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Thread: AG Shuts Down Corruption Investigation After Catching Dems Accepting Bribes, Because Racism

  1. #1

    AG Shuts Down Corruption Investigation After Catching Dems Accepting Bribes, Because Racism

    http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/17/de...shuts-down-cor
    In 2010, when he was still attorney general of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett, now its Republican governor, launched a corruption investigation targeting politicians in Philadelphia. The operation caught at least four of them, all Democrats, allegedly accepting bribes of cash and gifts adding up to at least $18,000. But after Democrat Kathleen Kane was elected attorney general in 2012, she reportedly shut down the investigation. Via The Inquirer of Philadelphia:

    In a statement to The Inquirer on Friday, Kane called the investigation poorly conceived, badly managed, and tainted by racism, saying it had targeted African Americans.

    Those who favored the sting believe Kane killed a solid investigation, led by experienced prosecutor Frank G. Fina, that had ensnared several public officials and had the potential to capture more. They said they were outraged at Kane's allegation that race had played a role in the case.
    According to The Inquirer, prosecutors collected hundreds of hours of audio and video tape of the Democrats accepting bribes in the stings that the attorney general’s office ran. Sources close to the investigation also insist that the sting targeted both Democrats and Republicans, but that only Democrats were interested in learning more about the opportunity for corruption.

    The investigation relied on lobbyist Tyron Ali, who reportedly agreed to wear a wire after being arrested for fraud. When Kane nixed the investigation, the attorney general’s office secretly dropped charges against Ali. The four politicians reportedly caught taking bribes were state representatives Louise Bishop (District 192), Vanessa Brown (District 190), Michelle Brownlee (District 195), and Ronald Waters (District 191). A now former traffic court judge, Thomasine Tynes, was also accused of accepting a Tiffany’s bracelet and not reporting it. According to The Inquirer, Waters said he may have gotten something for his birthday (the tape reportedly shows him accepting cash from Ali on his birthday), Brown declined to talk about the allegations, Brownlee claimed she couldn’t remember whether she took a bribe or not, while Bishop denied the allegation. The Inquirer has more on what the four said here.

    It’s not just a race card Kane played. She appears to have played the gender card too. A statement from her office claimed reporting on the kyboshed investigation amounted to “nothing more than the Good Ol’ Boys club playing political games to discredit me.” It sounds like Kane’s fitting right into that club. Read The Inquirer’s whole report here.
    http://articles.philly.com/2014-03-1...C6z8jsvZfKR.99

    Sources say that as money changed hands, the conversations were often blunt.

    As Brown accepted the money, they said, she put it in her purse and said: "Yo, good looking and Ooowee. . . . Thank you twice."

    In April 2011, to mark Waters' 61st birthday, Ali gave him $1,000, and the transaction was recorded on tape, according to people who read a transcript of the conversation.

    As Ali handed Waters an envelope, the sources said, Ali told him: "Hey, there's $1,000 in there, bro."

    According to the sources, Waters replied: "My man, happy birthday to Ron Waters."
    [...]
    Just weeks before Kane's January 2013 inauguration, those state prosecutors bundled up the investigation, including copies of all tapes, and shared the material with federal prosecutors. Federal authorities decided not to take the case. They have declined to say why.
    Based on the idea of natural rights, government secures those rights to the individual by strictly negative intervention, making justice costless and easy of access; and beyond that it does not go. The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
    --Albert J. Nock



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  3. #2
    The media is bound not to report these things because it might unfairly tip public opinion away from the Democrats in the upcoming election season.

  4. #3

  5. #4
    Best durn government money can buy.

  6. #5
    It was probably just a republican witch hunt.
    "The Patriarch"

  7. #6
    Don't you love affirmative action?
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    We believe our lying eyes...

  8. #7
    Pennsylvania Attorney General Shifts Blame for Botched Bribery Investigation to Previous Administration, Lawyers Up For Possible Lawsuit Against Newspaper
    http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/21/pe...ral-shifts-bla

    ...A Philly.com op-ed also listed a litany of issues with the attorney general’s defense of her decision to drop the case, including:
    • She says crimes were committed but there's "nothing we can do to salvage this case."
    • She says the No. 1 reason is the "shot" credibility of informant Tyron B. Ali, because the state forgave 2,000-plus charges against him filed in 2009 in connection with a scam to defraud a low-income food program.
    • But Ali audiotaped those taking money or gifts. Why not let a jury hear the tapes, compromised informant/witness or not; or release the tapes to the public?
    • Kane says the tapes can't be released because they're "evidence."
    • But if there's "nothing we can do to salvage" the case, what are they evidence for?
    • She says federal prosecutors wouldn't take the case. But the Inky [the Philadelphia Inquirer] reported yesterday that the FBI in Philly looked at the case and made no judgment on whether it could be prosecuted, and that the U.S. attorney in Philly declined comment on the case.
    • Kane also said she'd "consider and push for" an investigation by the State Ethics Commission, which requires public officials to report gifts. Failure to do so can lead to fines and/or prison terms.
    • But since Kane killed the sting case last year, one wonders why she didn't seek such an investigation then.
    Since then, Kane has hired a lawyer for a possible defamation suit against the Philadelphia Inquirer, which broke the story. In fact, she met with editors and reporters from the Inquirer Thursday flanked by two lawyers, and refused to speak for herself. The lawyers say they will investigate the prosecutors involved in the bribery case, and allege the Inquirer’s sources, which the newspaper has not disclosed, used the paper as a “weapon” to attack Kane.
    Based on the idea of natural rights, government secures those rights to the individual by strictly negative intervention, making justice costless and easy of access; and beyond that it does not go. The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
    --Albert J. Nock



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