PMA Group

One Down: House Ethics Office Closes Murtha-PMA Probe

Justin Elliott | December 18, 2009, 6:17PM

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)

The Office of Congressional Ethics has ended its investigation of Rep. John Murtha's ties to now-defunct lobbying firm PMA Group, recommending against a further inquiry by the House ethics panel, which is also investigating Murtha.

The development was first reported by Roll Call. We laid out the charges in the PMA matter, including allegations that members of Congress exchanged earmarks for PMA's clients for campaign donations, in this post.

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Sharon Browne

Lawyer From Far-Right Group Picked For Key Legal-Aid Post

Zachary Roth | December 18, 2009, 3:11PM

To help run the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the nation's largest provider of civil legal aid for the poor, Senate Republicans have picked an attorney from a far-right legal organization that has a history of ideological opposition to legal-aid work.

The White House announced yesterday that it had nominated Sharon Browne of the Pacific Legal Foundation as one of three Republican board members of the LSC. Minority party nominees for the LSC board are traditionally generated by the Senate leader of the party that doesn't control the White House, and Don Stewart, a spokesman for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, confirmed to TPMmuckraker that McConnell's office had recommended all three GOP nominees.

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Health Care

Did White House Pressure FDA To Help Kill Measure To Make Drugs Cheaper?

Justin Elliott | December 18, 2009, 3:08PM

President Barack Obama and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) (inset)

After the Food and Drug Administration fired off a letter that helped kill a measure fiercely opposed by the drug industry, one Democratic senator is accusing the Obama White House of using the FDA -- which is supposed to offer apolitical opinions -- as a bludgeon.

The drug importation amendment to the health reform bill, which would have saved the government and consumers billions of dollars by allowing prescription purchases from Canada and elsewhere, was killed in the Senate late Tuesday with an assist from the FDA letter. The 51-48 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed.

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Nathan Deal

GOP Rep In Ethics Scrap Over Auto Salvage Business

Justin Elliott | December 18, 2009, 10:24AM

Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA)

A GOP congressman's reported intervention with Georgia officials to preserve a sweetheart business setup for his auto salvage inspection company has drawn the attention of the House ethics committee, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week.

After the newspaper first revealed the actions of Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) in August, an investigator for the ethics panel said in an e-mail that the panel planned to issue a subpoena in the case, indicating the seriousness of the matter, according to documents the Journal-Constitution obtained through an open records request. The ethics panel declined to comment about any investigation.

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Chamber of Commerce

Maddow Picks Up Chamber Story, Defends Hooters' Honor (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | December 18, 2009, 9:20AM

Last night Rachel Maddow picked up TPMmuckraker's reporting on the Chamber of Commerce anti-health reform effort involving what Maddow calls an "American family dining chain that's famous for its wings."

That would be Hooters.

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ACORN

Justice Department Defends ACORN Funding Ban

Zachary Roth | December 17, 2009, 6:46PM

The Justice Department is seeking to reverse a judge's ruling last week that the law to defund ACORN is unconstitutional.

Federal District Judge Nina Gershon last week put a preliminary injunction on the funding ban, which was pushed by Republicans in Congress in the wake of the hidden camera scandal that embarrassed ACORN. Gershon agreed with a claim by ACORN that the bill was unconstitutional because it singled out a specific entity for punishment. Today, the Justice Department filed papers in federal court arguing for a reversal of that decision, according to a press release from Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA) trumpeting the news.

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Randy Pullen

RNC Mum On Treasurer Who Played Down Stalking Allegations

Zachary Roth | December 17, 2009, 5:47PM

Brett Mecum

The Republican National Committee is clamming up about a top official who said it's no big deal that the executive director of the Arizona GOP allegedly used the party's voter registration database to stalk a woman.

An Arizona woman has filed a criminal complaint against Brett Mecum, the executive director of the state Republican party, charging that he stalked her*. Mecum, the woman alleges, used the GOP's Voter Vault system to find her address, then showed up uninvited to a party at her home, in a way that she found threatening.

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Birthers

Orly Taitz Fires Opening Salvo In Appeal Of Never-Ending Birther Case

Justin Elliott | December 17, 2009, 3:40PM

Orly Taitz

In Part CCXXIV of our ongoing series, Orly Taitz's epic Birther lawsuit has now shifted to an appeal of a federal judge's decision to fine Taitz $20,000 for frivolous filings.

In a surprise move, it appears that Taitz has allowed another, considerably more cool-headed attorney -- Jonathan Levy of South Carolina -- to draft the opening brief filed this week in the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Levy's name appears on the brief alongside Taitz's and he sent the brief to the court.

