Posted on 05/27/2009 10:49:33 AM PDT by SmithL
SACRAMENTO --
Former state Senate leader Don Perata, who has been the target of a five year-long FBI corruption investigation, will not be charged with any crimes, sources told The Chronicle today.
In declining to indict the 64-year-old Oakland Democrat, federal prosecutors in Sacramento put an end to a wide-ranging FBI probe into whether Perata had taken hundreds of thousands of dollars of kickbacks in return for actions he took as a legislator and as president pro tem of the Senate.
Perata announced in March that he would run for mayor of Oakland in 2010. The government's decision not to indict him removes a major impediment to that campaign.
The sources, who asked not to be quoted by name, said investigators had been informed recently of the decision not to seek an indictment.
Last year the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco, which originally supervised the long-running investigation, told Perata's lawyers that the former lawmaker would not be prosecuted in the kickbacks case.
But the FBI then took its evidence to the U.S. attorney in Sacramento in hopes of obtaining an indictment there. Perata's lawyers complained bitterly about the move, contending that the FBI was illegally trying to sidestep the statute of limitations in the case and suggesting that the probe was politically motivated.
"As the entire country knows by now, the Bush administration has been the subject of several inquiries pertaining to the selective prosecutions and the unfair and highly politicized targeting of Democratic politicians," Perata's lawyer, George O'Connell, wrote to the U.S. Inspector General's office.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This is disgusting and shameful. This man is a flagrant crook.
Democrats in power always benefit the criminal elements of our society.
Notice many of these probes will fall into the demoncRAT abyss never to be heard or seen from again now that obozo admin has the power.
peRATagate Ping
Game over!
The DOJ is a political prosecution unit of the White House - regardless who’s in power. Always has been.
Isn’t his son going on trial for murder in SD?
Like the persecution of Tom DeLay wasn't politically motivated. Oh wait, that was a Republican who was targeted by a lame duck Democrat named Chris Bell and a prosecutor name Ronnie Earle.
Democrat mantra: Our corruption doesn’t count - because we are always the victim!
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