

Baier was one of the few who reported the news on Wednesday and he added that “following the conclusion of the prosecution’s case, defense attorneys made a motion for acquittal, citing the 2016 Supreme Court decision that overturned the bribery conviction of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. The judge has yet to decide on that. Court resumes Monday.”

Since the begin, the Big Three showed little to no interest in documenting the alleged corruption of the Democratic Senator. On the first day of trial, the judge had to tell Menendez’s attorney to “shut up for a moment if you don't mind” in a testy exchange. And despite the fact that the defense accused the judge of “disparaging” the defendant, the networks could barely be bothered to mention it. CBS was the only one to mention that the trial even started, but they quickly moved on.

Even when the prosecution dropped the bombshell accusation that Menendez had tried to meddle in foreign affairs by interjecting himself between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, the networks were mute. “The prosecution alleges Senator Menendez trying [sic] to get the Dominican Republic government to use Melgen’s port security equipment and to reject a U.S. donation of screening equipment in the process,” Fox News Channel reported in late September.

Menendez insisted that he was innocent of all the charges against him. As he made his way to court on Wednesday, he claimed: “It's a story of a lifetime of service done honorably, hard work and sacrifice and a commitment to the people of New Jersey and a longtime friendship with Dr. Melgen."

And he has refused to say if he planned to resign if he was convicted. In a statement to CNN, he told the news outlet he had “no intention of being anything but exonerated, so, therefore, I'm not contemplating anything but reelection next year.”

The New Jersey Senator may have had no intention to resign, but the Big Three Networks clearly had no intention of ever seriously digging into the story of a potentially corrupt Democrat.

Transcript below:

Fox News Channel
Special Report
October 11, 2017
6:39:13 PM Eastern

BRET BAIER: After six weeks of trial and 35 witnesses, the prosecution rested today in the bribery trial of New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez. Following the conclusion of the prosecution’s case, defense attorneys made a motion for acquittal, citing the 2016 Supreme Court decision that overturned the bribery conviction of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. The judge has yet to decide on that. Court resumes Monday.

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2017/10/11/nets-yawn-federal-prosecutors-rest-case-menendez-bribery

Soul Crusher

  • Competitors
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 39256
  • Doesnt lie about lifting.
 :)

Dos Equis

  • Moderator
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 63566
  • I am. The most interesting man in the world. (Not)
D.A. Seth Williams indicted on corruption, bribery-related charges
Updated: March 21, 2017
Seth Williams has been under investigation for possible financial irregularities.   
by Jeremy Roebuck, David Gambacorta & Chris Brennan - Staff Writers 
   
Investigators accused the city’s cash-strapped top prosecutor of repeatedly selling his influence and offering to intervene in a case on behalf of one wealthy benefactor. In exchange, they said, Williams accepted luxury trips to foreign locales, a used Jaguar convertible and other gifts ranging from a $205 Louis Vuitton necktie to a Burberry watch.

When even that wasn’t enough to cover the costs of his lush life, Williams allegedly resorted to stealing from his own mother – draining more than $20,000 of Social Security and pension income intended to pay for her nursing home to cover his mortgage and electricity bills.
 
“The alleged misconduct … is brazen and wide-ranging, as is the idea that a district attorney would so cavalierly trade on elected office for financial gain,” said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Michael Harpster at an afternoon news conference announcing the charges. “The immense authority vested to law enforcement has to be kept in check, and that requires decision makers and leaders with a steady ethical compass.”

The criminal case brought to a head rumors that have dogged Williams for years and put a damning footnote on his eight-year career in office – one that began in 2010 with accolades for sweeping changes he promised to implement within the city’s justice system, only to be overshadowed more recently by a series of scandals.

As he announced his decision last month to forgo a reelection bid, Williams, 50, apologized for bringing “embarrassment and shame” to the District Attorney’s Office through repeated ethical lapses and vowed to win back the trust of the public and his employees.

But hours after Tuesday’s indictment, Williams offered no indication of whether he now intended to resign. His lawyer, Michael Diamondstein, vowed that Williams would fight the charges in court.

“Mr. Williams vehemently denies that he ever compromised any investigation, case or law enforcement function,” he said.

Sources familiar with the course of the investigation said that Williams rejected a plea deal from prosecutors earlier this week. He spent the day at home with his family, an office spokesman said, and was expected to surrender and be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

But inside Williams’ office of 300 prosecutors, the allegations hit like a bomb. In an internal memo, his top deputy, Kathleen Martin, assured the staff that the office was cooperating with the investigation and that no other employees had been accused of wrongdoing.