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Surveillance

Colbert On GPS Story: Sprint Can't Replace Patriot Act On Its Own (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | December 17, 2009, 1:21PM

Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert tackled the cellphone surveillance story we've been telling you about last night, riffing on corporate America's growing role in police surveillance.

"There's a good chance Congress wont reauthorize the Patriot Act," says Colbert. "Luckily, someone out there is willing to step in: America's corporations."

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Securities and Exchange Commission

SEC, Battered By Madoff, Yet To Implement Many Recommendations For Improvement

Zachary Roth | December 17, 2009, 12:53PM

A good government group is slamming the Securities and Exchange Commission for ignoring or delaying on hundreds of recommendations made by the agency's internal watchdog. Many of these recommendations were made in the wake of the SEC's failure to detect Bernie Madoff's massive Ponzi scheme, a misstep for which the agency was widely derided earlier this year.

Two documents obtained through a FOIA by the Project on Government Oversight show that hundreds of recommendations made since December 2007 by the SEC's Office of the Inspector General have gone unimplemented.

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Simple Assault

Dem Staffer Convicted After Bathroom Line Punchout At Night Club

Justin Elliott | December 17, 2009, 12:13PM

A Democratic staffer has been convicted of assault after decking a man who confronted the staffer for cutting a long bathroom line at a Washington sports bar.

Marc Goldberg, communications director for Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-FL), was found guilty of simple assault in D.C. Superior Court in October for the August incident at Public Bar.

The altercation came to light this week after Roll Call reported that the matter was reviewed by the House ethics panel, which, under a new rule, is supposed to look at any incident in which a member of staffer is charged with a crime.

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War In Afghanistan

Dem Rep Launches Probe Of Alleged Contractor Payments To Taliban

Justin Elliott | December 17, 2009, 9:04AM

A convoy of trucks leave Kandahar Air Field.

Private security contractors in Afghanistan are being accused of paying protection money to warlords and the Taliban along convoy routes, prompting an investigation by a House oversight committee.

Walter Pincus at the Washington Post has the story this morning. The staff of Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) has begun an investigation of eight trucking companies that hold a combined $2.2 billion in DOD contracts in Afghanistan.

Tierney, chairman of the House oversight subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs, said in a statement:

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Astroturf

We Were Framed: Business Lobby Groups Claim Ignorance On Ads Offering Rewards For Political Action

Zachary Roth | December 17, 2009, 8:36AM

Forget those forged letters, and fake rallies. This week, we've been digging into it what may be the latest tool in the astroturf toolbox: incentivized online advertising.

That's when internet users are induced to take political action, on behalf of a lobbying group, through websites or online ads that offer rewards -- airline miles, free trips, even a gift card to Hooters. The problem with the tactic is clear: when members of Congress get an email from a voter on an issue of public concern, they assume it's an expression of authentic grassroots passion. If the sender was in fact incentivized by the chance to win a free plasma TV, that assumption doesn't bear out.

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Military Contractors

McCaskill On Afghan War Contractors: 'We're Competing Against Ourselves'

Justin Elliott | December 16, 2009, 5:40PM

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said today that the military may be paying Afghan contractors so much that they are dissuaded from joining the country's army or police force, dealing a blow to the American strategy of building up local forces.

We reported earlier this week that as many as 56,000 new contractors will be hired as Obama escalates the war. Most of the 104,100 DOD contractors currently working in Afghanistan are local nationals providing logistical, transportation, security, and other support.

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Brett Mecum

RNC-er On Ally Who Allegedly Used Voter List To Stalk Woman: 'We Can Do What We Want With The List'

Zachary Roth | December 16, 2009, 3:36PM

Brett Mecum

Something that jumped out at us in that story about Brett Mecum, the Arizona GOP executive director charged with using the party's voter registration database to stalk a woman: the bizarre response from Mecum's boss.

Here's what party chair Randy Pullen, who is also the treasurer of the Republican National Committee, told an Arizona political site about the claim that Mecum had used Voter Vault to find the woman's address:

The Republican National Committee owns Voter Vault ... It's a private list. We own the list. We can do what we want with the list, quite frankly.

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Bailout Bailed Out

Obama Admin Grants Mega Tax Break To Citi In Bailout Deal

Justin Elliott | December 16, 2009, 2:35PM

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and Barack Obama

Did the Obama Administration just deliver a $38 billion stealth bailout to Citigroup?

According to several outside experts the answer is yes, but the Treasury is maintaining an IRS ruling that granted Citi a $38 billion tax break was routine and proper. The Washington Post first reported the news of the IRS ruling in a front-page story today.

