TPMMuckraker
Rachel Slajda

Suit: Pickering Chose Mistress Over Senate Seat

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 6:48PM

Former Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS) and erstwhile C Street resident turned down Trent Lott's old Senate seat so he could be with his mistress, according to the lawsuit filed by his estranged wife this week.

The suit alleges that when Trent Lott resigned in 2007, Gov. Haley Barbour offered Rep. Pickering the seat. But the congressman turned it down after his girlfriend, Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd, "insisted" that their relationship could not continue if he accepted the seat, as he would have to stay married for public appearances. She allegedly gave him an ultimatum, and he chose her.

A spokesman for Barbour told Muckraker that he never offered Pickering the seat.

Shortly afterward, the suit says, Pickering moved out of his home. He filed for divorce in 2008, but that case is sealed.

Other gems from the suit, which Leisha Pickering filed against Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection:

Creekmore-Byrd is allegedly on the board of Telepak, her family's Internet company, which employs the lobbyist organization Capitol Resources. Pickering claims the mistress got her husband a job with the lobbyists. (A visit to the company's web site shows he does work in their Mississippi office.)

The suit alleges that Creekmore-Byrd aimed "to entice and tortuously interfere" with the Pickerings' marriage, with the help of seven unnamed defendants. It also says the alleged mistress's actions would "evoke outrage and disgust in civilized society."

Pickering alleges that Creekmore-Byrd showed up at a family ski vacation intending to cause a marriage-ending rift.

Leisha Pickering apparently gleaned this information from her husband's journals and other documents, which a judge ordered returned to Rep. Pickering. The judge also apparently forbade Mrs. Pickering and her lawyers from discussing what was in the documents.

You can take a look at the lawsuit here.

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C Street, Chip Pickering

C Street

Another C Street Vet Falls To An Extramarital Affair

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 5:05PM

Former Congressman and C Street resident Chip Pickering's estranged wife has filed a lawsuit against Pickering's alleged mistress. Leisha Pickering is suing Elizabeth Creekmore-Byrd for alienation of affection.

Rep. Pickering, a Republican from Mississippi, allegedly continued seeing his college sweetheart while they were both married. According to the suit, some of the "wrongful conduct" occurred at the C Street facility for Christian congressmen -- the same one where Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) have lived, and where Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has recently sought counseling.

What's with this place?

The suit alleges Pickering and Creekmore-Byrd are still together. Perhaps they're soul mates?

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Hinds County Circuit Court in Mississippi, is 28 14 pages long, plus evidence, so we'll be posting more if we find anything particularly juicy.

Late Update: The suit says Rep. Pickering and Creekmore-Byrd rekindled their relationship while he was a congressman, before and while living at the C-Street facility. The relationship was "completely unknown" by Leisha Pickering, as it occurred in Washington on weekdays, and the congressman would return home to his wife and five children only on weekends.

Later Update: The suit also alleges Pickering declined Trent Lott's Senate seat and instead quit Congress altogether when his mistress gave him an ultimatum. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour denies he offered Pickering the seat.

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C Street, Chip Pickering

Charles Rangel

Rep. Rangel Paid $280,000 To Lawyers Last Quarter

Rachel Slajda | July 16, 2009, 3:59PM

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) spent almost $280,000 on lawyers in the last quarter as he faces several ethics investigations, according to his campaign financial disclosure.

Rangel has spent a total of $926,000 on attorneys in the past year.

The Ways and Means Committee chairman still raised $405,000 last quarter, much of which came from corporations, labor unions and trade associations.

The House is looking into whether trips Rangel took to the Caribbean in 2007 and 2008 violated rules against corporate-funded travel. He's also being investigated for getting a special deal on some Harlem apartments, for not paying taxes on rental income and for using his post as chairman to raise money by preserving a tax break for a major donor to the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College.

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Charles Rangel

Daniel Inouye

Sen. Inouye's Bank Scandal: A Primer

Rachel Slajda | July 15, 2009, 6:28PM

Between Ensign, Sanford and Palin, we've had our hands full of scandal. But we'd like to dive into the conflict-of-interest issues surrounding Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who apparently intervened to get his Hawaii bank TARP money -- a bank in which he'd invested most of his wealth and helped to found.

As ProPublica first reported, the bank, Central Pacific Financial, received $135 million in bailout funds after one of Inouye's staffers called the FDIC to inquire about the application.

Central Pacific had lost $146 million in the second quarter of 2008, more than the profits of its last three years, and those losses were depleting its capital reserves. It failed to win a favorable recommendation for bailout funds from the FDIC.

The institution applied for the money in October. When there was no word by late November, a bank official called Inouye's office for help. The next day, an aide called the FDIC and, according to Inouye, left a voicemail.

The application was approved soon after.

"This single phone call was the entire extent of my staff's contact with regard to Central Pacific Bank, to any outside agency," said Inouye, who hasn't given interviews on the subject, in a press release.

At the end of 2007, Inouye reported Central Pacific shares worth $350,000 to $700,000. He was one of the founding members of the bank, which opened in 1954 to cater to Japanese-American residents of Hawaii.

Even if he did intervene on behalf of the ailing bank, it wouldn't be a violation of Senate ethics rules. And other senators pulled for home state banks -- but none, it seems, where their own money was invested.

We're going to be keeping our eye on this one and delve in a little deeper. But we wanted to get you all up to speed in the meantime.

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Daniel Inouye

Steve Rattner

Talk Of Intensified Investigation As Rattner Resigns

Rachel Slajda | July 14, 2009, 1:27PM

Steve Rattner may be leaving his post as the head of Obama's auto task force because of an intensifying investigation into wrongdoing by the private equity firm he co-founded.

Anonymous sources say the investigation into Quadrangle Group LLC has intensified in recent weeks, according to Reuters and the New York Times, which may have lead to his stepping down.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is leading the probe into whether Quadrangle paid middlemen to win state pension business. From the Times:

Mr. Rattner, according to people close to the investigation, arranged for his investment firm to pay $1.1 million to an agent who helped Quadrangle obtain New York pension business. The agent who received most of that money has been indicted and accused of selling access to the pension fund, but neither Mr. Rattner nor Quadrangle is expected to face criminal charges, according to people close to the matter.

Rattner left Quadrangle in order to work on the task force, and a source said he won't return now. His post on the task force is being taken over by Ron Bloom, but the Treasury Department hasn't said when the change goes into effect.