Mary Jo White's Tenure in the Southern District of New York ~ Capital Research Center

Mary Jo White's Tenure in the Southern District of New York: An Assessment of Her Prosecution of Union Corruption

On November 16, Mary Jo White, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced she would resign her position by the end of the year. It is not every day that the resignation of a federal prosecutor makes national news, but the Southern District is no ordinary post. It is noted for its prosecution of infamous criminals from Wall Street and the Mafia, and, in the 1990s, Arab terrorists. It is also noted for the prosecution of corrupt union officials, including former International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) president Ron Carey.

On October 12, Carey was acquitted in federal court of seven counts of perjury. He was accused of lying 63 times on seven occasions when questioned by government investigators and a grand jury regarding his knowledge of an illegal money swap scheme that raised over half a million dollars for his 1996 reelection campaign as union president. The government’s investigation resulted in the overturning of Carey’s election and the conviction of four of his close aides. Further, the investigation implicated several high ranking union officials in the money swap scheme, including AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka. So why did Carey get off? And why have Trumka and others possibly implicated in the scandal not been investigated?

Much of the blame may lie with the prosecution in the Carey criminal case, which was headed by White. Who is she? What exactly did she do wrong in this case? What did she fail to do? And how will her tenure affect her successor’s efforts to prosecute union corruption? These are questions this article aims to answer.

White became head of the Southern District in 1993, when she was part of the Clinton Administration’s scramble for women in the Justice Department. She joined President Clinton’s short list for Attorney General after his first two choices, corporate attorney Zoe Baird and U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood, withdrew their nominations for their alleged employment of undocumented domestics. White lost that competition to Janet Reno, and was also passed over for Assistant Attorney General in charge of Justice’s Criminal Division in favor of former federal prosecutor Jo Ann Harris.

However, in the wake of Reno’s "March Massacre"—former Senator Robert J. Dole’s (R-KS) phrase for the "requested" mass resignations of all U.S. Attorneys by the Clinton Administration—plenty of U.S. Attorney positions came open. On June 22, 1993, President Clinton selected White for the prestigious Southern District assignment in Manhattan on the recommendation of then-Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY). New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) held the post during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations.

White’s top qualifications for the Southern District job were two stints as an Assistant U.S. Attorney: in the Southern District from 1978 to 1981 and in the Eastern District of New York from 1990 to 1993. In the Eastern District, she served as second-in-command and as acting U.S. Attorney for several months in 1992 and 1993.

White holds an undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary and a master’s degree in psychology from New York’s New School for Social Research. She graduated near the top of her law school class at Columbia University in 1974, and went on to serve as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Marvin E. Frankel, a Johnson appointee, in the Southern District. She also worked as a white-collar criminal defense attorney from 1981 to 1990 at the New York firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, where she became a partner in 1983.

What role, if any, New York labor attorney Harold Ickes played in White’s appointment is a big question. Ickes is a heavy hitter in Democratic Party circles. His past posts include: Clinton White House Deputy Chief of Staff, top fundraiser for Clinton-Gore ‘96, official organizer of the 1992 Democratic National Convention, Clinton campaign manager for the 1992 New York primary, and Senate campaign advisor for Hillary Clinton. His strong New York legal and political ties and close connection to the Clintons raise the possibility that he may have influenced Bill Clinton’s decision to appoint White to the Southern District. This is troubling given Ickes’s past.

On October 26, 2000, the Wall Street Journal described Ickes as having a "history of representing unions, some of them with eyebrow-raising ties to organized crime." For example, Ickes—a member of the Long Island firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein—represented New Jersey Teamsters Local 560 in a 1986 racketeering suit that alleged, among other things, that Local 560 had a history of violence against opponents of the late Teamster boss and alleged member of the Genovese crime family Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano. The suit led to government control over the local which only recently ended in 1999. The specter of Ickes in combination with White’s poor handling of the money-laundering case, discussed below, leads one to question White’s use of prosecutorial discretion.

Soon after her appointment as head of the Southern District, White butted heads with Manhattan’s popular District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau (D), whose most famous union corruption case to date, a massive scandal involving AFSCME District Council 37 in New York, led to criminal charges against more than 30 union bosses and vendors. According to the New York Post, Morgenthau and White have been rivals since her Southern District appointment in an ongoing "War of the Prosecutors."