The IRS decision came as part of a deal for Citi to pay back $20 billion, which was announced earlier this week amid mutual back-patting. One benefit for Citi is being freed from salary restrictions.

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Joe Arpaio

'Pure Intimidation': Arpaio Deputies Question Judges' Assistants In Their Homes

Zachary Roth | December 16, 2009, 1:45PM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has stepped up his brazen campaign to target the local judiciary.

Deputies of the Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff went to the homes of assistants to several Superior Court judges, to try to interview them about what Sheriff Joe has asserted -- with little evidence -- is corruption on the part of their bosses, reports the Phoenix New Times.

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Brett Mecum

'Creepy' AZ GOP Chief Stalked Woman, Complaint Alleges

Zachary Roth | December 16, 2009, 11:35AM

Brett Mecum

The executive director of the Arizona GOP used a Republican voter database to stalk a female grad student, the woman has alleged in a criminal complaint.

The complaint, filed last month with the local sheriff's office and reported by the Huffington Post, alleges that Brett Mecum "is using Voter Vault to stalk." That's the sophisticated voter-targeting program that the GOP uses to turn its supporters out to the polls.

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Astroturf

Fight Health Reform -- And Win A Plasma TV: Health Insurer Says Ads Are Fake

Zachary Roth | December 16, 2009, 10:58AM

Last week, we learned that Facebook users could win virtual currency for use in online games by sending an email to Congress opposing health-care reform.

In response, both the health insurers coalition thought to be behind the ads, and the P.R. firm hired by the coalition, claimed ignorance. A spokesman for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), which runs the coalition, Get Health Reform Right, told us yesterday that the coalition's contract explicitly forbids the use of such "incentivized ads," and said the ads that showed up on Facebook must be fakes. Pam Fielding, the president of 720 Strategies, which handled the campaign, said the same thing.

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Ted Alvin Klaudt

Jailed Ex-State Rep Tries To Copyright Own Name, Wants $500K Per Use

Justin Elliott | December 16, 2009, 9:39AM

Copyright symbol with Ted Klaudt (inset)

If Ted Alvin Klaudt had his way, we'd owe him $500,000 for the first clause of this sentence. The former South Dakota state representative has sent a notarized letter from prison -- where he is serving time for the rape of two of his foster daughters -- notifying several news organizations of a "Common Law Copyright" on the use of his name.

The AP is among the organizations that got the letter from the state prison in Springfield, South Dakota. Klaudt's copyright notice, which demands $500,000 per unauthorized use of his name, was notarized and includes a seal indicating it was filed with the register of deeds near Klaudt's family ranch, the AP reports.

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Astroturf

Chamber of Commerce Campaign: Fight Health-Care Reform -- And Win A Trip To Hooters!

Zachary Roth | December 16, 2009, 8:52AM

How'd you like to fight government-run health-care -- and get a free gift card to Hooters out of it?

Well, now you can! And it's all thanks to the Chamber of Commerce.

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Ngozi Pole

Ex-Staffer For Kennedy Charged With Stealing $75,000 From Senate

Justin Elliott | December 15, 2009, 5:59PM

Outside the former office of Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Former Ted Kennedy office manager Ngozi Pole has been charged with stealing $75,000 by submitting false salary paperwork to the Senate Disbursing Office, the Justice Department announced this afternoon.

Between 2003 and 2007, Pole, who is being charged with theft of government property and five wire fraud counts, allegedly received bonus and salary payments that had not been authorized by Kennedy or his chief of staff.

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FBI

The John Hope Franklin File: FBI Looked At Esteemed Historian For Communist Ties

Justin Elliott | December 15, 2009, 3:33PM

Historian John Hope Franklin

The celebrated historian John Hope Franklin was scrutinized by the FBI in the 1960s for supposed links to communists, particularly his opposition to the House Committee on Un-American Activities and his vocal support for W.E.B. Du Bois.

"Dr. Franklin is an apologist for the late Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent crusader for civil rights and a sponsor of communist fronts who joined the Communist Party at the age of 93," wrote an unidentified FBI official in a letter to the White House in July 1965.

Franklin's file, obtained by TPMmuckraker through the Freedom of Information Act, is mainly a collection of background checks conducted when he was up for presidential appointments (though the FBI withheld 18 pages of the 515-page file). The author of the classic From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans, Franklin died in May at 94.

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Astroturf

Inside The Hot New Astroturf Trend: Emails To Congress Aren't What They Seem

Zachary Roth | December 15, 2009, 1:08PM

In the world of astroturf lobbying, forged letters and fake rallies are getting kind of passé. Here's what the real experts are doing...