“I understand and appreciate that you may be angry and frustrated with the unwanted spotlight placed upon our office, emotions that you are certainly justified in feeling,” she wrote.

Outside, the city’s political and legal leaders offered swift condemnation.

Mayor Jim Kenney called the Williams’ alleged actions “deeply shameful” and a “flagrant violation of the law.”

"At a time when our citizens’ trust in government is at an all-time low, it is disheartening to see yet another elected official give the public a reason not to trust us," the mayor said in a statement. "That this comes at the heard of our justice system is even more troubling.” 

Deborah R. Gross, chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, called for Williams to step aside immediately.

“The charges against him cast a shadow on the District Attorney’s Office, our legal community and the entire City of Philadelphia.  It truly is an embarrassment," she said.

But the case against Williams, which involves charges of honest services fraud and other bribery-related counts, hardly came as a surprise.

Known to frequent cigar bars and the tony Union League, Williams has been open about his financial problems since the FBI and IRS began poking into his finances two years ago. He has complained of his inability to pay for alimony stemming from a 2011 divorce and private school tuition for his daughters, despite his $170,000-a-year salary.

In January, the Philadelphia Board of Ethics assessed the largest fine in its 10-year history for Williams’ failure to report for years more than $175,000 in gifts he had accepted including a new roof, luxury vacations, Eagles sidelines passes and the use of a defense attorney’s home in Florida.

And Williams, as investigators described it Tuesday, was not shy about asking for handouts.

“I am merely a thankful beggar and don’t want to overstep my bounds in asking,” he said in one February 2012 text message to a donor in reference to a second planned Caribbean vacation on the donor's tab. He told another in 2013 that he “never want[ed] to feel like a drag on your wallet,” yet he allegedly returned again and again to seek the man’s help in funding trips to California, Florida and Las Vegas.

Some of those gifts featured prominently in Tuesday’s indictment, including a $3,000 trip Williams took in 2012 with his then-girlfriend to the Dominican Republic, where they stayed in a presidential suite complete with access to a private beach and personal butler.

The excursion was bankrolled by Mohammad N. Ali, a Bucks County businessman who sold old prepaid telephone cards and who, according to the indictment, spared no expense in showering Williams with other gifts, including a $3,212 custom sofa and cash payments of $9,000.

In exchange, prosecutors say, Williams offered in to help one of Ali’s friends who faced criminal charges by drafting a plea deal that would shorten the man’s sentence and keep him out of the state prison system.

Prosecutors did not say Tuesday whether Williams ever followed through with his promise. Ali did not respond to requests for comment.

“In the future,” he told Ali in an August 2012 text message quoted in the indictment, “always give me at least a week to help a friend. I have no problem looking at anything.”

In other instances, Williams’ allegedly offered to intervene with other law enforcement offices on behalf of his friends. Ali purportedly sought his help a year later to avoid enhanced TSA screening as he returned to Philadelphia International Airport from trips abroad.

Another donor – Michael Weiss, co-owner of  Woody's, a well-known Center City gay bar – allegedly sought the district attorney’s help in untangling a legal mess for another bar he owned in California.

Authorities in that state attempted in 2013 to yank Weiss’ liquor license after discovering he had pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges in three years earlier.

But Williams, according to the indictment, wrote a letter vouching for Weiss and, in an effort to prove his friend’s upstanding character, appointed him as a special advisor to the District Attorney Office, complete with a badge and leather carrying case.
   
Weiss showed his gratefulness, prosecutors said Tuesday, with paying for Spring Break vacations to Florida and San Diego for Williams and his daughters. He also gave Williams his old 1997 Jaguar XK8 convertible worth $4,160, the indictment says.

Weiss did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

“Dude,” Williams reportedly texted Weiss. “I never want to feel like a drag on your wallet … but we are ALWAYS ready for an adventure.”

Williams’ prosecution is being handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey, after Justice Department officials in Philadelphia recused themselves due to their frequent collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/DA-Seth-Williams-federal-charges-Philadelphia.html

Seth Williams sentenced to 5 years in prison in bribery, corruption case
Updated: OCTOBER 24, 2017

Former Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday, the maximum punishment he faced after pleading guilty earlier this year in a federal corruption case.

