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McCain Staffers Questioned in Corruption Probe
Federal prosecutors questioned staffers of Sen. John McCain as part of their corruption investigation of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ).
U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Diane J. Humetewa and fellow prosecutors disclosed the interviews with aides for McCain and fellow Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl in a written response to Renzi's attorneys, who asked for the contents of the interview to help prepare for Renzi's upcoming trial, which is scheduled for October.The aides were interviewed about land exchanges, according to an April letter from Humetewa filed with the U.S. District Court of Arizona late last week. The letter did not indicate when the interviews occurred.
A federal land swap critical to developing a $3 billion copper mine southeast of Phoenix is at the heart of the case against Renzi, who is facing 35 public corruption charges, including conspiracy, money-laundering, extortion and insurance fraud. Renzi is retiring at the end of this session.
The feds have also requested some documents from McCain, which as of April 14 they had not received.
Josh
Zachary
So what is it in the American culture that makes people so greedy? "Socialist" societies, such as Finland, Sweden, and others, don't have the huge disparities in income we have and don't seem to have the same aspirations to excessive wealth we have.
Is it really so bad to long for a society that values people and quality of life over money?
May 28, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
“If there were any concerns about the behavior of McCain or Kyl, it would have been raised by the Department of Justice and the Department has not made any suggestions that anybody but Mr. Renzi was behaving improperly,” said Jan Baran, a GOP ethics attorney.
The GOP has an ETHICS Attorney????
May 28, 2008 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
The GOP has an ETHICS Attorney????
Yes and apparently, he or she sucks big time at their job.
May 28, 2008 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
'Trix,
I think Lord Acton said it best, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Renzi's power, while not absolute, still offered a temptation he couldn't resist. I don't think Acton could have anticipated the extent of the power wielded by our lesser modern politicians.
What surprises is that none of our recent Presidents have yet been implicated in the type of corruption repeatedly found at the highest levels of some foreign governments i.e. Italy, Israel. Then again, I'm sure we'll be finding out some very interesting things about GWB next year. He and his can't bury everything.
As for getting records from McCain, don't hold your breath. He'll be taking his own sweet time on that like he does with any sort of required public disclosure.
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
May 28, 2008 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just posted here about Wes Gullett, one of McCain's very close friends and a lobbyist.
In 2005, Gullett lobbied for a questionable land swap on behalf of the "Industrial Development authority of the Town of Florence" which looks like it was set up to sell a single piece of property.
I wonder if Gullett's land swap client is related to the Renzi investigaton.
May 28, 2008 7:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs P,
I just read your other post. Great information.
What I find interesting is that in the original The Hill article there is only vague references to "staffers" or "aides". Seems like the cursory reporting is just enough to make an inference as opposed to the details you ran down.
It is your kind of blogging that keeps TMP relevant AND the Republicans watching their backs.
Nicely done.
May 28, 2008 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh... in case you missed it, TPM Is Hiring.
May 28, 2008 9:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, Dave.
I've been putting together info about Wes Gullett for a couple of weeks and when I read about McCain and Renzi, I rushed to post it, albeit with a few typos. I'm pretty sure I have the facts right.
What initally struck me is how few state and federal clients Wes Gullett registered, given that Gullett and McCain are so close.
I should have credited SourceWatch in my post for pointing me to the fact that Renzi's land swap has to do with Florence. (How I miss the "edit" function!)
Even if Gullett's client, the Industrial Development Authority of the Town of Florence, isn't involved in the Renzi investigation, I hope someone with more resources than me tracks down info about the land swap. The Florence IDA sure looks shady on paper.
(I'm very happy to be posting in the TPM Cafe and we'll leave my relationship with Josh Marshall at that.)
May 28, 2008 10:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
This goes back to the US Attorney Firing Scandal.
In order to steal land or valuables from the Native Americans one needs some serious manpower to look the other way or to assist in said misappropriation. Consider the Abramoff/Reed lobbying scam of the Indians looking to operate casinos.
