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Representative William Jefferson Watch: GOP Challenges FBI Raid of Jefferson’s Office
President Bush, right, shakes hands with Speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., before delivering his speech on the War in Iraq at the Arie Crown Theatre in McCormick Place, Monday, May 22, 2006 in Chicago.
USA Today: GOP challenges FBI raid of Jefferson’s office
Displaying bipartisanship for one of their own, House Republican leaders are expressing concern that the FBI’s search of the Capitol office of Louisiana Democrat William Jefferson crossed the constitutional boundary between the White House and Congress. Tuesday, House Majority Leader John Boehner called the weekend raid “the Justice Department’s invasion of the legislative branch” and predicted the issue would “end up across the street at the Supreme Court.” Read all about the ramifications of the raid — which one blogger calls “The Shot Heard ‘Round The Hill” — from The Associated Press, The Washington Post and The Hill.
Conservative blogger (and law professor) Instapundit is skeptical about the GOP’s constitutional concern: “The separation of powers argument seems to be pretty weak to me.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times takes a look at how the Jefferson bribery probe has cast a shadow over Democratic attempts to hang the “culture of corruption” sign around Republican necks. One influential liberal blog offers this advice to Democrats: “Tell Mr. Jefferson to resign immediately.” Jefferson said Monday he won’t.
And the GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert makes matters worse.
ASSociated Press: House speaker protests to Bush over raid
House Speaker Dennis Hastert complained directly to President Bush on Tuesday about the FBI’s unprecedented raid on Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record)’s office, while officials said senior Democrats worked to ease the Louisiana lawmaker out of a powerful committee assignment, at least temporarily.
“My opinion is that they took the wrong path,” Hastert, R-Ill., told reporters after meeting with Bush in the White House. “They need to back up, and we need to go from there.”
Good God has the GOP House leadership lost its mind?
The FBI has this Democrat member of Congress on TAPE taking bribes and discovered cold hard cash wrapped in tin foil in his fraking freezer and the FBI is wrong to serve a search warrant signed by a federal judge?
Give me a DAMN break.
And readers wonder why Flap says NOT ONE DIME and NOT ONE VOTE for these fools.
InstaPundit has it RIGHT: Cut Their Salaries and Send Them HOME.
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Representative William Jefferson Watch: “There are Two Sides to Every Storyâ€
Representative William Jefferson Watch: FBI has BRIBES on Tape
Technorati Tags: WilliamJefferson
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Representative William Jefferson Watch: FBI has BRIBES on Tape
ASSociated Press: Filing: Tape Shows Lawmaker Taking Money
A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.
Cold hard cash in the representative’s freezer.
Time to resign!
And the Democrats complain about Randy Duke Cunningham. People that live in glass houses….
U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, speaks to the media at a news conference in New Orleans on Monday May 15, 2006. Congressman Jefferson declared his innocence in light of a federal bribery probe
At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company’s deal for work in Africa.
As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker’s family might receive, the congressman “began laughing and said, ‘All these damn notes we’re writing to each other as if we’re talking, as if the FBI is watching,'” according to the affidavit.
Jefferson, who represents New Orleans, has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.
As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official _ the name is blacked out in the court document _ to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.
All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson’s home in Washington. The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000 packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil.
Federal prison awaits this MORON.
Jefferson and Cunningham can cuddle with bubba together – the crooks.
FBI agents load the back of a minivan at the Rayburn House Office Building ‘horseshoe’ entrance on Sunday, May 21, 2006 on Capitol Hill in Washington. To the right of the frame are members of the U.S. Capitol Police. Saturday evening, May 20, 2006 and into Sunday, May 21, 2006 agents from the FBI searched the offices of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.
Stay tuned…….
Discuss this blog post and MORE…. at the FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blogs, My Dental Forum.
Technorati Tags: WilliamJefferson, RandyCunningham
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Senator Byron Dorgan Watch: Returns Quid Pro Quo Indian Donatons
Senator Byron Dorgan, D- North Dakota.The ASSociated Press has Sen. Dorgan Returns Tribes’ Donations
The top Democrat on the Senate committee investigating Jack Abramoff’s Indian lobbying is returning $67,000 in donations in response to Associated Press reports that he collected tribal money around the time he took actions favorable to those Abramoff clients. While Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., never met Abramoff and didn’t take any actions at the lobbyist’s behest, he nonetheless wants to return the money to avoid any appearances that tribal money was directed to him by the controversial lobbyist, his office said Tuesday.
Senator Dorgan is returning the money so he can avoid a Federal Grand Jury.
Who is he kidding?
Dorgan is the senior Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that has spent more than a year investigating alleged fraud in Abramoff’s representation of Indian tribes, which were charged tens of millions of dollars in lobbying fees between 2001 and 2004.
