Posted on 05/11/2016 1:03:45 PM PDT by jazusamo
A routine meeting of liberal Democrats grew heated on Wednesday when Rep. Alan Grayson(D-Fla.) went after Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over ethics charges dogging Grayson as he vies for the Senate.
Reid was a guest at the weekly gathering of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) when Grayson confronted him over Reid's previous calls for the Florida Democrat to resign from Congress over the ethics complaint, which accuses Grayson of running a hedge fund through his congressional office.
"Shame on you. It’s not true," Grayson said, according to sources in the room.
"It is true and I want you to lose," Reid fired back
Grayson's confrontational approach was derided by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who heads the CPC.
"Why are you doing that?" Ellison asked, according to sources in the room. "This is so stupid."
Another source said other CPC members shared Ellison's sentiments.
"All the members were appalled" by Grayson's behavior, the source said. "It was embarrassing for him and embarrassing for us that he behaved that way."
Reid's office issued a statement afterward confirming the confrontation, saying the minority leader "was honored" to address the CPC, but Grayson "decided to be disruptive, to the embarrassment of his fellow colleagues."
"Senator Reid took the opportunity to express his low opinion of Congressman Grayson to his face and remind him that the reason Senator Reid has said that Grayson is under ethics investigation and appears to be running a Cayman Islands hedge fund from his Congressional office in order to line his own pockets is because these things are true, as established by seventy-four pages worth of evidence from the Congressional Ethics Committee," Reid's office said.
Grayson's office, which also confirmed the confrontation, was quick to fire back.
"Grayson has a low opinion of Reid's low opinion," a spokeswoman said by phone.
Mike Lillis contributed to this report.
I see another black eye coming soon to a Dem near you.
LOL! They’d do the country proud.
Very nice!
“Two Rats, Crazy Alan and Dingy Harry have a spat. “
Grayson needs to find o7ut that Harry is the subject of a grand Jury probe in Utah over bribery charges. Then watch the cat fur fly.
So two mad dogs fight.
So I say hope for more & bring popcorn.
Thanks jazusamo. Of course, the ethics violations took place back when Reid was in charge, right? So it doesn't reflect poorly on his, uh, legacy...
Memo to self, never engage Reid or Grayson in a game of limbo. There’s no limit to how low they can go.
Dueling rattlesnakes.
Do rattlesnakes ever actually get into the dominance game? And, can the venom of a rattlesnake kill another rattlesnake?
Do not even consider the concept of “honor” when speaking of either the lame-duck Harry Reid or the retread Alan Grayson.
Harry thinks Alan is “unethical”.
Credulity is strained.
Can’t stand either one of them. Reid needs to be put out to pasture. Grayson needs to institutionalized.
I hope Harry's exercise equipment beats the livin' hell out of him again! Ha! Ha!
How about a triple threat match like they have in wrestling between Crazy Alan, Dingy Harry, and Dingy’s brother Larry “The Treadmill” Reid.
“This is so stupid” I would say that sums them all up.
Grayson should be Baker Acted. His constituents must be Batcrap crazy.
Has Grayson quit beating his wife?
5.56mm
The Salt Lake Tribune
Feds sue, allege Johnson illegally donated to Mike Lee, Harry Reid and former Utah A.G.
By TOM HARVEY | and Robert Gehrke | The Salt Lake Tribune connect
First Published Jun 19 2015 09:15PM • Last Updated Feb 17 2016 03:02 pm
Indicted St. George businessman Jeremy Johnson illegally funneled tens of thousands of dollars to Sens. Harry Reid and Mike Lee as well as then-Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, according to a new federal lawsuit.
In a complaint filed Friday in Salt Lake City’s U.S. District Court, the Federal Election Commission accused Johnson of giving about $50,000 to Lee’s 2010 campaign after John Swallow, Shurtleff’s top aide and handpicked successor, advised him that the Republican Senate hopeful, if elected, could influence the selection of Utah’s next U.S. attorney, who then could protect Johnson’s business interests.
“Johnson has reported that Swallow said to him: ‘[I]t is important that we raise this money and make Mike Lee our guy,’ “ according to the complaint. “ ‘[H]e is going to be choosing the next U.S. attorney and you gotta have him in your corner and you gotta have the U.S. attorney in your corner, especially while you are processing poker [payments] in this district.’ “
At the time, federal law limited campaign contributions to $2,400 per person, per election. The FEC alleges that Johnson gave tens of thousands of dollars to friends and associates to make so-called “straw donations” as a way to dodge those caps.
There is no indication in the complaint that Lee, Shurtleff or Reid knew Johnson was making illegal donations to their campaigns.
“At no time during the 2010 campaign, was Senator Lee or anyone associated with the Lee campaign aware of any unlawful contributions to the Lee campaign,” Boyd Matheson, Lee’s chief of staff, said Friday. “The documents obtained by investigators confirm that the scheme was known only to individuals who may have been involved as stated in the report.”
Shurtleff’s attorney, Richard Van Wagoner, said that his client “relied on his professional campaign finance staff to accept only legal contributions, and he had no knowledge of prohibited donations, if any, to his Senate campaign.”
“We know nothing about Mr. Johnson’s latest legal problems with the Federal Election Commission,” said Reid spokeswoman Kristen Orthman.
Swallow’s lawyer could not be reached Friday evening.
The FEC complaint says Johnson enlisted straw donors to kick in $20,000 to the 2010 re-election push of Nevada’s Reid, the Senate’s Democratic leader. The aim, again, was to shield Johnson businesses, which then included a southern Utah operation that processed online-poker payments.
Johnson said Friday that the FEC complaint stems from interviews he gave investigators pursuing multiple criminal charges against Swallow and Shurtleff.
“For my cooperation, I was guaranteed immunity. In other words, the information I shared in those confidential meetings with the FBI and state agents, I was told, would not be used to hurt me in any way. For reasons yet to be explained to me, that very information is now being used against me by the Federal Election Commission Election Commission,” he said in an emailed statement. “I am stunned. I can’t imagine anybody who wouldn’t be outraged if they were in my shoes.”
Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings, who along with Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill investigated Swallow and is now prosecuting Shurtleff, backed, to some extent, Johnson’s version of events.
“There is more truth than fiction to Jeremy Johnson’s statement,” Rawlings wrote in an email late Friday. “In exchange for his significant cooperation, he is getting screwed by the United States government. I have demanded to know why and exactly who is behind this.”
Swallow acted as a chief fundraiser for Shurtleff, a former three-term attorney general, when the latter was exploring a run in 2009 against incumbent Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.
Shurtleff dropped out of the race. By the time he did so, however, Johnson already had contributed about $100,000 to his campaign through straw donors, the FEC complaint
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