Rep. Don Young's office has announced that the long-running criminal investigation of him by the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department's Public Integrity Section has concluded and that no charges will be filed.
Meredith Kenny, the press secretary for Young, R-Alaska, said Young's attorneys in Washington received a call this morning that the Justice Department had decided against prosecuting Young.
We've been disappointed with the Public Integrity Section a lot lately, and this news just continues that bad experience. While nearly every House Republican has shunned Washington's big-spending ways by embracing a voluntary ban on earmarks, Mr. Young is one of four Republicans unable to give up the destructive practice cherished by Kevin Ring and the rest of Team Abramoff. (Brazoria County Rep. Ron Paul, R-Brazosport, is another of the four who can't give up the addiction.)
A year ago, when Mr. Young announced his re-election bid, we hoped that Alaskans wouldn't nominate the flawed Congressman. Mr. Young is being challenged by a Tea Party candidate Sheldon Fisher, but a recent poll suggests that Mr. Fisher's candidacy is a long shot. If we were a member of the Alaska electorate, we know that we'd cast our ballot for Mr. Fisher.
From his support for fiscal responsibility to his personal commitment to ethics, there's a lot to like about Mr. Fisher.
Despite this undesirable development, the ACR Blog notes that our own former Congressman, Tom DeLay (R-corrupt Ft. Bend County) hasn't preened that the DoJ has declined to prosecute him. We infer that the Public Integrity Section is keep that door open .... for now.
***UPDATE***
9:58 p.m. CDT
An email from Don Young's campaign has been forwarded to us. Sara Schwan, Mr. Young's campaign manager, gloats that her boss has evaded accountability. She also writes:
If you’d like to wish the Congressman well in his upcoming primary, he will be at the Alaska Republican Party picnic tomorrow from 5pm to 8pm at the Kincaid Outdoor Center, 9401 W. Raspberry Road, Anchorage.
An Anti-Corruption operative tells us that he hopes to attend. Let's hope he has a good digital camera!
***UPDATE***
August 5, 2010
Our Anti-Corruption operative in Alaska submits the following photo from today's event to the ACR Blog. Our source tells us that Don Young appeared to be a happy man as the two shook hands. Smart money says our operative is still unlikely to vote for the Abramoff-linked Young.
2 comments:
I think the problem with the Public Integrity (oxymoran) is that they can no longer make stuff up. The SC has weighed in and they're in a box. Judges aren't going to allow them to wing it anymore. In re: your (and the DOJ's) fingernail adherence/hope that the retainer theory is still alive, apparently the ABA disagress...
http://www.abanet.org/cle/programs/t10hsf1.html
Further, if you keep up with Judge Huvelle's comments, it seems she is all but begging the DOJ not to walk the plank on HSF. From Rollcall..
...But federal prosecutors have indicated the Justice Department intends to push ahead with existing charges in Ring’s case and others.
At a hearing earlier this month, federal prosecutor Peter Koski said the DOJ does not plan to drop any of the eight charges that it has filed against Ring, including six counts of honest services fraud.
Federal prosecutor Richard Pilger echoed that stance at a hearing in Zachares’ case Thursday, stating: “Under the reasoning in Skilling, the charge is alive.”
Zachares, a former House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee aide, pleaded guilty in 2007 to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.
Zachares’ defense attorney, Ed MacMahon, raised questions last week over the validity of his client’s plea agreement and sought permission to submit a brief to the court on the issue.
“We couldn’t sentence Mr. Zachares for something that after Skilling wouldn’t be a crime,” MacMahon said.
Huvelle noted that Zachares could select from a range of options, including vacating his plea or amending the agreement.
“There are ways to redo something like this simply,” Huvelle said.
The judge raised the possibility that Zachares could even enter a plea related to his financial disclosure forms if he failed to accurately report gifts or other items.
“There are a lot of ways you can address this,” she later added.
In an apparent reference to other outstanding plea agreements, Huvelle also twice encouraged Pilger to be “creative” and suggested the government should avoid using the same tactic in each of the honest service cases to avoid a domino effect should a higher court reject any District Court ruling.
Anon (August 5, 2010 5:45 PM):
You're just making stuff up. First of all, the ABA program hasn't even occurred yet. Secondly, the program description suggests that the HSF discussion won't focus on bribery and kickback schemes upheld by the SCOTUS. The focus of the program seems to be on the failure-to-disclose variety of HSF that the SCOTUS found unconstitutional.
You are also misconstruing the Roll Call article. Judge Huvelle encourages Mark Zachares' attorney to consider alternatives to retracting his plea. In fact, Judge Huvelle suggested that Mr. Zachares consider pleading guilty to inaccurately filling out disclosure forms.
~ACR
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