Posted on 01/12/2017 3:58:38 AM PST by HomerBohn
(Angry Patriot Movement) – A liberal senator who is as we speak attacking Jeff Sessions during his U.S. attorney general confirmation hearings has a massive scandal of his own unfolding.
Senator Cory Booker is embroiled in a Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation (NWCDC) scandal involving allegations of massive kickbacks, Politico reports. Yesterday, Donald Bernard Sr., who was the senior projects manager at the company that ran Newark’s water infrastructure under the direction of then-mayor of Newark, New Jersey Cory Booker, pled guilty in federal court to accepting nearly $1 million in bribes from contractors.
In December, Donald Bernard Sr.’s former boss at the Newark company, Linda Watkins Brashear, also pleaded guilty to similar corruption and kickback charges. Former contractor Giacomo “Jack” DeRosa pleaded guilty earlier this week to money laundering charges over kickbacks paid to Bernard.
Could all of this corruption at a massive and essential piece of infrastructure have happened without Mayor Cory Booker knowing about it? Allegations and complaints about the NWCDC were near constant during his tenure, but he failed to address them or push for an investigation into the corruption.
When Booker took office in 2008, the NWCDC, through its city contract, was running Newark’s entire water delivery apparatus — from the reservoirs to the purification plants. Its engineers and planners worked directly out of Newark City Hall.
Trustees appointed by a judge in 2013 to “wind down” the NWCDC and return water operations to the city are now suing Cory Booker in bankruptcy court. They maintain Booker’s failure to monitor the agency caused the extreme corruption which robbed the fiscally struggling city of its few resources and placed its antiquated water infrastructure at significant risk.
Cory Booker was forced to admit he never once attended a NWCDC board meeting his entire time in office even though he was the agency’s ex-officio trustee. Just last week, Booker’s attorneys argued that he is immune from financial liability because his role on the Newark water board was a “de facto responsibility of the office of mayor.” So, not doing a duty levied upon your office makes you immune from being responsible for not doing your duty?
Allegations of malfeasance at the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corporation (NWCDC) have been raised by local residents, reporters, and lawmakers for many years. The NWCDC is a non-profit agency created to protect the Newark watershed.
City Councilman Augusto Amador also led an investigation into corruption and kickbacks at the NWCDC. He was one of the most vocal and earliest critics of the excessive spending going on at the Newark agency. He said, “I’m surprised about the amount of money that was stolen…When I first looked into it and looked at the books that were submitted to the Council, the amount that was involved was nowhere near what we’re seeing now, but I’m not surprised by the indictments.”
The Newark watershed has grown substantially over the years and is now responsible for the entire water delivery infrastructure in the city. United States Attorney Paul Fishman unearthed the extensive corruption at the NWCDC that occurred on Cory Booker’s watch.
“This is bigger than I thought,” Dan O’Flaherty said after the guilty pleas of two more NWCDC suspects were uttered this week. O’Flaherty is an economics professor at Columbia University and a former Newark City Hall staffer.
Dan O’Flaherty and a group of concerned citizens formed The Newark Water Group to delve into the corruption allegations long swirling around operations at the NWCDC. He wrote a detailed report of the agency’s mismanagement entitled “Hog Wild” in 2011.
The NWCDC had a budget of about $11 million per year. According to O’Flaherty, $3 million of the budget was “pure pass-through,” which the non-profit infrastructure agency “never actually got their hands on.”
Any time a black politician begins to use “racism” one better start looking into his/her personal ethics and finances. Just look at the blacks that have done this and then look into their personal dealings. The NAACP is a prime example.
[An inner city mayor stealing?]
He’s the Ray Nagin of New Jersey.
I like to see the whole story told...
Trump’s daughter Ivanka, whose federal political giving dates back to 2006, gave her largest single donation — $30,800 to the Republican National Committee (RNC) — in 2012. That same year she also gave $19,600 each to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). She’s also given money to Republican candidates such as 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney ($5,000); the GOP’s 2008 nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain ($4,600); and Carly Fiorina ($2,000) when she ran for Senate (she is now in the nomination race with Trump).
But Ivanka Trump, like her father, has also donated heavily to Democrats — including $24,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and $7,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). Democratic candidates who have received contributions from her include none other than then Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) ($4,400); Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Rep. Don Norcross (N.J.) ($10,400 each); D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes-Norton ($7,700); Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.) and his National Leadership PAC ($5,000 total); Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.)($4,800); and to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.)($2,000).
Next up is Donald Trump Jr., whose largest donation was also to the RNC, $32,400 in 2013. Like his sister, Donald Jr. has also given heavily to the NRCC ($19,200), DCCC ($15,000) and DSCC ($12,500). While he has also given to some of the same candidates as Ivanka (Rangel, Romney, Clinton, McCain and Schumer) — there are also donations to some new names, including $5,200 to then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), $2,600 to Tea Party-aligned Rep. Steven King (R-Iowa) and $2,300 to former New York City Mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani (R).
The Trump kid who’s made the fewest donations at the federal level is son Eric Trump — but he’s still no piker. Eric Trump ponied up $30,800 to the RNC and $19,600 to both the NRSC and NRCC — all in 2012. One thing that separates him from his two siblings is partisanship: The only Democratic candidate or committee who received funding from Eric was Schumer ($1,000).
Take a look at that one. You'll find a family whose apparent purpose in life is to serve as the financial backers of every corrupt Democrat sh!tbag between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers.
I don’t judge people by their parents. Kushner’s giving pattern is conflagrated by the fact that his father made political donations in the name of family members. Jared was active in Democratic political circles, notably supporting Cory Booker in 2014.
I think that Kushner did the expected thing in his circles but has grown past that stage. Certainly we owe him a debt of gratitude for his work in the successful Trump campaign which saved us from Hitlery & may allow the draining of the swamp and the rebirth of accountability and patriotism.
In the words of Anselme Polycarpe Batbie “He who is not a republican at twenty compels one to doubt the generosity of his heart; but he who, after thirty, persists, compels one to doubt the soundness of his mind.”
“Jared declined to comment for this article. But OpenSecrets data show that between 1992 and 2004, 44 political donations of $1,000 or more were made in his name, and with the exception of four of those donations to then-New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1999, all went to Democrats. In 2000 and 2003, Kushner made four donations totaling $6,000 to Hillary Clinton – now the Democratic front-runner and someone who Trump said he hasn’t “even started” going after.
Jared was a teenager or college student when many of these pre-2004 donations were made, and it isn’t clear to what degree he was actually behind them. In 2005, his father Charles Kushner pleaded guilty to charges of making illegal campaign contributions (among other things). According to news reports, he avoided contribution limits in part by donating through different entities and under the names of relatives.
Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, told The Real Deal. Unlike other real estate scions like Rob Speyer, Jared isn’t prominently involved in industry groups like the Real Estate Board of New York, according to well-connected lobbyists.
“He’s never been involved in politics, doesn’t necessarily like politics and isn’t particularly politically attuned,” one consultant said of Jared.”
https://therealdeal.com/2016/03/10/the-son-in-law-also-rises-for-jared-kushner-championing-trump-marks-break-with-democratic-past/
Mangled the quote...”Democrat at 20” sorry, spellchecker doesn’t do it all...
“An inner city mayor stealing? Say it ain’t so!!”
I thought that was par for the course in NJ. Aren’t most of the big city former mayors in NJ in jail ?
I don't point this (and his family background) out to criticize him. I point it out to explain why I simply don't trust him.
Booker is being groomed to be Obama II.
Speaking of New Jersey politicians,... has anybody seen Chris Christie lately?
He’s another politician who needs to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
You spelled your own username wrong.
Which one? His trips to "Lolita Island" appear to have vanished!
One of the costs of doing business in New Jersey.
I dumped Facebook a long time ago.
It’s been almost two years since he’s been indicted and we’ve heard nothing - not even crickets chirping. You can bet if he was a Republican, his legal situation would be plastered all over the news non-stop - especially leading into the election. They would have tried to tie him around Trump’s nice.
I wonder when his trial will start. Two years and nothing. I guess they’re doing their best to delay it until Christie’s term is over. Otherwise, if Menendez were forced to step down, Christie would appoint a Republican to serve out the rest of his term (until 2018).
Booker was being tested against Sessions to see if he could be the next Democrat President. This was a trial balloon of sorts.
Is he was not being patient and taking bribes, he kind of does’ have a chance of going to be the next Dem President.
Booker was being tested against Sessions to see if he could be the next Democrat President. This was a trial balloon of sorts.
Is he was not being patient and taking bribes, he kind of does’ have a chance of going to be the next Dem President.
Since Obama and the other race pimps have stirred the pot and shoved the blacks back to 1950 there will not be another black president in America’s future.
It is possible because ANY black nominee for blacks becomes a black Jesus. 95% of the black vote and more come out to vote.
I understand people are comfortable most with people that look like them, but what ideas do and do not work for the country? They may not care.
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