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Breaking: GOP Rep Renzi Indicted
Republican Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to a land deal in Arizona.A 26-page federal indictment unsealed in Arizona accuses Renzi and two former business partners of conspiring to promote the sale of land that buyers could swap for property owned by the federal government. The sale netted one of Renzi's former partners $4.5 million.
Update: The charges boil down to this, basically. Renzi (who's already said he won't seek re-election) is charged with doing everything he can as a congressman to strong-arm others into buying land from his buddy James Sandlin -- Sandlin then allegedly kicked back sizable chunks of cash back to Renzi in a series of complicated financial transactions (thus the money laundering charge). The main details of these charges were reported by the Arizona papers and The Wall Street Journal last year.
Update: Yikes. In a completely separate matter, the indictment charges Renzi with a conspiracy to "embezzle and misappropriate client premiums [from his insurance company] to fund his congressional campaign."
Update: It's worth recalling that the Renzi case played a small role in the U.S. attorneys' firings scandal. One of the fired U.S. attorneys was Arizona's Paul Charlton. The investigation dates way back to June of 2005, but it did not surface publicly under shortly before the 2006 midterm elections. Renzi's people, obviously, weren't happy, and an aide to Renzi put in a call to Charlton (who in turn reported the contact to the Justice Department leadership).
And the Wall Street Journal later reported that investigators and prosecutors in Arizona had been frustrated with senior Justice Department officials' general reluctance to pursue the investigation. The thrust of the piece was that the investigation had been slow-rolled in the run-up to the election.
Update: Renzi is, at least for the time being, a co-chair of John McCain's Arizona Leadership Team (he's one of 24 co-chairs). One imagines he won't be such a public advocate for McCain this election.
Comments (30)
Were there any pretty lobbyist women and possible romantic liaisons involved?
If so, then the darn liberal media is to blame and this proud Arizona Republican is innocent I tell you!
February 22, 2008 10:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually the only thing that matter here is, did the NY Times break the story?
February 22, 2008 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Gee, what with all the indictments and retirements in the Repug party, the Dems might control next year's House by 400 to 35.
February 22, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yippee!!! Nothing like an indicted sitting GOP congressman to put a smile on my face.
Added bonus: He's from Arizona.
February 22, 2008 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Regarding Arizona Congressmen, I almost had an orgasm when J D Hayworth lost his seat. :-)
February 22, 2008 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with this. Sometimes I forget how sexually fulfilled I was by the loss of J.D. Hayworth. This needs to be celebrated more! His birthday is July 12th-- can I suggest we send him a special present on that special day? KFYI 550 AM might enjoy a box of "Global War On Terror/Islamofascist" orgasmic vegan cupcakes? I'm open to suggestions here.
February 22, 2008 11:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is soooo 2006... a year that keeps on giving.
February 22, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nice. One question though: where are the (blonde) babes in this story?
February 22, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Observers in AZ knew this was coming - he already was planning to not run for re-election because of the rumors, but the scope of the indictment is much more than I expected. This is a very winable district for a Dem in 08 (includes Casa Grande, Flagstaff and most of the Navajo and Hopi reservation in the state) - probably more so than Shaddeg's soon to be vacated seat in AZ-3 (the wealthiest part of Phoenix).
On a related note, McCain did some fundraising for Renzi in 2006. It would be nice to hang the Renzi albatross around his neck along with other current scandals. Come on TPM - dig that muck!
February 22, 2008 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yikes indeed.
This adds a bit of tar to the brush the electorate will perceive in the general election: Arizona=McCain. Just a little, admittedly - although it will be enhanced by recent revelations about McCain's lobbyist contacts.
Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if the Republican convention might not wind up brokered after all - with a major surprise.
The odds may not be particularly high for someone like Newt or Jeb to get the nod from the back-room boys.
But what were the odds on Obama?
February 22, 2008 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
This guy used to live in my neighborhood in Burke, VA. I went to (public) school with his kids (he has like twelve, all with the initials RRR...) and he even coached my little league team when I was seven years old (I'm 24 now). This is too funny. Reminds me of the song "oh these are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood..."
February 22, 2008 11:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm, I wonder if the Republican Party has entered into a licensing agreement with D. Nix in order to use his song 'Going Down' as their new theme?
I'm goin' down, I'm goin' down, down, down, down.
I'm goin' down, I'm goin' down, down, down, down.
my baby left for St. Paul (Edit), I'm going down, down, down, down.
I'm goin' down, I'm goin' down, down, down, down.
I'm goin' down, I'm goin' down, down, down, down.
now I feel so sad and lonely, my head is lying on the ground.
I'm feeling low, I gotta go..
February 22, 2008 11:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Photo of McCain and Renzi here.