The conflict came to a head in September 2000, when Morgenthau charged 38 individuals—including union bosses, contractors, and reputed Luchese crime family members—with bribery, bid-rigging, and other construction-related racketeering schemes. The unions implicated were the Bricklayers, Carpenters, and Laborers. An hour before Morgenthau announced his sweeping indictments, White made a similar, but weaker, announcement.

Both Morgenthau and White tapped Luchese phones for two years and built almost identical cases. But Morgenthau’s indictments were far more comprehensive and included racketeering charges, which White was apparently unable to substantiate. Compared to Morgenthau’s 38, White could only muster charges against six lower-level mobsters and no union bosses. Morgenthau expressed surprise when he learned of White’s indictments: reporters at his own news conference showed him White’s press release!

Nevertheless, White has prosecuted some pretty big fish in the Southern District: mobster John A. "Junior" Gotti and the bombers responsible for the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 and the U.S. embassy attacks in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The Bill Clinton-Marc Rich pardon scandal also fell within her jurisdiction because Giuliani prosecuted Rich out of the Southern District.

White’s office is responsible for prosecuting the Teamsters scandal because the 1989 consent decree that ended a Justice Department racketeering suit against the Teamsters was settled in the Southern District. The decree gave a federal judge the authority to supervise internal union operations. It also created several supervisory posts, such as an election monitor, and an Internal Review Board (IRB), which handles corruption matters and is supervised by the judge. U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, currently oversees the decree.

In the 1996 Teamsters presidential election, incumbent Ron Carey narrowly defeated Detroit union attorney James P. Hoffa—son of the legendary Teamster president James R. ("Jimmy") Hoffa. But Hoffa’s camp sensed something was amiss. His campaign aides pored over Carey’s campaign disclosure documents and found evidence of serious wrongdoing. It turned out that Carey’s campaign had raised $538,100 through an illegal money swap scheme that involved giving "donations" from the union’s general treasury—total: $885,000—to select organizations that agreed to route a portion of such "donations" to Carey’s reelection effort.

Carey’s election was overturned. He was disqualified from the presidency and later expelled from the union. Hoffa then won the rerun election against Tom Leedham, who was vice president under Carey. (Hoffa beat Leedham for the Teamsters presidency again this year.)

At first, White jumped right on the case. Soon after the scandal broke, she indicted Carey campaign consultant Martin Davis, campaign manager Jere Nash, and direct mail vendor Michael Ansara for their roles in the money swap scheme. All three pled guilty in 1997. Davis admitted to conspiracy, mail fraud, embezzlement, and making false statements to a court officer. Nash admitted to conspiracy and fraud charges. Ansara admitted to charges of conspiracy.

Following this promising start, the prosecution got terribly bogged down, earning White the title "Mary Jo Molasses" from New York Times columnist William Safire. Two years later, the case inched forward with the November 1999 trial of former Teamsters political director William W. Hamilton, Davis and Nash’s inside man for funneling the $885,000 out of the union’s coffers. The jury convicted Hamilton, a former AFSCME and Planned Parenthood staffer, on all six counts of conspiracy, embezzlement, fraud, and perjury. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution—a small amount compared to what his activities cost the union.

The restitution matter brought to light a serious gaffe by White. The Teamsters union wanted to collect about $3 million in restitution either from Hamilton alone or from Hamilton, Davis, and Ansara. This included the $885,000 in embezzled funds plus the $2.2 million the union spent on the rerun election. As part of their pleas, Davis paid $500,000 and Ansara put $395,000 into escrow. Under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act, restitution of the full amount of a victim’s loss is mandatory. But White’s office—in an error it later admitted—treated the amounts as discretionary and agreed to let Davis and Ansara pay lesser amounts.

White’s office sought to make up for the error during the trial by asking for Hamilton’s restitution to be set at $885,000, but to no avail. U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa, a Nixon appointee, set restitution at $100,000, calling Hamilton "a man of quite modest means" who could face limited earning opportunities after prison. He called White’s recommendation of $885,000 "totally unrealistic," and scolded White and her office for failing to submit papers that could help guide him through the restitution process. Had White’s office done its homework, it could have easily argued that there is nothing "unrealistic" about requiring a convicted felon to return all that he stole.

Unfortunately for the Teamsters, the union is bound by White’s costly error. On its own, the union tried to recover its loss through a civil racketeering suit against Davis and others, but U.S. District Judge Laura T. Swain, a Clinton appointee, dismissed that case on October 1, 2001.

