Free Republic

Among the Queens charities to benefit from the largess of embattled Rep. Gregory Meeks is the Greater Jamaica Development Corp. That relationship has apparently drawn attention from federal investigators, who have reportedly subpoenaed Meeks' records related to the group. A federal grand jury is probing several Queens nonprofits' connections to local politicians. In 2003, Meeks helped steer $21 million in tax credits to Greater Jamaica to create an as-yet unbuilt "airport village" complex of housing, shops and a hotel near the Jamaica Long Island Rail Road and JFK AirTrain station stops. The 10-parcel site, which is just under one acre,...

<p>A federal grand jury has slapped Queens Rep. Gregory Meeks with a subpoena demanding records about his tax-exempt charities and what happened to their money -- including one that stiffed Hurricane Katrina victims, law-enforcement sources revealed yesterday.</p> <p>The subpoena from a Manhattan grand jury signals an expanding corruption probe of Meeks and two fellow Queens Democrats, state Senate President Malcolm Smith and the Rev. Floyd Flake, who also were involved in separate subpoenas issued earlier this month.</p>

On Tuesday, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) formally notified the House of Representatives that he had received a subpoena, as required by House rules. The subpoena was first reported by the New York Daily News on April 2 in the wake of our allegations that Meeks got a sweetheart deal on his house, and is involved with a charity that raised money for Hurricane Katrina victims who never saw it. Did Meeks and/or Pelosi sit on the subpoena notification until after the March 21 health care vote? It depends on when Meeks got the subpoena. House Rule VIII states: Such notification...

New York Rep. Gregory Meeks has been subpoenaed as part of a growing federal corruption probe that includes some of the most powerful Democratic politicians in Queens. Meeks’s office received a document subpoena from a federal grand jury in Manhattan several weeks ago, the New York Democrat announced on the House floor Tuesday. Under House rules, a lawmaker must announce on the floor when he or she has been subpoenaed in a civil or criminal action. Meeks’s aides declined to discuss what the grand jury was seeking, but the subpoena covered a period going back to 2000 and seeks a...

Bruce Ratner is a New York real estate developer and owner of the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association. For five years, he’s been trying to move the team to a new arena in Brooklyn that he hopes to build, relying on New York’s powers of eminent domain to move hundreds of homeowners and businessmen out of their quarters. The Brooklyn arena project, known as Atlantic Yards, is on life support. It is only being kept alive by an investment of Russia’s richest man, Mikhail Prokhorov, who is reportedly worth more than $13 billion. He is investing $200...

According to the New York Daily News today, a federal grand jury is investigating some of Queens’ most prominent politicians, including Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY). NLPC first exposed Meeks’ involvement with a charity called New Direction that raised money for Hurricane Katrina victims who never received it. NLPC also first exposed Meeks’ purchase of a home for far less than it is worth. In a Complaint to the House Ethics Committee filed on March 19, NLPC asked for an investigation of Meeks’ purchase of the house. The Complaint detailed how a contractor named Robert Gaskin not only built the home...

Note: The following text is a quote: Nine Members of a Militia Group Charged with Seditious Conspiracy and Related Offenses Six Michigan residents, along with two residents of Ohio and a resident of Indiana, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade and FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena announced today. The five-count indictment, which was unsealed today, charges that between August 2008 and the...

Rep. Gregory Meeks is adding insult to injury, lobbying Hurricane Katrina victims he stiffed in a "robo-call" aimed at a Louisiana Republican. The Democrat from Queens, who never delivered on his promise to help Katrina victims through a charity he founded, is urging citizens of the Big Easy to confront their congressman over his vote on the health-care bill. ~snip~ Meeks promised to put Katrina victims' interests first when he outlined a plan to support 30 families after the August 2005 disaster, promising "every dime" raised by a special fund would go to them. But The Post revealed that New...

In today’s Queens Chronicle, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) attacked NLPC as “a right-wing, inside-the-Beltway organization with an explicitly stated partisan agenda.” As evidence, Meeks claimed that I  “served as a top advisor to Mitt Romney during his presidential campaign.” The only problem is that Meeks got the wrong Peter Flaherty. Maybe Meeks should learn how to aim before he fires. Or at least learn how to use Google. The Peter Flaherty who advised Romney is a principal in the Shawmut Group in Boston. He is a former assistant District Attorney in Suffolk County, and served as Vice-President of Walden Media,...

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Jamaica), this week, fired back against accusations that he acted inappropriately, accepting a “sweetheart deal” to buy a luxury home for well below market value among other claims, contained in a complaint filed by the National Legal and Policy Center, an ethics watchdog group. “The NLPC is a right-wing, inside-the-Beltway organization with an explicitly stated partisan agenda,” Meeks said in a statement. “It is led by right-wing activists who have found themselves involved in scandal and targets of investigation as a result of their questionable actions to influence elections.” The NLPC’s 26-page complaint filed on Monday with...