February 22, 2008 12:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I met this guy at the Mall yesterday, a stranger, I asked him what he did for a living, he said; "Corrupt stuff." I replied: "You should run for Political office in the Repug Primary, you're a shoo-in."
February 22, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I met this guy at the Mall yesterday, a stranger, I asked him what he did for a living, he said; "Corrupt stuff." I replied: "You should run for Political office in the Repug Primary, you're a shoo-in."
February 22, 2008 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going to pick nits, because I'm sure they will bring it up. How is this different from Harry Reid?
February 22, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have on a good source that Renzi's insurance clients are almost exckusively pro-life "crisis pregnancy" resource centers acrosss the country, which at the very least is a pretty huge conflict of interest if he's doing any self-funding from his insurance income.
February 22, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Via Laura Rozen, no one anywhere knows what Renzi did for twenty years.
February 22, 2008 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a resident of Renzi's district, I recall (either from campaign lit. or a candidate debate - I think the latter) that Renzi claimed to have been a lawyer for the CIA. I have been unable to corroborate this, which is to be expected if it is true.
February 22, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is he going to try an invoke the "speech and debate clause" b/s for immunity? Or are there charges that predate his time as a Congressman?
February 22, 2008 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Denny Hastert next?
February 22, 2008 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good question. When I heard it was a real estate deal that did Enzi in I immediately thought of Hastert and his little real estate scam.
February 22, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Resolution Copper
February 22, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
For those wondering where the girl in this is, see the latest post about McCain's reaction. He says Renzi has ... 12 KIDS!
February 22, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm thrilled!!! Finally! Rick Renzi is a slime dog and my "rep" in congress. People wonder why I'm so freakin' pissed off...... renzi, mccain, kyl. 'nuff said.
Rick Renzi was one of those interviewed in the teevee news as a witness to the Pentegon crash on 9/11. His daddy is a big defense contractor and suddenly we had a new AZ1 district with him in an unbelievable swarm campagin that was incredibly hostile. Scads of money, non stop ads, robo calls and I just now am thinking alot of it was from the US Chamber of Commerce given every single business in this town had renzi signs. It was just such a firestorm that first campaign. Now arizona faces a suddenly appearing, in the last 6 or so months, $1B deficit.... and growing that must be resolved by July 1.
Wooo Hooo!!! I'm just thrilled. :D Finally!!!!!
February 22, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I noticed, in looking up where within AZ his district is, that it happens to include the Show Low area. And that rang a bell, because, in that ridiculous article about the so-called RAMs (Raging Angry Moderates, I think?) that ran recently, one of (if not the only) the author's folksy folks he quoted was from Show Low. Not that I think there's any significance to this, but it's an amusing coincidence.
February 22, 2008 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just thought this was a good time to rehash the Rick Renzi/Katherine Harris kanoodle video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MTAzrEbXZPA
February 23, 2008 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am pretty sure I went to Poe Middle School with Rick Renzi in Annandale VA back in the early seventies.
He was partial to wearing pointy toed cowboy boots and other pointy toed shoes. He was also known as a bully. He'd pick a fight with another kid, and would always start out by kicking the shit out of the other kid's shins with these pointy toed boots. Then the kid would usually fall to ground in pain, and he'd continue to kick the shit out of the kid while he was on the ground.
I detested this scum bag then and still harbor those feelings.
I hope this asshole goes to jail, and some much bigger guys decide to use him as their punching bag.
guldam
February 24, 2008 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here we go again, the liberal, drive-by media planting evidence to take down another Great American. Hannity and Limbaugh must be outraged.
Most of Renzi's campaign contributions came from ManTech, the defense contractor that employed his father.
Renzi's recently deceased father was a powerful defense contractor and friend of Brent Wilkes, the Bush Pioneer and defense contractor (translation: war profiteer) who was sentenced to 12 years in prison this week: He is the mastermind behind the largest Congressional bribery scandal in history - the Duke Cunningham case. Wilkes showered Cunningham with fancy travel, expensive meals, cash bribes and prostitutes.
Each Bush Pioneer was "asked" to "donate" a minimum of $100,000 to the Bush '04 campaign.
Rick Renzi and Brent Wilkes are both friends of Mercer Reynolds, III, the top money wrangler for Bush '04 who was appointed last week as the top money wrangler for McCain '08.
Washington is where the corrupting power of money reigns supreme.
(And check out the terrific piece in the new "Harper's" by Ken Silverstein, "Beltway Bacchanal" on lobbying corruption.)
Time for a Change...and Dobson was right about McCain.
February 24, 2008 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why don't they try investigating Harry Reed (dem)and his 3 lobbyist sons.
February 25, 2008 7:14 AM | Reply | Permalink