The criminal case fell into another two-year lull of inactivity, until January 25, 2001, when White indicted Carey on seven counts of perjury and making false statements. Carey was not charged with participating in the complex corruption scandal, but with lying about his knowledge of it to federal officials and a grand jury.

Jere Nash, testifying for the prosecution in Carey’s trial, said that Carey first rejected a $225,000 donation to the liberal activist group Citizen Action, but later approved it after Nash told him that giving the money to Citizen Action would help raise money for his campaign. However, on October 12, Carey was acquitted of all charges. White blew it—big time.

White and her office made at least two blunders that demonstrate their incompetence in handling the Carey case. First, trying the case nearly five years after the events took place was unwise. Trying a case sooner rather than later means the recollection of witnesses is fresher unless one needs time to build a stronger case. There was no good reason for not indicting Carey hot on the heels of the Hamilton victory in 1999. Further, both cases could have been brought in late 1997 or early 1998—White’s office did not acquire any significant new evidence after November 1997, when Carey was disqualified from the Teamsters presidency.

Second and more importantly, White put a hostile witness, the imprisoned Hamilton, on the stand only to have him undermine her case against Carey. Despite being called by the prosecution, Hamilton’s testimony bolstered the defense’s contention that Carey was unaware that the donations were linked to his campaign. Hamilton testified that he never told Carey that a series of political contributions was linked to a money-laundering scheme to generate funds for Carey’s campaign.

Hamilton, who did not take the stand in his own trial, testified that he had only discussed the contributions with Carey twice and had not mentioned their links to the campaign. According to Hamilton, Carey asked him shortly before the 1996 national presidential election why the Teamsters’ political division was spending so much money out of the general treasury. Hamilton said he told Carey that the spending was "appropriate" and that it was necessary because the union’s political action fund had been exhausted. He said that Carey’s only response was to acknowledge the issue.

Hamilton also claimed that, in the only other conversation on the matter, Carey gave him a noncommittal reply to a telephoned request for funds. Hamilton claimed that Nash told him Carey would be informed of the scheme, but that nothing Carey said in this phone conversation suggested that that was the case.

It is puzzling why the prosecution called on Hamilton, who testified without a grant of immunity or any other deal from the prosecution—and therefore had no incentive to help the prosecution. In fact, Hamilton’s testimony was so detrimental that it forced Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dember to attempt to undercut the credibility of the prosecution’s own witness!

Had Hamilton been a defense witness, prosecutors would have had an easier time undermining his credibility—here was a convicted felon with an axe to grind with the prosecutors who sent him to prison and a committed leftist-unionist willing to help Carey. But this line of argument was hopelessly weak when it was the prosecutors who put the defective witness on the stand.

This also allowed the defense—which did not have to worry about supporting Hamilton as its own witness—to concentrate on undermining Nash’s credibility. In the end, Hamilton’s testimony created enough reasonable doubt for the jury to acquit Carey. Again, White blew it.

White’s prosecution of the case has produced some positive results. She got guilty pleas from Nash, Davis, and Ansara; convicted Hamilton; and at least brought Carey to trial. But she has also failed to act against many more individuals who may have participated in these crimes. The benefits of her prosecution of Hamilton and Carey were marginal. She went after out-of-power has-beens, while apparently giving a pass to individuals still in power—corrupt individuals who pose an ongoing threat of corruption to their organizations and to the American political process. White’s successor should focus on these individuals’ role in the Teamsters money laundering scandal, and prosecute where appropriate.

Richard Trumka — Chief on the list should be AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard L. Trumka, who twice invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked by federal officials about his role in the scandal. At Hamilton’s trial, White’s office showed that a key meeting for planning an illegal $150,000 transaction took place in Trumka’s AFL-CIO office with him present. In this transaction, Hamilton gave $150,000 to the AFL-CIO, which turned it over to Citizen Action. Of that amount, $100,000 went to the November Group, Davis’s consulting firm, to cover Carey campaign expenses.

Additionally, Trumka allegedly solicited and/or contributed $50,000, some in cash, to the Carey campaign. Federal labor law and Teamsters election rules classify union officials as "employers" and therefore prohibit them from making union campaign contributions.

White’s failure to act made a problem out of the statutes of limitations for the likely crimes in this case, which are generally five years. Any such crimes occurred in the second half of 1996, so the five-year limits have either expired or are about to.

Judith Scott – Another target for investigation should be former Teamsters general counsel Judith A. Scott, who worked for the United Mine Workers during the 1980s and early 1990s, when Trumka was president of that union.