On Friday, NLPC asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) for paying $830,000 for a newly-built home in 2006 that was worth more than $1.2 million. The home was built by Robert Gaskin, a contractor who does work on numerous projects for which Meeks has secured taxpayer funds. Click here to download a 26-page pdf of the Complaint. Classified a “mansion” by the City of New York, the Queens home has about 6,000 square feet, meaning that Meeks paid $138 per square feet. That price is less than half the cost per square foot for homes...

Gregory Meeks is a congressman, not a bookkeeper. The Democratic lawmaker insisted last week he wasn’t responsible for the money raised by a Queens charity he helped create, thousands of dollars meant for Hurricane Katrina victims that never reached them. “It was never set up for me to oversee,” Meeks said in an interview on NY1, reminding viewers repeatedly, “I’m a member of Congress!” The seven-term lawmaker’s problems go beyond just the missing money taken in by the New Direction Local Development Corp., which is now under federal probe. Indeed, it’s as a US Representative that Meeks may be even...

According to a New York Times story today titled “Congressman Cries Poor, but Lifestyle May Disagree” by Eric Lipton and Ray Hernandez: Money is so tight, Representative Gregory W. Meeks says, he does not have a savings account with more than a few thousand dollars in it. And yet Mr. Meeks, one of New York City’s most prominent Democrats, lives a life worthy of a jet-setter.When he travels, he stays in luxury hotels like the Mondrian South Beach in Miami and the Ritz-Carlton in San Juan, P.R. He drives a Lexus, leased by the federal government, at a cost...

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) has offered a second account of what happened to money he helped raise for Hurricane Katrina victims who apparently did not receive the aid. But this latest explanation — that it benefitted Katrina victims who came to New York City — is proving as flimsy as his original. (Video switches from Rangel to Meeks at 5:00 min mark) On New York’s Channel 1, Meeks was actually being interviewed about Rep. Charles Rangel’s downfall when the interviewer shifted gears to questions about the Katrina charity. Meeks has ducked interviews on the topic since NLPC first raised questions...

Oceans 14, starring NY State PoliticansPosted By: Danny Gold In a coming together of (alleged!) criminal masterminds, Rep. Gregory Meeks and Rep. Charlie Rangel, among others, met uptown last night at Sylvia's to discuss Gov. David Paterson future. If you're going to make a move against a made man, you better be damn sure you run it by the other capos, capisce? I know what you're thinking: When these guys meet, don't they usually do it in the back of a strip club somewhere or in a basement boiler room with a lot of noise? No word on what zany...

You would think that Democratic leaders would distance themselves from a member of Congress whose been identified with Ponzi swindler Allen Stanford, not mention a charity that is now under federal investigation for fraudulently raising money for Hurricane Katrina victims. Nope. According to one media report: President Barack Obama of the United States of America has dispatched a five-member delegation of US congressmen led by Representative Gregory Meeks to Zimbabwe. Maybe it is appropriate, after all. Meeks seems to have a special rapport with tyrants. Zimbabwe is one the most corrupt places on the face of the earth and strongman...

No one knows anything. As NLPC exposed last Sunday, a charity with which Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) is deeply involved, can’t account for funds raised for Hurricane Katrina victims. According to a front-page New York Post story today, Meeks claims the money was used “to help displaced evacuees,” but neither he nor anyone else involved with group can or will say how. The contoversy over Meeks’ group, called New Direction Local Development Corporation, is fuel for the firestorm of surrounding the awarding by New York Governor David Paterson of a lucrative gambling franchise to Aqueduct Entertainment Group (AEG) in which...

Rep. Gary Meeks (D-NY), already under scrutiny for his relationship with Ponzi billionaire Allen Stanford, is deeply involved with a nonprofit group in Queens, New York called New Direction Local Development Corporation. Our review of IRS tax returns, New York state budget records, and other documents suggests that New Directions does little development. Instead, it appears to operate to the benefit of Meeks and a state Senator named Malcolm Smith, and much of the money it has raised is simply unaccounted for. New Direction has received at least $56,500 in New York state taxpayer funds since 2001, at the direction...

Has anyone noticed how Kendrick Meek is all over the press about Haiti, while he does precious little to help Haitians in Haiti? The sad part is, there are real efforts underway by Republicans, who are branded as racists as Democrats play politics with every natural disaster. Here are true stories of GOP candidates who've put aside their businesses, campaigns and everything else to bring real help to Haiti. One of them, Tom Garcia, even risked his life. They don't want illegal immigration, which would also hurt Haitians, who would be left to fend for themselves in a foreign land...

WASHINGTON — President Obama has sent a request to Gov. David A. Paterson that he withdraw from the New York governor’s race, fearing that Mr. Paterson cannot recover from his dismal political standing, according to two senior administration officials and a New York Democratic operative with direct knowledge of the situation. The decision to ask Mr. Paterson to step aside was proposed by political advisers to Mr. Obama, but approved by the president himself, one of the administration officials said. “Is there concern about the situation in New York? Absolutely,” the second administration official said Saturday evening. “Has that concern...