Making Government Transparent and Accountable
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The Sunlight Foundation Blog
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In Broad Daylight: There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here
If you’re a lawmaker, or former CIA official, caught in a corruption investigation there are many different ways to get out of trouble:
- “Graymail”: Under indictment and facing trial for corruption and fraud, K. Dusty Foggo, the former number three at CIA caught in the Duke Cunningham investigation, is threatening to reveal classified information related to terrorism in the trial. Prosecutors claim that Foggo wants to turn the trial into a referendum on the war on terror and portray himself as an anti-terrorism hero. K. Dusty Foggo: “Freedom isn’t free, it costs prostitutes for me. And then you get your classified government contracts.”
- “Deny”: Yesterday, TPM Muckraker reported that the indictment of Kevin Ring included information linking Ring’s actions to the office of Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico. Ring is alleged to have provided gifts, including tickets to basketball games, to a staffer in Wilson’s office. Wilson, who also received campaign contributions and a hosted fundraiser, issued a strong denial of any involvement in Ring’s activities.
- “Challenge”: Lawyers for Sen. Ted Stevens have issued a series of challenges and accusations against the government prosecution including a filing on Tuesday stating that the government refuses to turn over certain documents related to VECO CEO Bill Allen’s possible relationship with an underaged girl.
- “Wait it out”: Republicans are calling for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remove Rep. Charles Rangel from his post as chairman of the House Committee on Ways & Means. Pelosi won’t budge and instead insists that the House Ethics Committee must first finish their investigation. The call for committee removal seems a bit premature, as I can only remember lawmakers removing themselves, or being removed, after an indictment, guilty plea, or, in the case of Alan Mollohan, when they are the chair of the Ethics Committee. However, I have little faith that the Ethics Committee wil conduct a full investigation by the end of the year.
- Also, CREW released their annual list of the 20 most corrupt members of Congress.
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It’s What’s Legal That’s The Problem
It’s often been said in Washington that the problem of corruption is not what’s illegal, but what’s legal and sanctioned by the system. A system of legalized bribery is how Washington operates. But things just might be changing. Today’s New York Times report that the FBI’s newly found focus on public corruption includes more than 2,000 ongoing investigations must be rocking Congress. And astonishingly, the FBI has established a new website where citizens can report their hunches about ongoing corruption in government.
As one of the Bush administration’s least known anticrime efforts, the F.B.I. initiative has yielded an unexpectedly rich array of cases. The results suggest that wrongdoing by public officials at all levels of government is deeply rooted and widespread. Several of the highest profile cases in which the F.B.I. played an active role involve Republicans.
Deeply routed and widespread? That’s got to be the understatement of the century! Corruption is endemic to a privately financed election finance system. Rep. Barney Frank said it best: "We are the only people in the world required by law to take large amounts of money from strangers and then act as if it has no effect on our behavior." And that day to day corruption is hidden because of antiquated disclosure laws and general lack of transparency in what members do and for whom
An upcoming cover story in the Washington Monthly makes the point. Entitled "The End of Legal Bribery," (look for it next Tuesday) by inveterate money and politics reporter Jeffrey Birnbaum, the article makes the case that even legal campaign contributions are now being seen as bribery by the newly aggressive Justice Department. This new attitude and approach to corruption is sending shock waves through the Washington business/bribery-as-usual. establishment.
Note: I’ll be out of town the next few days. On Monday, I’ll be attending the Personal Democracy Forum meeting in New York. Hope to see you there!
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Ryan Fallout:
Patrick Collins, prosecuting attorney in the Gov. George Ryan corruption case:
“Public officials have a duty of honest services; that is, to serve the people and not their private interests. Anybody who hears this, if they want to serve their private interest, they ought to go get a job in the private sector.”
Read more reactions to Ryan’s conviction and what it means for politics and Illinois in this Chicago Tribune article.
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Justice:
Thanks to ordinary people another corrupt politician is heading to prison. Former Illinois Governor George Ryan (R) was found found guilty on all counts and faces up to 95 years in prison. I liked this article in the Chicago Tribune:
“Ordinary people like us were able to make a decision,” said juror Jill DiMartino of the jury led by forewoman Sonja Chambers.
Ordinary people.
Those are two extremely frightening words. Boss politicians in Illinois pretend to have something in common with ordinary people, but if they did have a connection once, they lost it long ago, with their drivers and their first-class air tickets, and from having their behinds smooched by people who suck up to power.
Ordinary people need to stand up and shine the light on what those in power think they can get away with.
Ordinary people who become jurors don’t usually make fortunes in public relations. So they don’t spin out the too-often-repeated lie that politics as usual is no crime, just politics. Ordinary people don’t bestow millions upon millions of tax dollars on their friends in government deals, or send $100 million in affirmative-action contracts to white Outfit-connected stooges, or smirk and play dumb as their family becomes wealthy beyond imagining.
They don’t hire unqualified 19-year-old city building inspectors, or build a patronage army in violation of federal court orders to crush any dissenting voice, or purchase millions of dollars worth of office furniture from an 11th Ward family with clout.
Ordinary people don’t take free vacations to Jamaica as George Ryan did, or pretend to live on $77 in cash while gambling and drinking and steakhousing their way across the country. They don’t squeeze the janitors and the cleaning ladies for Christmas money.