So, the senior Democrat inquisitor has been drinking from the same trough.
Interesting……shoud he resign from the Senate Indian Affairs Committee – you betcha…..at the very least.
AP reported in three stories over the last month that Dorgan did not disclose during the probe that he took actions favorable to Abramoff’s tribal clients, often around the time he collected donations from Abramoff’s firm or clients. For instance, Dorgan:
1. Used Abramoff’s arena skybox in March 2001 to raise money, letting one of Abramoff’s tribes foot the bill for using the box. The senator says he didn’t know at the time that Abramoff leased the box. He’s recently reimbursed that money.
2. Got Congress in the fall 2003 to press government regulators to decide, after decades of delay, whether the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts deserved federal recognition. Dorgan met with the tribe’s representatives and collected at least $11,500 in political donations from the Abramoff partner representing the Mashpee around the time of the help.
3. Collected $20,000 from Abramoff’s firm and tribes in the period around when he wrote a letter in 2002 urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund a school construction program that Abramoff’s clients and other tribes wanted. The letter mentioned one of Abramoff’s tribes.
The Coushatta tribe of Louisiana told AP they were directed by Abramoff to make a $5,000 donation to Dorgan’s group just a few weeks after the 2002 letter was sent.
The return of the money was first reported in Tuesday editions of The Forum in Fargo, N.D. Dorgan told the newspaper he did not want to “knowingly keep even one dollar in contributions if there is even a remote possibility that they could have been the result of any action Mr. Abramoff might have taken.”
This smells like FBI and Federal Grand Jury investigation to Flap.
Flap wonders if Peter Fitzgerald can switch over from Scooter and Rove – whom he won’t convict anyway – to a REAL CRIME.
Stay tuned……
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“Flashback” Jack Carter (Son of former President Jimmy Carter) Criticizes President Bush
The ASSociated Press has Carter’s Son Aims Barbs at Bush.
Jack Carter, the son of the former president, took aim at the Bush administration Saturday during his first stop on a tour to gauge support for a possible run for U.S. Senate.
Carter, 58, said he would announce in a month whether he’ll challenge Republican Sen. John Ensign, who is seeking a second term in 2006.
Carter said the administration was waging a misguided campaign against terror, and he criticized
President Bush’s call to spend $200 billion rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast without a tax increase or major spending cuts.“How can anybody do that and not pay for doing it?” he asked. “To me, that was just irresponsible.
“I think the most significant issue right now is this concept of responsibility in government. It’s not a matter of being conservative or liberal. Government needs to do the job and we’ve gotten away from that aspect.
It sounds to Flap that he is either still using or having a flashback.What a MORON!
Technorati Tags: Jack Carter, Jimmy Carter, George Bush
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Louis Freeh Watch: Who is Telling the Truth?
Ok!
So, who are you going to believe?
Matt Drudge has CLINTON AIDES BATTLE FREEH OVER ’60 MINUTES,’ BOOK.
Under strong pressure from former President Bill Clinton’s advisers, CBS’s ”60 Minutes” has agreed to read a statement denying an explosive charge being made on Sunday nght’s program by former FBI director Louis Freeh, the WASHINGTON POST reports.
In the statement, Samuel “Sandy” Berger, Clinton’s national security adviser, challenges Freeh’s assertion that Clinton failed to press Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to cooperate with an investigation of the 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers in that country, and used the occasion to ask for a contribution to his presidential library. The Saudis made such a donation last year _ six years after the 1998 meeting.
Berger, who was at the meeting, said: “The president strongly raised the need for Saudi officials to cooperate with us on the investigation into the attack on Khobar Towers at the time when the FBI was attempting to gain access to the suspects. The president did not raise in any fashion the issue of his library.”
Clinton spokesman Jay Carson said he told CBS’s Mike Wallace that he had supportive accounts from five other former officials at the meeting, including those briefed about a private conversation between Clinton and Abdullah.
“The fair journalistic question is why they didn’t call and get comments for their story from people who were in the room, such as Sandy Berger, and why they took until Friday afternoon to get that done,” said Lanny Davis, a former White House lawyer, who tried to persuade ”60 Minutes” producer Jeff Fager to allow him or another Clinton spokesman to appear on Sunday night’s segment.
Carson, who called the Freeh book “a total work of fiction.”
Is this a media bias problem with 60 Minutes again?
Is this a Clinton control the media problem?
Or is Freeh lying to sell his book?
Who is hiding the ball here?
Technorati Tags: Louis Freeh, FBI, Bill Clinton, Sandy Berger, Lanny Davis, 60 Minutes