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Burns Legal Fees Near $300,000
Since we're on the subject of the Jack Abramoff investigation...
Conrad Burns, the senator from Montana who narrowly lost re-election last November due in large part to his association with Abramoff, continues to spend big money on his lawyer.
According to his recently filed campaign disclosure report, Burns paid more than $160,000 in legal fees to the law firm Powell Goldstein between January and March of this year. That means Burns' campaign has doled out more than $264,000 since he hired Ralph Caccia of that firm last April.
Burns is one of four lawmakers consistently reported to be in the sights of investigators. The other three are: ex-Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), who's in jail; Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), whose home was searched by the FBI last week, and ex-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).
Burns went to work as a lobbyist earlier this year.
Comments (39)
uncle vester wrote on April 18, 2007 5:19 PM:one down, three (two and half?) to go.
ignoreland wrote on April 18, 2007 5:31 PM:How much longer can he use campaign funds for his personal defense? Can donors cry foul and call him to account?
Redshift wrote on April 18, 2007 5:36 PM:He can use campaign funds until they're all gone -- legal fees are one of the allowed uses. Nothing donors can do about it, not even the ones who donated to DeLay, who clearly kept fundraising after he'd decided he was going to drop out of the race, just to have more money for his legal bills.
obsessed wrote on April 18, 2007 5:37 PM:Damn - should've fired that skanky Montana US Attorney for failing to prosecute fraudulently registered democratic livestock.
Michael Jones wrote on April 18, 2007 5:38 PM:I wonder what role the United States Attorney for Montana has had in the pace of this investigation? Evidently, his pace has met with the approval of the Bush administration.
TheOtherWA wrote on April 18, 2007 5:45 PM:What's Rep. Jerry Lewis' legal bills up to? Last I read (probably here) it was over $900k. As long as your listing them, let's keep track of all the crooks. Thanks!
obsessed wrote on April 18, 2007 5:45 PM:Hey, when does Tom Delay's trial in Texas begin??
Mrs Panstreppon wrote on April 18, 2007 5:59 PM:I'd really, really like to know what Conrad Burns and Curt Weldon were up to in December 2002 when they met with the very corrupt president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko twice in one day.
Dick (no, not that one) wrote on April 18, 2007 6:10 PM:The US Attorney in Montana is Bill Mercer who not only has kept his job, but is now the number 3 man at DOJ.(he now holds both jobs) Does that answer any question about why conrad still hasn't been indicted?
nofltwlt wrote on April 18, 2007 6:15 PM:Good for him. Conrad was probably expecting to keep all the Abrahmoff money - but everyone knows how lawyers are.
Hopefully he will soon be financially ruined and we can say to our children as we teach them values, you don't want to be like Conrad Burns do you?
Sally wrote on April 18, 2007 6:56 PM:I so want to read this as a real headline:
FBI Raids Home of Tom Delay.
Meanwhile this from The Austin American-Statesman online regarding Delay's Texas indictment:
"The criminal cases against DeLay, his closest associates and the business association grind on in pretrial maneuvering."
Slower than Christmas. But at least it is probably costing Delay a mint in legal fees.
Mrs L wrote on April 18, 2007 7:35 PM:Like cynicism, one just can’t enough schadenfreude these days.
Maybe I'll take up knitting for something to occupy my hands while I sit front row at the guillotine.
nellieh wrote on April 18, 2007 7:53 PM:If they weren't guilty, Doolittle, DeLay, Burns and lewis, Why are they paying attorneys, They started paying when there were only rumors of indictments. Lewis still doesn't seem close but he is paying. Is this to control their being investigated? Code word: flag. Throw Ney and Cunningham with that group and who has desicrated the flag more than this ethically challenged group of cretins.
Anonymous wrote on April 18, 2007 8:08 PM:Hopefully for us, Burns hired a lawyer from Regent U.
DaShamu wrote on April 18, 2007 8:30 PM:Talking about the amount and how they used the campaign funds, it makes me wonder if our political leaders are spending the money on the right things.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on April 18, 2007 9:54 PM:It only cost $19 billion to save people from global poverty, according to The Borgen Project, and it cost $340 billion for Iraq War thus far. $12 billion can provide education for every kid on earth; $15 billion can provide access to water and sanitation. Comparing to the $522 billion U.S. military budget, these annual costs of improving the world is very little.
I hope our next political leader will make a commitment to the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals and end the global poverty. It is really not so hard if we are truly willing to make a change and bring peace to the world not by military solution but by humanitarian aid.
