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| Home Front: Politix |
| Specter Opens Door on White House Felonies |
| 2010-03-16 |
| This is a long read -- but you will want to read it! Obama is getting closer and closer to his Watergate moment. And Major Garrett of Fox is searching this out. These are just some pieces from the article In a blink, Specter has raised the stakes here. What we are now talking about is the potential for a significant unraveling of the Obama White House even as their biggest domestic agenda item, health care, sucks in most of the media oxygen. If in fact Sestak is telling the truth, if in fact the Denver Post story about Andrew Romanoff is correct -- and neither Sestak nor Romanoff reported these offers to federal authorities -- Specter is saying both could in fact do jail time for committing a felony. Even more remarkable is to comprehend why Robert Gibbs may now be standing at that White House podium five different times and refusing to answer questions from Jake Tapper and Major Garrett. If Sestak has told the truth, if the Denver Post got it right -- then not only is the person or persons within the White House who made these job offers in big trouble, but anybody else on the Obama White House staff who currently knows this has happened and has not reported it to the proper authorities -- the FBI, just for starters -- is, according to Specter, a potential prosecution target for "misprision of a felony." For which this person or persons could also go to jail along with whomever offered the jobs in the first place. Quite possibly, that could include Robert Gibbs, if in fact he knows these job offers occurred. Which is surely incentive enough for Gibbs to understand that he doesn't want to ask this question of his colleagues -- much less get an answer. An answer for which he could be legally liable. Which in turn makes it a lose-lose proposition for him to say anything -- anything beyond some version of no comment -- to Major Garrett or Jake Tapper. ----------------- Days after Romanoff dodges Boyles and myself, Senator Arlen Specter says that if anyone gets such an offer -- and in this case that would be Romanoff in Colorado and Sestak in Pennsylvania -- and didn't report it, they could go to jail for committing a felony. Stunningly, this would presumably also include anyone on the Obama White House staff who knew one of their colleagues had offered such a job -- which is to say committed a crime -- and didn't report it. Let's catch up. After the February 22nd column in this space noted what no else had yet said -- namely that the Sestak accusation was actually a charge of a federal crime -- the Washington Times checked into the story and agreed, editorializing in favor of an investigation into the Sestak/Specter/Romanoff/White House mess. Next, our colleagues at National Review Online run a news story by former Justice Department official Hans von Spakovsky in which Spakovsky not only further elaborates on other federal laws that may have been broken, but adds this: Moreover, the Justice Department has a handbook on the prosecution of election offenses published by the Criminal Division that it distributes to all of its federal prosecutors. That handbook specifies that prosecutors can also use 18 U.S.C. § 600 to prosecute corrupt public officials who use "government-funded jobs or programs to advance a partisan political agenda."----------------- Now, the heat begins to rise as Arlen Specter steps into the middle of all this on Friday. It should be recalled here that Specter is not just Sestak's opponent. He is a former Philadelphia district attorney and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Asked last week about Sestak's charge by Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, Specter replies: "That's a very, very serious charge. It's a big black smear without the specifications. But I'm telling you it is a federal crime punishable by jail, and anybody who wants to say that ought to back it up. Listen, Congressman Sestak has gotten a lot of political mileage out of that, and it's really an attack on the administration." By Friday, March 12, as Gibbs is stonewalling Major Garrett yet again on this issue, Specter is a guest on a WSBA-radio show in York, Pennsylvania. Since the show is in York, and not on national radio or television, Specter's answer goes virtually unnoticed. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #5 It does not appear to me that Specter is the paragon of morality and ethics. That leaves the possibility of being doddering and not knowing what the wider implications are of what he is doing. This indeed might open the door for the a Watergate legal cascade directed at the Presidency. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-03-16 21:48 |
| #4 The Chicago union way, vote with me and I will get you a new higher paying job. Whats wrong with that??? I bet they had no idea they were breaking the law. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2010-03-16 15:19 |
| #3 It is not the crime...it is the cover up! Hmmm...where have I heard that before? |
| Posted by: Secret Asian Man 2010-03-16 14:59 |
| #2 What did the president know and when did he know it? |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-03-16 14:03 |
| #1 When talking to friends and they wonder if Obama will be a one term president, I reply, "If he is very lucky. Most likely he will be a two year president and impeached for his Chicago corruption team." I just wonder how accurate I am. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2010-03-16 13:48 |