Held in custody since his surprise decision in June to abruptly end his trial and admit his crimes, the city’s former top prosecutor looked tired but attentive as he was ushered into court in a brown T-shirt and loose-fitting, prison-issue khakis, and with handcuffs around his wrists.

He declined to address the court directly, but in a statement read by his lawyer Thomas Burke, Williams called his election “the honor of his life” and apologized to his friends, his family and the citizens of Philadelphia for what he described as “my sins, my selfishness, my bad judgment.”

“I have made mistakes – mistakes of character and judgment,” the statement read. “These are my mistakes and my mistakes alone.”

But U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond showed little sympathy, delivering a harsh dressing-down for Williams’ “profound misconduct.”

“Almost from the time you took office, you sold yourself to the parasites you surrounded yourself with,” Diamond said. “You humiliated the men and women of the District Attorney’s Office.”

Then, homing in on perhaps the most attention-grabbing of Williams’ crimes – his admission that he stole money set aside for his mother’s nursing home care – Diamond held back little.

Philly’s Political Hall of Shame

Click here for a gallery of elected officials from Philadelphia who were involved in corruption cases, and were convicted or pleaded guilty or no contest.
Williams “dumped her like a sack of potatoes – or he washed his hands of her,” the judge said, so he could be “a high-roller at various restaurants in town.”

The judge ridiculed Williams’ request to be permitted to see his mother.

“The English language doesn’t have the words to capture the outrageousness of that request,” Diamond said. “The defendant stole from his mother, and now he wants to visit her?”

In addition to the prison term, Williams was ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in forfeiture and restitution — an amount to which he had at least partially agreed in his plea deal with prosecutors.

Tuesday’s hearing provided only the latest setback for Williams, whose public life in the last year has been marked by one embarrassing blow after another – most of them self-inflicted.

Ushered into office in 2010 as a promising candidate pledging to reshape the city’s justice system, Williams was dogged by a series of personal and financial scandals throughout his eight years in office.

Earlier this year, his failure to report more than $175,000 in gifts from wealthy benefactors prompted the city’s ethics board to fine him $62,000 – the largest penalty against a single candidate in the body’s 11-year history. Williams dropped his bid for a third term soon after, apologizing to his staff for the shame he had brought upon his office.

Then came the federal bribery and corruption case that led to his sentencing Tuesday.

In two weeks of trial, federal prosecutors painted Williams as a crooked politician who took every opportunity to enrich himself through fraud, theft from his campaign fund, and bribes accepted from generous donors.

Two wealthy businessmen testified that they had showered Williams with gifts of cash, luxury goods, and all-expenses-paid travel to an upscale Dominican Republic resort and other vacation spots hoping that he would repay their generosity by using his office to remove various legal hurdles they faced.

When that largesse was not enough to support Williams’ high-end tastes, government witnesses said, the district attorney raided his own campaign accounts and money set aside for his aging mother’s nursing home care.

Williams sought to end the onslaught of embarrassing and public testimony by resigning from office and accepting a plea deal from prosecutors midway through the trial – one that severely limited the sentence he might have received had he been convicted on all the charges he had faced.

But even then, Diamond surprised Williams by ordering that the ex-prosecutor be immediately taken into custody until his sentencing date – a rare step in white-collar criminal cases.

For the last four months, Williams has been confined to an 8-by-10 cell in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center’s Special Housing Unit, as a safety precaution because of his role as a former law enforcement officer.


There he has spent 23 hours a day and eaten his meals. He has been let outside for an hour of exercise each day. Guards have allowed him one visitor a week, and only one 15-minute phone call a month, as per the unit’s protocol.

Once Williams is assigned to the prison where he will serve out the rest of his term, his conditions could improve.

As a nonviolent white-collar defendant, he may be sent by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to a federal prison with less severe security measures.

The bureau is expected to make its assignment for Williams in the coming months.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/seth-williams-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-in-bribery-corruption-case-20171024.html

Skeletor

  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 15513
  • Silence you furry fool!
Seth Williams sentenced to 5 years in prison in bribery, corruption case
Updated: OCTOBER 24, 2017

Former Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday, the maximum punishment he faced after pleading guilty earlier this year in a federal corruption case.

Held in custody since his surprise decision in June to abruptly end his trial and admit his crimes, the city’s former top prosecutor looked tired but attentive as he was ushered into court in a brown T-shirt and loose-fitting, prison-issue khakis, and with handcuffs around his wrists.