This site puts an asterix next to the names of those USDAs who Bush personally appointed to their post. Just see how darned many of them have been inflicted upon in that manner.
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/offices/personnel/usattorneys.html
McCain, the darling of K Street lobbyists, is a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,and was its Chair in 1995-1997 and again in 2005-2007. Dorgan is now said to be the Chair with the scandalicious Alaskan Lisa Murowski as Vice.
http://www.senate.gov/~scia/members.htm
From wiki:
on December 14, 2005, the Washington Post reported that Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND), the vice-chairman for the US Senate Indian Affairs Committee, had announced he would return $67,000 in contributions from Indian tribes represented by Abramoff. Others, such as Representative John Doolittle (R-CA), have refused. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), the largest single recipient of Abramoff related money and co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus, received more than $150,000 from Indian tribes once represented by Abramoff.
Renzi and Vitter and other Republicans have taken deep interest in Indian Affairs.
Further reading:
http://www.senate.gov/~scia/109_leg.htm
http://www.senate.gov/~scia/jurisdiction.htm
http://www.senate.gov/~scia/links.htm
May 28, 2008 9:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, DulceD. In my post about Wes Gullett, I described how Gullett was probably lobbying McCain on Indian gaming while McCain was investigating Abramoff and Indian gaming.
Among other things, I'm curious how the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians knew to hire Gullett to lobby on their behalf. Abramoff wasn't available, so they hired Gullett?
I didn't mention it in my post but it appears that after testifying before McCain's committee, the Pomo Indians overcame any federal objections to them opening a casino.
I've long thought that McCain's famous Indian Affairs Committee hearings had more to do with covering up the real extent of Abramoff's wrongdoings than anything else. If anyone knows the real story, it is Senator Dorgan.
In addition to covering up Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton's ties to Abramoff, McCain kept prominent Republican fundraiser, Julie
Finley's name out of the papers.
An obvious indication that the hearings were fixed is that McCain and everyone else on the committee knew that Italia Federici and Steve Griles had had a long term romance but McCain pretended he didn't know about it.
I think McCain is vulnerable on the Abramoff issue but only if Dorgan cooperates.
May 28, 2008 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wouldn't that be sweet.
McCain sat on some mountain of documents (credit to dengre at Daily Kos):
May 29, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
So it turns out that GOP ETHICS ATTORNEY(!!) is the chair of Wiley Rein & Fielding’s Election Law & Government Ethics Practice.
Fred Fielding skipped out of the firm to take over from Harriet Meirs as White House Counsel. That already tells us something about their "ethics."
Well, it turns out that Wiley Rein and Feilding had a partner by the name of Thomas B. Griffith who "left the firm in the mid 1990’s to serve as the Senate’s legal counsel, where he played an active role in a wide array of Senate investigations as well as the impeachment trial of President Clinton. Griffith briefly resumed his private practice at WRF for a time before assuming his most recent post as general counsel at his alma mater, Brigham Young University, in 2000."
Bush made him a judge in 2005.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/judicialnominees/griffith.html
It just so happens that, like many and several of his fellow Bush appointees, Griffith has practiced law without a license for a considerable period of time.
When asked about it, senior partner, Fred Fielding basically said, "oops."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A56413-2004Jun20?language=printer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13945-2004Jun3.html
Now THAT,(IOKIYAR) is an prime example of Republican "ethics."
May 28, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain refused to turn over documents. Apparently, he is already practicing the Executive Privilege claims of the current occupant of the WH. WTG, Mr. Straight Talker. Talk about Bush's third term. Already off to a great start.
Oh, and Republicans have no ethics.
Live Frankly
May 28, 2008 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, a little off topic. Read the following:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/38820.html
wonder if there is any way to find out who is minting these coins?
May 29, 2008 3:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can't tell you exactly about the coin in the story, but it appears they are fairly widespread, at least according to this source.
May 29, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink