Great Info on Edwards Fund-raising, etc. (Overlawyered.com)

I found this great site while searching around for info on the Breck Girl.

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1.)Sweetheart Real Estate Deal with Saudi Lobbyist John Edwards is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose members have high security clearances, are privy to highly classified data and have been actively investigating links between Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attacks (15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.)

Michael Petruzello is a lobbyist, registered foreign agent and the manager of Qorvis Communications. That firm was hired by Saudi Arabia on November 14, 2001 (just 2 months after 9-11) to counter criticism of the Arab kingdom.

On May 17, 2002, Petruzello offered to buy Edwards' Washington home -- which had been on the market for over a year -- for 3.52 million dollars. (Edwards paid 2.2 million for it in 1999.) The deal later fell through but Edwards still has the $100,000 deposit. He says he hasn't decided whether to keep it, and would only have to report the conflict of interest if he does so. The house eventually sold for $3 million, a full $500,000 less than the Saudi agent offered.

The Edwards claims he had no idea Petruzzello worked for the Saudis, but in the weeks before the offer Petruzzello visited Edwards home state of North Carolina with the Saudis as part of their publicity campaign, and he was widely quoted in Washington and national publications describing his work for the Saudis. His firm even ran pro-Saudi TV ads in 20 large markets including North Carolina (and other states from which Senate Intelligence Committee members came.)

Kent Cooper, the former head of the government's public disclosure office for federal candidates, said " The potential conflict of interest is readily apparent when a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence receives $100,000 in a real or sham business deal with a foreign agent or a person with extensive foreign contracts at teh same time the Senate is investigating possible lapses in national security."

2.)Highly Suspicious Campaign Contributions John Edwards, who is himself a lawyer, has received tons of campaign money from law firms. Nothing illegal or particularly wrong about that, however you may feel about lawyers.

But many of them show strong signs of being illegal contributions designed to evade limits on the amount of contributions, by having employees and spouses "contribute" money that a wealthy lawyer wanted to give. Other campaigns have used these practices; Bob Dole's national campaign co-chairman was convicted of the practice in 1996.

There are several cases described in "The Hill" (a magazine about Congress) where low-paid paralegals who had never contributed to campaigns before, and weren't registered to vote (or were even Republicans) gave the maximum $2,000 donation to Edwards. So did their spouse and several other people at the law firm where they work. Two had even filed bankruptcy recently.

We can't prove these people were helping their bosses give more than the $2,000 maximum. But, as Bill Allison of the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity said, “It seems on the surface very suspicious. I think it is somewhat questionable that people who have never donated before would suddenly donate $2,000,” he said.

In one case there IS direct evidence that such an employee was illegally contributing for her boss. Michelle Abu-Halmeh, a legal assistant at Turner & Associates in Arkansas, told The Washington Post in April of 2003 that she expected to be reimbursed by her boss for her $2,000 contribution. The Department of Justice has begun a criminal investigation of the case.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources Saudi connection -- "Edwards House Sale Raises Questions", The Oregonian (from AP), November 1, 2003 pA4

Contributions -- "Donations to Sen. Edwards questioned," By Sam Dealey , The Hill (a non-partisan magazine about Congress), May 7, 2003

http://www.hillnews.com/news/050703/edwards.aspx

Here's some more!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1088175/posts

You guys are such a resource. I can’t wait to go to lunch tomorrow with all my lib buds.

Hot diggity dog. This needs distributing far and wide. I'm going to do my part. Thanks!

Check this one out:

CLICK HERE

The first John Edwards song of the season is up --- CLICK.

Later, he pulled a newspaper out of his jacket and started to read. "There was a wonderful, wonderful thing written this past spring. . . . It involved the death of a young boy who shouldn't have died, and what he wrote was this: `We have to gather around this family not because we understand what they're going through, but because -- but because they have to know we share their pain. Our feelings -- our terrible, terrible feelings prove that we really all are part of the same family. Their loss was our loss. Their child was our child.' " What Edwards did not tell the jury, although some lawyers in the audience knew, was that the piece referred to his own son, Wade, who had been killed in a 1996 car accident at age 16. When the jury came back with the $23 million verdict, 10 of the 12 jurors were crying, recalled the judge who presided at the trial.

Disgusting.

And there are articles out here that prove that he won a couple of these big cases on faulty medical testimony.

But he got his 50 percent.

http://www.issues2000.org/John_Edwards.htm

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1088175/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1166194/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1166348/posts

Keep reading these links...it gets worse. What I'm hoping comes out of this is a new dialogue in the country about these horrible class action law suits. They are hurting us so much. Now that there's a face attached to it, maybe some good will come of it. Well, I can dream, can't I?

I've read them all; he's MY senator, remember? Not that you'd ever know it.

I was wondering about what you said today; it seems to me there should be a way to link companies/doctors, etc. laying off people to these outrageous lawsuits.

If we could do that, we could lay the lack of jobs right at this guy's feet, don't you think?

In August, they paid $11,092 in District of Columbia property taxes on it -- four months late and after inquiries from The Washington Times. The couple also own N.C. residences in Raleigh and Figure Eight Island. In the past decade, the multimillionaire former trial lawyer and his wife have been tardy paying taxes on their house and cars more than 30 times.

But he'll raise our taxes... and sent stormtroopers looking for you if you don't pay.Press Here For More

Isn't it North Carolina that has that horrible Dr. Crisis going on (because of malpractice insurance)...or do I have the wrong State?

It's Edwards