According to court records, Scott approved Hamilton’s forwarding of a $475,000 check to Citizen Action, of which $110,000 made its way to a front group called "Teamsters for a Corruption Free Union" (TCFU) and then to the November Group for Carey campaign expenses.

At Carey’s trial, Hamilton testified that he discussed the scheme with Scott, who then told former Teamsters secretary-treasurer Tom Sever that the union’s board need not review the large contribution. Sever then allowed the check to be issued on the condition that Scott produce a legal memorandum supporting her view. It was not until January 1997, three months after the contribution was made, that Scott produced the memorandum. Reportedly, Sever viewed the memorandum as inadequate because, among other things, it failed to address the specific contribution to Citizen Action. Scott left the Teamsters in February 1997 to become general counsel to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Andrew Stern and Edgar James – Another potential target is Scott’s current boss, SEIU president Andrew L. Stern, who promised, like Trumka, to raise $50,000 for Carey’s campaign, but fell short on this commitment. Nash then approached Edgar N. James, an attorney representing SEIU, who agreed to help raise the $50,000. Ultimately, James only raised $16,000, which he contributed to TCFU—which in turn forwarded it to the November Group. Like union officials, attorneys are classified as "employers" under IBT election rules and federal labor law, and are not allowed to solicit for or contribute to Teamster candidates. Interestingly, Judith Scott is the third ranking member of James’s Washington law firm of James & Hoffman.

Theodore Kheel – In a similar situation as James is Theodore W. Kheel, a labor attorney at the New York firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. According to court records, Kheel was contacted by Charles McDonald of the AFL-CIO’s Union Privilege credit card and later by Davis about a contribution to the Carey campaign. Kheel told investigators that he agreed to contribute $20,000, but wanted Davis’ assurance that his contribution would be kept secret. Davis then visited Kheel’s office, where Kheel gave him an envelope containing $20,000 in cash.

Gerald McEntee and Paul Booth –AFSCME president Gerald W. McEntee and AFSCME organizing director Paul Booth also allegedly conspired to solicit and/or contribute $50,000 to the Carey campaign. Again, union officials qualify as "employers," and therefore are barred from making donations to union candidates by both IBT election rules and federal labor law. According to court records, Booth raised $7,100 on his own and $20,000 with the help of McEntee.

Citizen Action – Another target could be the liberal activist group Citizen Action—or rather, its current incarnation, U.S. Action. Citizen Action’s former executive director Ira Arlook and others apparently helped Davis launder money for the Carey campaign—hardly a legitimate purpose for a tax-exempt organization. On November 6, 1997, my organization, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), filed an IRS complaint requesting an audit of the nonprofit Citizen Action for its role in the money laundering schemes. While the IRS has yet to take public action on the complaint, Citizen Action folded as a result of the scandal. But a successor organization, U.S. Action, is trying to make a comeback.

Terry McAuliffe and the DNC – White’s successor should also look into the possible involvement of several individuals at the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—including current DNC head Terry McAuliffe. Davis, Nash, and Hamilton almost succeeded in getting $100,000 from the general IBT fund through the DNC to the Carey campaign. According to the Hamilton trial transcript, players in this scheme included DNC finance director Richard Sullivan, Clinton-Gore ‘96 finance director Laura Hartigan, and then-Clinton fundraiser McAuliffe. The swap scam fell apart at the last minute amid fears about the transaction’s legality, but the crime of conspiracy does not require the conspirators to be successful.

As a former prosecutor, I would like to give White the benefit of the doubt on the statute of limitations issue, but her delays and failures in what should have been slam-dunk cases give the appearance that she was playing politics with her prosecutorial discretion. And there are other instances that suggest as much, mainly her interactions with Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) and new Teamsters Independent Review Board (IRB) member Joseph E. diGenova.

The Derailed Hoekstra Investigation – White effectively thwarted Hoekstra’s Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee (within the House Education and Workforce Committee) hearings into the Teamsters scandal. When Hoekstra was hot on the trail of Trumka and others in 1997 and 1998, White asked him to back off, arguing that his probe might jeopardize her prosecution. Hoekstra obliged and then waited—and waited, and was still waiting for White to act when she announced her resignation from the Southern District. Hoekstra told Insight magazine that Congress should never again defer to White’s judgment: "Her work on the Teamsters scandal demonstrates...that, when she says we are jeopardizing her investigation, it would be legitimate to respond, ‘Excuse me, but which investigation are we jeopardizing? Nothing has happened.’"