Last week, we learned that online gamers can earn virtual currency by sending emails to Congress opposing health-care reform, stemming from a campaign by a health-insurance lobby group. The news of the scheme, reported by Gawker and the AP, suggests that at least some of the anti-reform emails lawmakers have received are something less than authentic expressions of grassroots passion, since they're being sent by people who have been incentivized to get involved through the offer of rewards.

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Amir Hossein Ardebili

U.S. Imprisoned Iranian Engineer Secretly For Two Years Before Sentencing

Justin Elliott | December 15, 2009, 12:14PM

Meeting with undercover American agents and Amir Hossein Ardebili

In a case drawing criticism from outside lawyers, an Iranian engineer sentenced to prison Monday for violating arms control laws was lured to the nation of Georgia by American authorities for a fake arms deal, arrested, extradited to the U.S., and held in prison for two years -- including months in solitary confinement before his guilty plea last year -- all totally in secret, according to the Justice Department and media reports.

Export control lawyers told Politico's Laura Rozen the politically-charged case of Amir Hossein Ardebili -- which was under seal until this month -- is troubling for two reasons: first, he was an Iranian who never left Iran, nonetheless lured out of the country and targeted by U.S. law enforcement; and, second, that he was sentenced after two years of secret imprisonment.

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War In Afghanistan

DOD: Obama's Afghan Surge Will Rely Heavily On Private Contractors

Justin Elliott | December 15, 2009, 9:29AM

DynCorp instructor with police recruits in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, June 2008.

Private contractors will make up at least half of the total military workforce in Afghanistan going forward, according to Defense Department officials cited in a new congressional study.

As President Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan unfolds, the number of contractors will likely jump by between 16,000 and 56,000, adding up to a total of 120,000-160,000, according to an updated study from the Congressional Research Service.

DOD officials who spoke with the study's author said contractors would make up 50-55 percent of the total workforce -- troops plus contractors -- in the future. This would actually be a significant reduction from the last two years, when contractors have averaged 62 percent of the total.

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George Bush

Bush White House Emails Won't Be Public For Years

Zachary Roth | December 15, 2009, 8:30AM

President Barack Obama

The Obama administration and two good government groups yesterday announced, with some fanfare, that they'd come to an agreement on those missing emails from the Bush White House.

But if you think the news means we're finally about to get the full story on the Valerie Plame leak, or the deliberations that took us to war in Iraq, think again. Many of the roughly 22 million emails secured through the deal likely won't be made public until 2022. And even the ones that can be released sooner won't see the light of day for around three years.

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George Bush

Obama Administration Will Restore Missing Bush White House Emails

Zachary Roth | December 14, 2009, 3:59PM

George W. Bush

The White House has announced a settlement in a lawsuit filed by two good-government groups concerning emails that went missing over a two-and-a-half year period during the Bush administration.

Under the terms of the deal, 94 days of emails -- which could shed light on controversial topics that the Bush administration sought to obscure from public view, such as the Valerie Plame scandal and the run-up to the war in Iraq -- will be transferred to the National Archives, and eventually made public.

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J. Christian Adams

Bush-Era DOJ-er Stoking New Black Panther Case

Zachary Roth | December 14, 2009, 3:18PM

J. Christian Adams

It was always going to take more than a few speeches by Eric Holder to clear out the rot of the Bush-Gonzales years at the Department of Justice. And sure enough, it looks like DOJ lawyers hired during the last administration are still making mischief for the current one.

Meet J. Christian Adams. He's the Civil Rights Division attorney who, according to Main Justice, helped bring that voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther party, stemming from an Election Day incident.

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Joe Arpaio

Arpaio Turns to Former Bush DOJ Official To Stymie Federal Probe

Zachary Roth | December 14, 2009, 11:12AM

Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Robert Driscoll

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has turned to a heavy-hitting former Bush Justice Department official and veteran Washington lawyer to help thwart a federal civil-rights probe of his controversial law-enforcement tactics.

Since March, investigators with DOJ's Civil Rights Division have been looking into allegations of racial profiling and related issues in connection with Arpaio's enforcement of immigration laws. Between 2004 and 2007, Arpaio reportedly had 2,700 law suits filed against his office -- 50 times the number of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston combined.

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ACORN

GOP Lawyers Slam Ruling On ACORN Funding

Zachary Roth | December 14, 2009, 9:30AM

Surprising no one, a Republican lawyer's group is slamming a court's decision Friday that ACORN can continue to receive federal funds for now.

In a statement, the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) also criticized the Justice Department on the issue, comparing its stance to its decision not to prosecute members of the New Black Panthers party for voter intimidation. Both positions, said the RNLA, show that "politics can thwart the rule of law."

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