Non-sequitur . . . or not

The WaPo's James Grimaldi submits an article on today's sentencing of former Dept. of Interior official J. Steven Griles. For the most part, Grimaldi sticks to the facts. U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle ignored Griles' pleas for leniency. She also gave little weight to the suggested sentence of the prosecutors. Judge Huvelle sentenced Griles to ten months in jail even though prosecutors had only requested five months.

Grimaldi relays a couple choice quotes from Judge Huvelle to Griles: "I find that even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct and the nature of your misstatements" . . . "The agreement you have with the government is a very favorable one". My favorite exchange is one that Grimaldi paraphrases for us:

With her brow furrowed, Huvelle expressed disbelief several times that Griles did not know that Abramoff was funding CREA at a time he was romantically involved with Federici.

I have no inside knowledge in this case. Judge Huvelle may know more details about this case than the article tells us. Maybe Judge Hevelle is simply a hard-nosed judge. Any conclusion I draw is simply a guess, and I trust my readers to form their own opinions.

The strangest paragraph in Grimaldi's article is this apparent non-sequitur:

Among those who have been convicted or pleaded guilty in the scandal besides Abramoff are Federici; Ney; David H. Safavian, former deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget; and several former congressional aides who had become lobbyists, including two who had worked for former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). DeLay resigned from Congress last year and is a figure in the continuing probe, sources familiar with the investigation have said.

[This paragraph has since been edited out of the WaPo article. Evidence of its existence may be found here.]

I can swallow the roll call list of those who have been convicted or pleaded guilty easier than the gratuitous sentence that my former Congressman Tom DeLay "is a figure in the continuing probe". What did DeLay have to do with Griles' sentencing? Did DeLay influence Griles' decision to lie? Is the WaPo implying that Tom DeLay has something to do with CREA?

As a matter of fact, Tom DeLay has been connected to CREA. A DeLay staffers encouraged Abramoff linked entities to donate to CREA as a means of obtaining influence with former Interior Sectretary Gale Norton.

Tribal money went both to a group founded by Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the Cabinet secretary Abramoff was trying to meet, as well as to DeLay's personal charity.

"Do you think you could call that friend and set up a meeting," then-DeLay staffer Tony Rudy wrote to fellow House aide Thomas Pyle in a Dec. 29, 2000, e-mail titled "Gale Norton-Interior Secretary." President Bush had nominated Norton to the post the day before.

Rudy wrote Abramoff that same day promising he had "good news" about securing a meeting with Norton, forwarding information about the environmental group Norton had founded, according to e-mails obtained by investigators and reviewed by The Associated Press. Rudy's message to Abramoff was sent from Congress' official e-mail system.

Within months, Abramoff clients donated heavily to the Norton-founded group and to DeLay's personal charity. The Coushatta Indian tribe, for instance, wrote checks in March 2001 for $50,000 to the Norton group and $10,000 to the DeLay Foundation, tribal records show.

[I wonder if the donations to DeLay's personal charity were intended to influence anyone.]

Non-sequitur or not. You make the call.

Justice Closing in on Gale Norton?

A week or so ago, Talking Points Memo provided a document that lawyers for admitted liar Steven Griles submitted to the court. TPM Muckraker, sister site to Talking Points Memo, probed issues I find trivial such as whether Griles' fales testimony was worse than Scooter Libby's false testimony.

Since Talking Points Memo provided a primary source, we can review it ourselves. And there is something to be found in Griles Reply to the DOJ Sentencing Memo.

The basic point of Griles' Reply is that the Justice Department asserts that Griles told more lies than he has admitted to. Suffice it to say, Griles admits he lied under oath. He deserves to be held accountable. What I find interesting is what the Justice Department believes.

From Griles Reply:

The DOJ cited an October 2001 email that purports to show that "defendeant Griles was aware of Abramoff's continuing efforts to drum up CREA donations from his [Mr. Abramoff's] tribal clients." The email implies no such thing. The email, sent to Mr. Abramoff's client, states that Mr. Abramoff saw Mr. Griles and Mr. Griles told him that the DOI Secretary was "gushing about Choctaw" and was very grateful. It did not say what she was grateful for, nor does it indicate that Mr. Griles was even told about a CREA contribution.

Footnote eliminated

Griles' lawyers do not assert that the October 2001 email is not authentic, nor do they assert that Abramoff was not truthful in the email when he reports of a meeting with Griles where Griles characterized the DOI Secretary, Gale Norton, as "gushing about Choctaw". Investigators clearly believe that Gale Norton was "gushing about Choctaw" in anticipation of or in response to a tribal donation to CREA*, an organization Norton co-founded. Griles' lawyers don't even seem to deny that the DOJ's theory is true. The lawyers seem to be saying that the email is too vague to prove the DOJ's theory.

Now I don't claim to have any special insight into where the Justice Department is going with this investigation, but I have long suspected that former Interior Secretary Gale Norton may face legal jeopardy. Griles' Reply indicates that the Justice Department is pursuing its theory that Gale Norton was very interested in CREA's fundraising. The direction of the Justice Department's investigation does not augur well for Ms. Norton.

* CREA is the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy. While I was on hiatus, Italia Federici, president of CREA, pleaded guilty to illegally converting CREA assets into personal assets without reporting it on her tax return. Italia Federici, Gale Norton and Grover Norquist were co-founders of CREA. Investigators may be trying to determine if some of CREA's assets were transferred to Gale Norton. Italia Federici is reportedly cooperating with investigators.

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Gale Norton urged the judge in the Griles case to show leniency during sentencing. It seems to me that Ms. Norton has a personal interest in Griles' case on more than one level.

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I would love to see the DOJ Sentencing Memo in the Griles case. If anyone can point me to a link, I'd be much obliged.

I'm Back . . . !

I need something to do as Mrs. Anti-Corruption watches the Sopranos.

This is not my first blog. I started the first one shortly after my former Congressman, Tom DeLay, won his primary. I could not believe that the local Republican Party supported the corrupt DeLay over a fine conservative challenger. For whatever reason, I learned that the rank-and-file Republican voters were much more sensitive to issues of corruption than the Establishment Republican Party. All the way down to the precinct chairs, there was not a single anti-corruption voice in the organized party. That situation inspired me to start my original blog. You may read the original blog here. I'll try to repopulate it as I have time.