The diGenova Nomination – White’s embarrassing defeat in the diGenova case provides the clearest illustration of her political tendencies. The Teamsters’ Internal Review Board (IRB) is composed of three members: one chosen by the union, one by the Justice Department, and one jointly by the other two members—and all must be approved by the IRB’s overseeing judge.

In August 2001, Judge Preska approved IBT’s designation of diGenova, a former U.S. Attorney for Washington, DC, to be its IRB representative. DiGenova replaced Grant Crandall, a labor attorney selected in 1996 by Carey whose five-year term had expired.

Preska approved diGenova despite attacks by White who reportedly did not want a conservative Republican on the Board. Initially, White reportedly killed the Bush Administration’s plan to name diGenova as its IRB representative through some behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Teamsters president James P. Hoffa, who has been trying to improve his union’s relationship with the government, countered White by selecting diGenova as the union’s representative to the Board. White reportedly then launched an underground campaign to try to block diGenova again. White contended in a letter to Preska that diGenova could not remain neutral while serving on the IRB. In the end, White’s efforts to block diGenova proved futile.

The simple fact that White was a Clinton appointee handling a politically sensitive caseload should have been reason enough for the incoming Bush Administration to show her the door on January 20. But she was not terminated because she jumped on the Clinton-Rich pardon probe, is looking into possible wrongdoing by Senator Robert G. Torricelli (D-NJ), and, more significantly, has some expertise in prosecuting terrorists, mainly those involved in the Africa and 1993 World Trade Center attacks. On November 16, the day of her resignation announcement, the Washington Post reported that the Torricelli and pardon investigations are winding to a close.

Earlier this year, as two terrorist cases on the 1998 Africa bombings were pending, White failed to win death sentences against two of Osama bin Laden’s henchmen: Khalfan Khamis Mohamed and Mohamed Rashed Daoud ‘Owhali.

The September 11 terrorist attacks created a heightened need for prosecutors to focus on terrorism, so for a while it appeared unlikely that White would be asked to leave. But that changed on October 9, when Attorney General John Ashcroft formed the "9/11 Task Force" to manage Justice’s prosecution of terrorists. New York Times reporters David Johnson and Benjamin Weiser bluntly called it "a rebuff of Mary Jo White" because, unlike recent terrorism prosecutions, central decision making will now be made in Washington, not New York.

It is possible that the dual blows, in the same week, of bungling the Carey trial and being stripped of prominent terrorist prosecution authority, may have influenced White’s decision. She traveled to Washington in October to lobby Attorney General Ashcroft to allow her to keep control over any indictments related to the World Trade Center attacks, but was unsuccessful.

A successor has not been named as of this writing. Possible candidates include: New York Governor George Pataki’s counsel Jim McGuire, onetime aide to former Senator Alfonse D’Amato (R-NY) Robert Giuffria, former assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Engel, and federal prosecutor John R. Wing.

From the perspective of the Teamsters money-laundering scandal, White leaves behind a major lost case and a host of possible suspects still at large. Powerful individuals such as Richard Trumka and Terry McAuliffe should not be given a free ride. Justice requires a different result. Therefore, it is imperative that President Bush appoint a Southern District prosecutor who will be ready to hit the ground running in the prosecution of union corruption. Judging from what White has left undone, her successor will have a lot of catching up to do.

Ken Boehm is Chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a union corruption watchdog group that publishes the Union Corruption Update newsletter. See www.nlpc.org.

CLICK on Janet Reno's MiniMe:

[Mary Jo] White Put Politics Before Prosecution ~ Kelly Patricia O’ Meara - Insight Magazine

Click on Clinton's latest stained lady and go to: That's Rich - Will Mary Jo White find out if Clinton took cash for pardons? ~ WSJ.

Mary Jo White ~ Janet Reno's MiniMe

DOJ Under Janet Ashcroft - Has Anything Changed?

CLICK HERE--->>

Teamster-DNC Money Laundering Flow Chart

Look who's still laughing --->>>

As Bush Replaces Prosecutors, a Formidable One Stays On ~ NY Times begins the Mary Jo 'White'-wash

>>>>> Hired by Mr. Fiske [ 1st Independent Clinton Prosecutor White~~wash~~water & Vince Foster ] in 1978 when he was the United States attorney, she spent about three years as a young assistant in the Southern District, helping prosecute the Omega 7 anti- Castro terrorist group, among others. She also befriended Louis J. Freeh, then also a young prosecutor. <<<<<<<

Can it get ANY more incestuous ???