He declined to address the court directly, but in a statement read by his lawyer Thomas Burke, Williams called his election “the honor of his life” and apologized to his friends, his family and the citizens of Philadelphia for what he described as “my sins, my selfishness, my bad judgment.”

“I have made mistakes – mistakes of character and judgment,” the statement read. “These are my mistakes and my mistakes alone.”

But U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond showed little sympathy, delivering a harsh dressing-down for Williams’ “profound misconduct.”

“Almost from the time you took office, you sold yourself to the parasites you surrounded yourself with,” Diamond said. “You humiliated the men and women of the District Attorney’s Office.”

Then, homing in on perhaps the most attention-grabbing of Williams’ crimes – his admission that he stole money set aside for his mother’s nursing home care – Diamond held back little.

Philly’s Political Hall of Shame

Click here for a gallery of elected officials from Philadelphia who were involved in corruption cases, and were convicted or pleaded guilty or no contest.
Williams “dumped her like a sack of potatoes – or he washed his hands of her,” the judge said, so he could be “a high-roller at various restaurants in town.”

The judge ridiculed Williams’ request to be permitted to see his mother.

“The English language doesn’t have the words to capture the outrageousness of that request,” Diamond said. “The defendant stole from his mother, and now he wants to visit her?”

In addition to the prison term, Williams was ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in forfeiture and restitution — an amount to which he had at least partially agreed in his plea deal with prosecutors.

Tuesday’s hearing provided only the latest setback for Williams, whose public life in the last year has been marked by one embarrassing blow after another – most of them self-inflicted.

Ushered into office in 2010 as a promising candidate pledging to reshape the city’s justice system, Williams was dogged by a series of personal and financial scandals throughout his eight years in office.

Earlier this year, his failure to report more than $175,000 in gifts from wealthy benefactors prompted the city’s ethics board to fine him $62,000 – the largest penalty against a single candidate in the body’s 11-year history. Williams dropped his bid for a third term soon after, apologizing to his staff for the shame he had brought upon his office.

Then came the federal bribery and corruption case that led to his sentencing Tuesday.

In two weeks of trial, federal prosecutors painted Williams as a crooked politician who took every opportunity to enrich himself through fraud, theft from his campaign fund, and bribes accepted from generous donors.

Two wealthy businessmen testified that they had showered Williams with gifts of cash, luxury goods, and all-expenses-paid travel to an upscale Dominican Republic resort and other vacation spots hoping that he would repay their generosity by using his office to remove various legal hurdles they faced.

When that largesse was not enough to support Williams’ high-end tastes, government witnesses said, the district attorney raided his own campaign accounts and money set aside for his aging mother’s nursing home care.

Williams sought to end the onslaught of embarrassing and public testimony by resigning from office and accepting a plea deal from prosecutors midway through the trial – one that severely limited the sentence he might have received had he been convicted on all the charges he had faced.

But even then, Diamond surprised Williams by ordering that the ex-prosecutor be immediately taken into custody until his sentencing date – a rare step in white-collar criminal cases.

For the last four months, Williams has been confined to an 8-by-10 cell in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center’s Special Housing Unit, as a safety precaution because of his role as a former law enforcement officer.


There he has spent 23 hours a day and eaten his meals. He has been let outside for an hour of exercise each day. Guards have allowed him one visitor a week, and only one 15-minute phone call a month, as per the unit’s protocol.

Once Williams is assigned to the prison where he will serve out the rest of his term, his conditions could improve.

As a nonviolent white-collar defendant, he may be sent by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to a federal prison with less severe security measures.

The bureau is expected to make its assignment for Williams in the coming months.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/seth-williams-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-in-bribery-corruption-case-20171024.html

All this and he gets just 5 years? This is a joke. He should be locked up for at least 30 years.


Soul Crusher

  • Competitors
  • Getbig V
  • *****
  • Posts: 39256
  • Doesnt lie about lifting.
"Hillary for America and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) broke campaign finance law by trying to hide payments related to the dossier, which included graphic, unproven claims about the current president's sexual habits."

“By filing misleading reports, the DNC and Clinton campaign undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures,”

“Voters need campaign disclosure laws to be enforced so they can hold candidates accountable for how they raise and spend money," said Noti, who previously worked as the FEC’s associate general counsel for policy. "The FEC must investigate this apparent violation and take appropriate action.”

"A Clinton spokesman didn't immediately respond to Newsweek requests for comment on the complaint."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hillary-clinton-apos-campaign-wasn-224457168.html



Source - loco