Extortion attempts and no indictments??????
Gubmint at it's best......
$35,000 A MONTH??? .. WHAT THE ........
Gee how many OTHER airport deals did the Clinton's make???
Ethics panel reprimands Hilliard
By Edward-Isaac Dovere
The House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct concluded its investigation into the alleged campaign finance abuses of Rep. Earl D. Hilliard (D-Ala.) last week, issuing a formal letter of reproval.
The committee deplored three separate actions, stating, “in knowing violation of the Code of Official Conduct, you expended funds from your campaign account for purposes not attributable to bona fide campaign or political purposes and you converted campaign contributions for political use.”
The violations included misappropriated salaries for non-campaign employees and payment of rent for members of Hilliard’s family.
The committee’s four-year inquiry was prompted by a series of articles in 1997 and 1998 in The Hill that analyzed the Federal Election Commission records of Hilliard’s first campaign alongside Hilliard’s business and personal ledgers.
The reprimand was the least severe penalty the committee could impose. It chose this form of rebuke because Hilliard admitted to what the committee called “serious official misconduct that brought discredit to the House of Representatives.” The panel said its decision was influenced by a recommendation from the House Investigations Subcommittee, which had been supervising the investigation.
The letter was signed by Reps. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member. The 10-member committee, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, manages all ethics inquiries into House members. It has the power to recommend a fine or even a member’s expulsion.
In 1992 Hilliard became the first African-American to represent Alabama in Congress since Reconstruction after serving 18 years in the Alabama state Legislature, He was reelected last year with 75 percent of the vote.
“I am pleased that the four-year ethics committee investigation of my conduct has concluded,” Hilliard said in a statement on Friday. “I look forward to putting this investigation behind me and focusing my attention on the needs of my district and serving my constituents.”
Pardon Granted Outside of FBI Review
NEW YORK, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Roger Clinton, pardoned by his half- brother in the last hours of the Clinton presidency for a drug conviction in 1985, also came under subsequent FBI scrutiny several times, Newsweek has learned, including one episode in which he allegedly sought to play middleman in the purchase of presidential pardons.
No charges were ever brought, and a Clinton spokeswoman says the former president knew nothing of the FBI's interest in Roger. But the White House did make a point of bypassing the FBI and processing the Roger Clinton pardon directly through high-level Justice Department officials, Newsweek reports in the current issue.
The first probe began four years ago, when FBI agents interviewed Birmingham, Ala., businessman John Katopodis. According to FBI reports obtained by Newsweek, Arkansas lawyer Larry Wallace approached Katopodis and allegedly assured him that he could help get Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater to attend a conference that Katopodis was having to promote a new regional airport. But, in return, he wanted a job for Roger Clinton.
"President Clinton told him [Wallace] ... he was concerned about his 'baby' brother Roger," states one FBI interview with Katopodis. Wallace proposed that Roger receive a $35,000-a-month contract with a private foundation Katapodis helped run. Katopodis balked. "That's a pretty big consulting fee for someone who plays in a rock band," Katopodis told Newsweek. He says he later got calls from Roger Clinton himself, pressing for the contract.
The FBI wanted Kotopodis to set up a meeting with Roger Clinton where they would be secretly recorded. Katopodis said he "wasn't comfortable with the whole thing" and the case died, reports Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman in the February 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 19).
In a second case, last year, FBI agents looked into allegations that Roger Clinton sought payments for help in arranging pardons. The inquiry was dropped after Justice lawyers spotted a legal problem. Since Roger Clinton wasn't a federal official, it wasn't a crime to seek money for promising to help deliver action by the government.
... and Mary Jo White, a Clinton appointee, or one of her successors will be sitting on (er, looking into) these pardons forever.
Look at the bright side Liz. They are out of power, for now. What we are seeing is history--that legacy thingy being written. And it sure isn't pretty...