Looks like a Whitewash [Mary Jo] ~ Bob Novak

Clinton's Teamster Oversight: Charles F.C. Ruff, Freddy (the fixer) Lacey, Sleepy Willy Webster (Carter's FBI Director) and Grant Crandal (Rich Trumka's UMW general Counsel) .... Sounds more like mafia dons dividing up the city

Le Boeuf, Lamb, Greene & McRae

Frederick B. Lacey ONE RIVERFRONT PLAZA NEW YORK
Lawrence C. Miller NEWARK, NJ O7IO2-5490 WASHINGTON
Theodore B. Aden Albany
Thomas W. Greelish
Joseph A. Tate
Wesley S. Caldwell III
Charles M. Lizza
Jeannette M. Bond

April 13, 1994

LONDON

MOSCOW

Thomas P. Puccio, Esq.

277 Park Avenue, Room 3604

New York, NY 10172

Dear Mr. Puccio:

You will recall that, following your telephone call to me of March 28, 1994, to seek my assistance in arranging a meeting with Mr. Carey, I told you what Mr. Ruff had advised the Independent Review Board about his meeting with you, Mr. Moroney and your counsel, that is, that at that meeting he had been told that unless the IBT agreed to the trusteeship of 295 being extended to 851, you were going to go public with all the materials that you had on Carey. Nonetheless, I told you that I would talk to Judge Webster and advise him of your call to me, and also pass your request on to the IBT. Judge Webster and I decided that we would relay your request to Mr. Ruff, and I did so.

During our conversation, I told you that I thought you and Mr. Moroney ought to have in mind what would happen if you brought Carey down in that there were "old guard" Teamsters throughout the country that were hoping that Carey would be eliminated as a candidate in 1996 so that the clock could be turned back to what it was when I first came on the scene as independent administrator. You indicated that you had not given any thought to that but you would keep it in mind.

On March 31 I called you to tell you that I had conveyed to Mr. Ruff your request to meet with Mr. Carey. In that same conversation I read to you the article from the march 27, 1994, New York Newsday, quoting Mr. Moroney's comments on Mr. Carey and also advised you that a reporter had called from the Chicago newspaper quoting Mr. Moroney as saying, "Carey is a spokesman for the mob."

Later on March 31 you called back to tell me that you had spoken with Mr. Moroney and that he denied the quote attribute to him by the Chicago newspaper and, as well, the article in New York Newsday.

I thought you should know that information about our initial conversation was possessed by one or more third parties on March 31. On that day Mr. Carberry's office received an "anonymous" call (the voice was the same as that which has conveyed numerous other pieces of information about Carey), stating that the speaker knew that you and I had met and that I had told you that "Carey is a bum but he is our bum." I can only speculate how our conversation could have been distorted into a meeting and how my statement, while distorted, was known to the caller so soon after we spoke. It is alarming to me to know that third parties, literally within hours, are aware of conversations that you and I have.

Finally, the names of Long and Kelly are familiar to you. I enclose a copy of Kelly's affidavit in his lawsuit against Carberry, Judge Edelstein, etc. In this lawsuit he has made reckless allegations against all of the defendants. I thought you should be aware of the enclosure, given what he has charged against people for whom I know you have the utmost respect.

I think that if you wish to communicate with me you do so in writing, and I will respond in writing as well.

Very truly yours,

Frederick B. Lacey

FBL:abw

Enclosures

000518

a little Kevin Bacon:

Condit's Polygrapher Barry Colvert - Teamster President Ron Carey passed lie test, ex-FBI agent says

"Lowell said Barry Colvert, a former FBI special agent gave Condit the exam and determined he had been truthful. The lawyer said Colvert had 35 years experience with the FBI, had conducted 3,000 polygraph exams and taught other agents about polygraphs. The probability of deception, Lowell said, was less than 100th of 1 percent."

Condit polygraph expert has national reputation ..........BUT

"In 1998, based on the findings of a lie-detector test conducted by Mr. Colvert, former Teamsters President Ron Carey denied under oath before a union watchdog agency any wrongdoing regarding suspected fraud in his re-election campaign.

