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Federal Judge Wants to Know if Politics Triggered Fieger Prosecution
A federal judge in Detroit wants to know if politics motivated the prosecution of lawyer and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Geoffrey Fieger, who is accused of illegally donating $127,000 to John Edwards' campaign in 2004, the Detroit Free Press reports.
U.S. District Judge Paul Borman also wanted to know why it took 75 to 80 federal agents to raid Fieger's law office and confront 32 employees on the doorsteps after dark in November 2005."I'm just trying to figure out how it went down," Borman told Assistant U.S. Attorney Lynn Helland. He said he couldn't recall that many agents involved in any other raid during his 13 years on the federal bench.
Borman is considering a request from Fieger's lawyers to allow them to investigate whether the White House or former Justice Department officials instigated the prosecution. That investigation could include deposing former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove.
Comments (13)
John Bennett wrote on October 17, 2007 4:13 PM:Being from Michigan, I am always interested in our political shinanigans. Democrat Fieger is indeed controversial. He outed our Republican Attorney General's's sexual affair just before the man's re-election. No love lost there. If the AG wasn't behind that raid my name is isn't John. It's hard to believe that 80 agents were needed to raid Fieger's home.
John Bennett wrote on October 17, 2007 4:13 PM:Being from Michigan, I am always interested in our political shinanigans. Democrat Fieger is indeed controversial. He outed our Republican Attorney General's's sexual affair just before the man's re-election. No love lost there. If the AG wasn't behind that raid my name is isn't John. It's hard to believe that 80 agents were needed to raid Fieger's home.
dasher wrote on October 17, 2007 4:19 PM:75 to 80 federal agents for an office of 32 employees? Two-and-a-half feds to each employee? What, did they expect the secretaries to be 'armed and dangerous'? Talk about overkill (and intimidation!), not to mention that they decided to conduct this raid after dark (more intimidation.) I'm assuming it was probably around the end of the working day, which in November in Detriot would be dark.
They did this for the sole purpose of scaring people to death, to impress them with the macho might of law enforcement - not because there was any colorable need for such a show of force.
Yeah, I'd want to know A LOT more about how this whole mess came about. Too bad for the thugs that it sounds like they've got to deal with an honest judge!
Roberta wrote on October 17, 2007 9:14 PM:But how can Feiger's attorneys depose the sacrosanct Gonzales and Rove? Everything they know is classified!
If the terrorists follow me home from the store, it'll be your fault, Judge Borman!
Helen Rainier wrote on October 18, 2007 1:04 AM:Isn't Fieger the attorney who represented Dr. Jack Kevorkian?
Helen Rainier wrote on October 18, 2007 1:05 AM:Isn't Fieger the attorney who represented Dr. Jack Kevorkian?
zk0sm0 wrote on October 18, 2007 2:09 AM:Isn't Fieger the attorney who represented Dr. Jack Kevorkian?
yes.
he's also the brother of doug fieger, lead singer of the knack, best known for 'my sharona'.
Jimmye Chitwood wrote on October 18, 2007 8:48 AM:IT APPEARS THAT FIEGER HAS STEPPED ON THE TOES OF ROVE AND THE BUSH GANG.
noncooperator wrote on October 18, 2007 1:12 PM:According to the Detroit Free Press the prosecutor says it was treated as a criminal matter because the allegations were made to the FBI not the FEC. By the way, this prosecutor, Lynn Helland, wants to let White Boy Rick out of prison. White Boy Rick is a notorious drug dealing gangster.
Hart wrote on October 18, 2007 3:10 PM:I'm from Michigan and familiar w/Feiger, as well. However, I disagree w/dasher's assessment that this was simply to scare people. This was a calculated (but not isolated) instance of Rove et al trying to choke off funding for the '04 Edwards campaign by going after his largest contributing bloc en masse: trial lawyers.
anonymous wrote on October 19, 2007 12:56 PM:Enough speculation. It was not inappropriate to use that number of agents for the "raid." It is standard FBI practice to use two operatives for this sort of interview. Two agents per interviewee is not "overkill" or "intimidation," but a normal and intelligent way to conduct business. It just so happened that Fieger had about 32 of these people that needed to be interviewed, so it took 64 agents to do it.
Anonymous wrote on October 27, 2007 3:34 PM:There are a couple of points that need clarification. First I would like to address the comment that the only reason to investigate after dark is intimidation. The FBI wished to contact Fieger's employees at a time when they were not at work and subject to any possible pressures or intimidations that naturally occur in an employer/employee situation. This means that the interviews needed to occur outside of normal business hours. As someone already pointed out that in Michigan that means after dark.
Sindonia Finn wrote on October 28, 2007 6:00 AM:Secondly, as "anonymous" stated on October 19, it is protocol for the FBI to have two agents for each interviewee. We know that police work with partners, the FBI functions in a similar manner. The reason that the FBI needed so many at one time is that historically people in white collar cases try to get their stories straight ahead of time. To get the most accurate account of what happened, therefore, the intelligent thing to do conduct the interviews simultaneously.
I would urge Mr Fieger's attorneys to make FOIA requests for all communications from Dr. Elsebeth Baumgartner to USDOJ employees beginning in December 2000 related to alleged pay to play in the courts of Ohio involving state and federal offices.
In particular I would request letters to Attorney John Pearson of Public Integrity and former section chief Noel Hillman concerning alleged containment of the Thomas Noe elections case in Ohio and the leads to US Attorney Greg White, Ohio AG Betty Montgomery Ohio AG James Petro and the Ohio Supreme Court in particular CJ. Thomas Moyer.
Remember Ohio delivered the 2004 election to President Bush and the Ohio Supreme Court ruled on several election cases in Bush's favor just prior to the Thomas Noe case becoming public.
The Fieger case is simply First Amendment Retaliation. The Bush Republicans do not want any challenges to the pay to play architecture developed in key states such as Ohio and Michigan involving the courts, corporations, insurance and medical industries that allows them to deliver case decisions to their allies.