Jack and the clap . . . Two gifts that just keep on giviing. Both are penicillin resistant.
Orwell's Intuition wrote on April 18, 2007 10:02 PM:Interesting about Mercer being the U.S. Attorney, eh?
"Hopefully for us, Burns hired a lawyer from Regent U."
LOL! Whoever said that, it's positively genius.
Code word, "shoe." If the crooked shoe fits, I bet Burns is wearing it.
seedyrum wrote on April 18, 2007 11:38 PM:I wonder why Bush and Rove wanted the "neophytes from a 4 rated school? in the DOJ? Ok they were in the Federalist Society and believed as they did. However, these folks wernt tried anmd true lawyers. Trie they had the license but.....Not sound experience and not worthwhile practicing. They get a position over veterrans and then move the veterans out. This is one thing that Gonzo will have a hard time answering...How can a 2 bit lawyer with no practicing experience move out a veteran of several years as well as first rate law education? if a Republican ever in control of Congress or President after these Flakes leave, it will be too soon.On another note the DOJ, would you trust that department to do the right thing? Do they know what is right? Those attorneys who are left are they ethical, honest, and law abiding? I think not as some of them knew or know what is going on and choosing to remain silent. Isnt that complicity to the fact and after the fact?
Those attorneys, when they leave the public sector and go into private practice, are they trust worthy? What you want them as your attorney? What about the firm that hires them? The firm knows the attorney history or should know the history before hiring, would you trust the judgement of the firm??
Bush and his administration needs to be IMPEACHED NOW RATHER THAN LATER.
Tik-Tok wrote on April 19, 2007 1:04 AM:I think the previous poster (nothing personal, seedyrum) points out one more of the tragic consequences of the Bushies' reign of terror at DOJ: undoubtedly, there remain a great many career prosecutors of unimpeachable integrity who have gritted their teeth and held on through the last six years in the hope that their public service would be allowed to continue. Yet, because of the dishonor of Bush, Cheney and Gonzales and their cronies, these honest people are tainted by the useless thugs planted among them. As one who worked a similar job at a state attorney general's office who never had the misfortune to suffer as bad a boss as those folks have, they have my sympathy and support, for they get little else for enduring low pay and the ignominy of associating with the Ashcrofts and Gonzales of the right as their "leaders". No decent people deserve such a fate. And we should be careful to root out the bad apples, but to remember that the few should not be allowed to taint the many good people at USDOJ. (code is "soap", as in wash out the lying mouths of the Bush administration.)
Alana wrote on April 19, 2007 3:59 AM:The whole shady business uncovered in the first months of the new congress says that the job ahead for the Judiciary Committe is huge.
What I'm thinking is that while those attys who survived the purge, there are still some that are not toeing the loyal bushie line (Doolittle investigation). Look at the Jefferson investigation,Jefferson was re-elected despite the scandals created at election time.
I'm thinking Rove's strategy to bring scandal around election time proved to be a feeble one. Jefferson's re-election proved that.
And what about the scandal at the gubernatorial election in Wisconsin. There you had an innocent woman convicted on thin evidence by the AG such that the 3 judge panel released her immediately.Busecik(sp?)was the prosecuting atty. That was a total fiasco, the poor woman lost her house to pay for her legal bill. I hope they reimburse her.
It should be good tomorrow, with A-GAG in the hot seat.
buck turgidson wrote on April 19, 2007 6:21 AM:There is a little detail that Paul forgot to mention. Incredibly, the AP story on the subject does (from the Great Falls Tribune):
"That lobbyist, Kevin Ring, has connections to Montana through his work as a lobbyist hired by Carter County to help the county get federal money. Ring also donated to Burns’ campaign, a donation that was part of the $150,000 in Abramoff-related gifts that Burns later returned."
Uh-oh! Is there another raid in the offing? Or will Mercer block Burn's door with his body to become a Bushie hero for all times?
Mercer may be dragging his feet, but the problem with a case like this is that there is only so much stalling one can get away with. The story is out, FBI is involved and there is more than one prosecutor in the office. Besides, Mercer is never there, so an AUSA is in charge of the investigation. If Mercer goes against the weight of the evidence, he'll end up on the hook of the same investigation and he knows it. He can ask for a more thorough investigation to buy time, but, eventually, the clock will run out.
Slinky the Wonder Ferret wrote on April 19, 2007 2:03 PM:Guess Burns shouldn't have voted for the Bankruptcy Bill...
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Dennis M wrote on April 29, 2007 12:03 PM:Crooked fool, glad we kicked his ass out
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