Posted on 04/11/2014 1:07:54 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
RENO, Nev. — A Nevada powerbroker who headed a billion-dollar real estate company and pulled the strings of state politics as a prominent lobbyist for more than a decade was convicted Wednesday of making illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.
Harvey Whittemore, 59, could face up to 15 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines after a federal jury returned guilty verdicts on three counts tied to nearly $150,000 illegally funneled to Reid's re-election campaign in 2007.
Later in the day, U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks declared a mistrial on a count of lying to the FBI after jurors said they were deadlocked on that charge.
Whittemore stood with his arms behind his back and shook his head slightly after the verdicts were read. He was convicted of making excessive campaign contributions, making contributions in the name of another and causing a false statement to be made to the Federal Election Commission.
Each count carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The judge set sentencing for Sept. 23.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre said prosecutors will review the case before deciding whether to refile the charge of lying to the FBI during a February 2012 interview.
Dominic Gentile, Whittemore's lead defense counsel, said the convictions will be appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals. He said a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court touches on similar issues related to the constitutionality of federal limits on campaign contributions.
Among other things, Gentile said the defense will challenge Hicks' refusal to allow the defense to reference an Alabama case against the Federal Election Commission.
"His conduct was protected by the First Amendment," Gentile told reporters at a news...
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
Everybody on the inside of the beltway is married to everybody else on the inside of the beltway. Sorry to say, only one way to truly clean out the toilet bowl that is DC.
I thought Neil Kornze (also a Reid associate) was now head of the BLM?
And IF (big IF) The Bundy’s were desperately trying to call their Senator for help against the Gestapo tactics of the BLM...
At best their calls were being ignored and unsanswer. Likely that Dingy Harry told them to ESAD.
Neil Kornze was an aide to Dingy Reed as recently as three years ago before Reed placed him in the BLM and then helped him rise to the top within three years.
Talk about cronyism. Is there any doubt that Dingy is pulling the strings about how the current dust-up in Clark County (Las Vegas is the County Seat) is going down?
oops, my error. Sorry. Got my unindicted Reid/bribe co-conspirators confused.
Easy to do. You can’t tell them apart without a scorecard anymore.
Yup. From the NYT:
“Mr. Kornze, 31, is a senior policy adviser on natural resources, on subjects like forestry and mining, to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader. He graduated from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. He received a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics. He is also the stepson of Robin Lampson.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/fashion/weddings/09GASSMANN.html?_r=0
Why isn’t the headline Harry Reid GUILTY of accepting illegal campaign contributions?
The senator how took it should have the same penalty.
It helps to remember that the Clinton-Bush coziness goes back to the days of Iran-Contra, when Papa Bush was supervising covert arms shipments to Latin America out of Arkansas (with drugs making the return trip) and Governor Clinton was busy looking the other way. Further, as was clear during abortive Republican investigations into various Clinton scandals, in the culture of impunity of Washington, politics stops at corruption's edge. Almost all major corruption is either bipartisan or common enough that one side can effectively blackmail the other.
And yet, Harry Reid has not been charged, much less convicted, for soliciting illegal campaign contributions from Harvey Whittemore.
Isn’t the two party system GRAND?
So, Reid took the funds, and many like this from others. Reid is now involved with a Chinese (Outsourcing) company to build a huge solar farm on the land that Bundy is grazing his cattle on. Environmentalists want to save the turtles and stop the cattle from grazing. But most of the turtles will be killed during the construction of the solar farm. Reid is using Federal Law enforcement to possibly kill Bundy to move forward with the Foreign Corporations Land grab. Did I miss anything? Should OWS be out there with Bundy stopping the 1%rs from raping the land? Where is the ACLU, as Bundy’s civil rights are being violated? It seems Harry Reid is nothing but a lying Corporate Whore.
“And yet, Harry Reid has not been charged, much less convicted, for soliciting illegal campaign contributions from Harvey Whittemore.”
Probably returned {cough, cough} the money after the jig was up so it’s all OK. Hey, I wonder if that will work for Leland Yee?
A Nevada powerbroker who headed a billion-dollar real estate company and pulled the strings of state politics as a prominent lobbyist for more than a decade was convicted Wednesday of making illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.
Reid seem to friends with a lot of crooks.
Oh wait, reid, crooks - never mind.
Close.
A solar project has been built nearby but impacted the site's environment.
As an environmental impact offset (like buying CO2 credits from al Gore) , the BLM has decided it needs to get the cattle off of a nearby huge tract of land (600,000 acres) that largely incorporates the BLM land that Bundy has been using for grazing.
Hence the need to drive Bundy's cattle off the Gov't land.
The fact that Bundy has been at loggersheads with the BLM for 20 years makes their land use grab easier.
So when is that senile old mangy mutt Reid going to give back the illegal contributions....?
So when does Harry Reid go jail for taking the bribe?!
Maybe Sept 23?
+ - - - Each count carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The judge set sentencing for Sept. 23. - - -”
RICO, RICO, RICO.
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