Mr. Carey swore he never embezzled any money from the union to help finance his campaign and knew nothing of a scheme to do so. Mr. Colvert said at the time Mr. Carey had passed his test with flying colors and there were no "indications of deception."

A year later Mr. Carey was indicted on charges of perjury and making false statements during the investigation of his re-election, and currently faces a federal trial. He was ousted as president of the union after court-appointed investigators determined he was guilty of "extraordinarily serious misconduct" and had lied concerning his knowledge of the scheme."

Mickey Klaus:

Joshua Marshall redeems himself with an intriguing exegesis of the resume of Barry Colvert, who conducted the in-house lie-detector test of Gary Condit. ... It turns out Colvert performed a similar stunt for ex-Teamster president Ron Carey, another Marina Ein client. ... (7/14)

Marshall:

. . .

(July 14th, 2001 -- 5:09 AM EST // link) Regarding the Condit lie detector test, here's some other morsels to keep in mind.

In his post tonight Mickey Kaus notes that Aldrich Ames, the notorious CIA spy, passed a number of lie detector tests. So clearly the technology is not infallible.

But this only scratches the surface of the story.

The polygraph expert retained by Condit attorney Abbe Lowell is named Barry Colvert, a former CIA lie detector expert. One of the bullet points on Colvert's resume is that he did the interrogations of Aldrich Ames. Now I don't know if the tests Ames beat were administered by Colvert. But it seems like a definite possibility. So it's not just that Ames beat a lie detector test. It may be that he beat this expert.

But there's more. A lot more.

Back in January 1998 when former Teamsters' head Ron Carey was trying to fight off an indictment and expulsion from the union over the campaign donation-swapping scandal, he decided to take a lie detector test to clear himself. He passed the test.

The test was administered by none other than Barry Colvert.

Now this is a little painful for me to say, because I always liked Ron Carey, but the bottom line is that he was eventually indicted. So Colvert's results look a little iffy in retrospect.

More striking though is the way that test was apparently administered. Read this snippet from a January 21st, 1998 AP story and see if it doesn't sound very similar to what Abbe Lowell said today about the test Colvert administered to Gary Condit.

Barry Colvert, an agent for 35 years who interrogated Aldrich Ames and other high-profile spies, asked Carey two crucial questions about the scheme. "I did not find any indication of deception in either of those primary questions," Colvert said. He added that, "If the readings were close and flat, I wouldn't have rendered that opinion."

Colvert's questions and the questions posed to Carey by his attorney, Reid Weingarten, were limited to charges that about $ 735,000 was donated by the Teamsters to generate contributions to Carey's re-election campaign.

Carey was not asked if he knew that other labor leaders, including AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka, allegedly had funneled prohibited donations to his campaign.

Sounds similar, doesn't it? Highly restricted questioning ... "two crucial questions" ... "the primary questions" etc. And apparently no follow-ups on the factual nitty-gritty of the case. (Carey seems to be the only other high-profile case Colvert has handled since he went into private practice in 1997 -- I base this on a Nexis search on Colvert's name which revealed no mentions beside Carey.)

And then there's one more detail.

My understanding is that, at approximately this time, Carey had under contract a PR consultant by the name of Marina Ein. (I do not know whether she was still working for Carey in January 1998 -- but I know she was shortly before that.) And as you'll remember, if you're following the case, that's the same Marina Ein who is now working for Gary Condit.

What does this all mean? I'm going to let the information speak for itself. But it does make you wonder.

-- Josh Marshall

------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---

I think if you were to scrutinize what goes on at the federal judiciary and the U.S. Attorney offices in Maryland, Florida, and Washington D.C. you would find a repeat performance of what is going on at the SDNY.

Federal prosecutors brokering deals that are directly beneficial to their self-serving and political agendas, and then going to the federal judges to rubber stamp these deals.

I can certainly point to specific cases in both Maryland and south Florida where the interest of the federal prosecutors and federal judges is not in the interest of the public safety and welfare.

I am postive now that the former U.S. Attorney for Maryland, Lynn Battaglia and her Chief of White Collar Crime ,Dale Kelberman simply brokered a deal to make the FBI stand down in regards to a Charles R. Longo in that if Longo could wrest from me my potentially valuable patent and intellectual property, Longo would be provided with complete immunity for all of his alleged criminal activity and all of those associated with him.

I certainly don't see anyone from Washington D.C. stepping up to the plate and cleaning house, certainly not the Democrats, and the Republicans simply seem to be carrying on in the footsteps of the Democrats.

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