Free Republic

The trial of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is coming to an end [ZH: has now ended with Sussman’s acquittal] but rather than provide definitive answers to the origins of the Russiagate hoax, the trial has thrown up many new mysteries and unanswered questions.Special Counsel John Durham arrives at federal court in Washington on May 16, 2022. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)Durham’s overarching trial narrative was that the FBI was duped by Sussmann when he presented them with data purportedly tying Trump to the Kremlin via the Russian Alfa Bank. It may have been Durham’s only viable strategy given the fact he...

Tech executive Rodney Joffe fed the Alfa Bank hoax to the FBI via two distinct routes, testimony from yesterday’s proceedings in the Michael Sussmann criminal case indicates. This apparent circular reporting further cements Special Counsel John Durham’s Section 1001 false statement case against Sussmann by highlighting the significance of Sussmann’s alleged lie to former FBI General Counsel James Baker. Sussmann, who is in the middle of week two of his trial in a D.C. federal court, was charged last fall in a one-count indictment with lying to Baker when he provided Baker two flash drives and several “white papers” purporting...

Today we saw some important testimony in the Michael Sussmann case. First, Rodney Joffe, an FBI confidential human source, went around his FBI handler to relay dubious Alfa Bank information to a friend at the FBI. Second, there were indications that Joffe previously worked on Russia cyber security matters. This leads us to ask whether Joffe was in some way involved in the Trump/Russia investigation. More on that below. The testimony of retired FBI Agent Tom Grasso. Grasso, a witness for Sussmann, was a Special Agent with the FBI whose “primary responsibility involved investigating cyber crimes.” He was part of...

New York’s High Court Sides With GrassoWednesday June 25, 10:35 pm ET By JENNY ANDERSON On Wall Street, there are stars that fade and stars that fight. Richard A. Grasso is one of the latter. On Wednesday, Mr. Grasso, the former chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, won another round in his almost five-year battle to keep the $187.5 million of pay he amassed during his eight years at the helm of the Big Board. The New York State Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling dismissing four of six counts originally brought by Eliot...

Court To Decide If Spitzer Overreached on GrassoBy JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun May 30, 2008 The state's highest court is gearing up to decide whether Eliot Spitzer overreached four years ago when, as attorney general, he sought to force a former New York Stock Exchange chief, Richard Grasso, to relinquish his $187.5 million pay package. On June 3, the Court of Appeals, which sits in Albany, will hear arguments on a sticking point in People v. Grasso that will set the ground rules for any eventual trial. The state, whose case is now pressed by Attorney General...

There are intriguing reports in New York that the man who was once dubbed Eliot Ness – after the “untouchable” FBI crime-buster – may have owed his fall at least in part to the bankers he once pursued with ruthless moral zeal. Was the governor a victim of Wall Street’s revenge? “Only one thing is certain – it’s an Eliot mess,” declared one former prosecutor.

Eliot Spitzer’s downfall as governor last week may have roots in pursuit of wealthy bankers while state attorney-generalIN early 2004 Eliot Spitzer was at the height of his powers as the sheriff of Wall Street, the highflying New York prosecutor who had set his sights on the cosy corporate kleptocracy that was pocketing millions from insider deals while ordinary investors went bankrupt. His latest victim was Richard Grasso, the chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, who had made headlines around the world by negotiating himself a $140m (£69m) retirement package that Spitzer alleged was illegal. Grasso claimed he...

A little more than a year ago I was obliged to defend myself publicly against a legal smear. Eliot Spitzer, the full-time New York state attorney general and part-time fund-raiser for his political ambitions, called me "unsavory," "deceptive" and "tainted." When many in the media were uncritically swayed by his posturing, Mr. Spitzer then pledged to "put a stake through" my heart. This metaphorical threat to my cardiovascular system aside, the occasion for all this brash talk was the attorney general's assertion that I was a lawbreaker. I tricked some of Wall Street's keenest minds, so the accusation goes, into...

In the celebrated case of Eliot Spitzer versus Dick Grasso, Exhibit A is the Webb report. Commissioned by former New York Stock Exchange Chairman John Reed and produced by former federal prosecutor Dan Webb, the report is the basis for the New York Attorney General's claim that Mr. Grasso manipulated the NYSE board into paying him too much money. Yet when Mr. Spitzer goes to court, he will have to grapple with material that Mr. Webb gathered but never included in his final report that was made public. These are the more than 1,000 pages of interviews that Mr. Webb's...

Excerpt - Sources: Grasso Ally Langone Mounting Bid for Archipelago Financier Kenneth Langone is mounting a rival bid to buy electronic trading platform Archipelago Holdings Inc. (AX), a move rich in Wall Street politics that threatens to derail its proposed union with the New York Stock Exchange, according to people familiar with the matter. The Home Depot Inc. (HD) co-founder and friend of former NYSE chief Dick Grasso quietly reached out to a number of Wall Street chief executives, asking them if they would be interested in participating in a counterbid for Archipelago. Mr. Langone, according to some of the...

New information shows that New York Stock Exchange board members were aware of the chairman’s lucrative package—possibly damaging Eliot Spitzer’s case against him. Newly released documents from an internal New York Stock Exchange investigation into former chairman Dick Grasso’s massive pay package show that some board members were aware of the details of the compensation deal and that at least one said he didn’t believe there was deception involved in awarding the money, NEWSWEEK has learned. The revelations could complicate efforts to force Grasso to repay some of the money. The documents concern a series of interviews conducted by NYSE...

We'd like to direct readers to Kimberley Strassel's scoop nearby on New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's suit against former New York Stock Exchange head Dick Grasso. The press has tended to present Mr. Spitzer's side of the Grasso pay package tale, but Ms. Strassel dissects a number of heretofore unexamined NYSE documents that tell a very different story. Mr. Spitzer's charge is that Mr. Grasso and former compensation committee head Ken Langone managed to dupe the Exchange's distinguished directors into paying Mr. Grasso millions. We've argued that this is none of the AG's business, the stock exchange being a...

The question is not just a provocation for the New York state attorney general. After all, he has made himself a household name by attacking conflicts of interest in Wall Street investment banks and the biggest mutual fund companies. Spitzer has long come in for flak for allegedly going hard on Wall Street to advance his political ambitions. But ironically, in the Richard Grasso affair, the question is whether he has gone soft in order to push forward his political ambitions. The state attorney general filed a lawsuit Monday against Grasso aiming to recoup some $100 million of compensation paid...

NEW YORK - Gearing up for a fight, former New York Stock Exchange chairman and chief executive Richard A. Grasso said Tuesday he would not only fight the state attorney general's lawsuit over his $187.5 million compensation package, but would countersue the exchange for $48 million of that money that he never received. In an op-ed piece published Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Grasso said any damages awarded in his countersuit would be donated to charity. Grasso will also seek damages from the NYSE and interim chairman John Reed for "the (media) leaks orchestrated by Mr. Reed." "I will...

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer intends to sue former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso as early as Monday or Tuesday to recover a portion of the controversial $139.5 million pay package he received last year, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday.

<p>A kangaroo court of liberal-leaning journalists and Democratic state treasurers charged and convicted former New York Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Dick Grasso with an unpardonable sin &#8212; success.</p> <p>This collection of class-envy warriors put such relentless pressure on the NYSE that Mr. Grasso was finally forced by his board to resign. Mr. Grasso, of course, was the man whose Herculean efforts were behind the reopening of the Stock Exchange only four business days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist bombing of Downtown New York.</p>

<p>The NYSE Board moved to get out ahead of its loud and angry critics yesterday, appointing a search committee to find an interim chairman, exchange officials said.</p> <p>But that didn't stop NYSE members from continuing to call for the ouster of the board's compensation committee and to press for more information about former Chairman Dick Grasso's severance.</p>

Grasso’s Sin of Success The NYSE’s now-former CEO was devoured by an anti-market wolfpack. A kangaroo court of liberal-leaning journalists and Democratic state treasurers charged and convicted former New York Stock Exchange CEO Dick Grasso with an unpardonable sin — success. This collection of class-envy warriors put such relentless pressure on the NYSE that Grasso was finally forced by his board to resign. Grasso, of course, was the man whose Herculean efforts were behind the reopening of the stock exchange only four business days after the terrorist bombing of downtown New York. But the so-called titans of finance who sit...

<p>Well-deserved attention has been focused on the $140 million compensation package received by Richard Grasso, the recently departed chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. Undoubtedly there will now be significant changes at the NYSE Board. But the real question is why that Board, with representatives from the most sophisticated firms on Wall Street, agreed to pay its chairman such a rich compensation package. There is only one conclusion: He was worth the money.</p>

Author ArchiveSend to a Friend <% dim printurl printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Print Version September 18, 2003, 3:30 p.m. Grasso’s Sin of Success The NYSE’s now-former CEO was devoured by an anti-market wolfpack.  kangaroo court of liberal-leaning journalists and Democratic state treasurers charged and convicted former New York Stock Exchange CEO Dick Grasso with an unpardonable sin — success.This collection of class-envy warriors put such relentless pressure on the NYSE that Grasso was finally forced by his board to resign. Grasso, of course, was the man whose Herculean efforts were behind the reopening of the stock exchange only four business...