Mr. Wise asked Mr. Boulanger why he referred to Mr. Blackann as "FedEx". Mr. Boulanger's response:
"Because he was rapid. There was no filter." (paraphrased)
Since this wasn't particularly clear, Mr. Wise pressed further. Mr. Boulanger continued:
"He just did things quickly. He didn't even always check in with his boss. There were times he even vetted amendments for us behind the scenes without his boss's knowledge." (paraphrased)
Mr. Boulanger did not specify whether the most egregious of these activities occurred during the period Mr. Blackann worked for Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), or whether it was during his stint as a Legislative Assistant for Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.).
Mr. Blackann, an admitted felon, is married to Laura Blackann (nee Brookshire), an alleged conspirator and former PR flack for Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.). We wonder what the dinner table conversations are like in the Blackann household, especially since unlike Mr. Boulanger, Mr. Blackann either did not ask or was unable to secure a non-prosecution agreement for his wife. (We have written more about Mrs. Blackann here and here.)
Mr. Blackann is reportedly cooperating with prosecutors. That said, because it is timely information relevant to Mr. Ring's case, I want to repeat what I wrote in an earlier post:
However, this email indicates that Mr. Blackann was actively helping Team Abramoff in its effort to increase funding from $9 million to $16 million for a jail for the Mississippi Band of the Choctaw Indians 1:From: Boulanger, Todd [Dir-DC-Gov]
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 11:17 PM
To: Abramoff, Jack [Dir-DC-Gov]; Ring, Kevin [Shld-DC-Gov]; Rudy, Tony [Shld-DC-Gov]; Vasell, Shawn [Dir-DC-Gov]
Subject: Choctaw Jail Intel
Importance: High
Tracey Hanke [sic] was at the Sen. [redacted, but very short name ... perhaps Bond] staff retreat today. My friends over there weighed in with her pretty hard and told her that [redacted] was aware and supportive of the project - which wasn't true because he doesn't know what is going on, really - but he wanted to feel her out how adamant her position was with regard to increasing the $9 million figure.
They also played the political angle up with her ... she didn't seem overly impressed.
Trevor said that she is 100 percent not going to budge with what we've hit her with thus far. Her excuse was that they are already taking 1/3 of the budget -which isn't totally true because of the unobligated FY01 funds -and because "they're one of the richest tribes in the country" yadda yadda yadda, which does not mean anything because of the Feds trust responsibility.
What does that mean? Well, going after her directly won't work because she's protected and was placed in that position to "be a bitch".. I'm not really sure how to approach this, but it may take a meeting with Ashcroft and a call from [redacted] and/or/both from [redacted] to the AG and getting his verbal committment [sic] so she doesn't have a choice but to release the money.
She knows that we're gonna go above her and trevor [sic] didn't think that would bother her, but as long as the decision is hers and hers alone to make, you can be certain that $9 mill is all we're getting.
Thoughts? Kevin, this is your turf ...
This email seems to corroborate, contemporaneously, Mr. Boulanger's testimony that Mr. Blackann's "boss" - in this case almost certainly Sen. Bond - had no idea what his "rogue" staffer was up to. It also confirms for us that just because a Congressional staff member gets caught up in the web of Team Abramoff's scandal, you should not automatically assume that the "boss" is corrupt too. On the other hand, when a large number of your staff are identified as conspirators, and that description is even used to describe you and your wife, well...
Final point: The email also points out the credibility problems Tracy Henke would have no matter who called her to the stand - and since both Mr. Wise and the prosecutors are smart, no one did.
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