Most of the media coverage of Steve Stetler's Motion to Dismiss is focused on the hundreds of phone calls between Corbett's campaign phones and workers in state offices. Corbett claims he used his campaign phone to discuss state business (a violation of campaign finance law), but so far he has refused to discuss the hundreds of calls between state workers and campaign staffers (who have no state business to discuss, and even if they did - which they didn't - using their campaign phones for non-campaign purposes is a violation of campaign finance law)
But the motion contains several other serious allegations against Corbett - notably that he not only violated grand jury secrecy by his many, many public pronouncements about the grand jury's activity, but that he actually influenced the grand jury's conclusion with those statements.
Of course he did.
Consider that Corbett first began promising that Republicans would be indicted in September of 2008 - not long after a Patriot-News article questioned, "Is Bonusgate Probe Partisan?"
"Pennsylvania's attorney general says the next round of arrests in the 'Bonusgate' investigation will come either this month or after the election...Corbett said more arrests could be made this month 'if all the dominoes fall in the right line.''' (Associated Press, 9/8/08)As we know from the presentment issued against Republican Rep. John Perzel and others in November 2009, Corbett hadn't even started investigating House Republicans in earnest until October 2008, a month after he made that statement.
Although Corbett subpoenaed House Republicans for documents in October 2007 - three weeks after Corbett and his campaign manager met with Perzel - according to the presentment, contempt hearings "held for the purpose of forcing the caucus into compliance with subpoenas and court orders" weren't convened until October 2008, a full year after the subpoenas were served.
Yet, before those hearings even began, in response to questions about whether Republicans would be indicted, Corbett told the Lancaster Intelligencer:
"It's one of those times -- I hate to say it, but I almost feel like saying, 'Trust me -- we're going to get there, and when we're finished there are going to be a lot of people with egg on their face,'"-- Lancaster Intelligencer 9/25/08
"Trust me."
By February, a full nine months before the grand jury issued its presentment (and only four months after Corbett had begun proceedings to force House Republicans to comply with subpoenas), Corbett was declaring not only that Republicans would be charged, but that he knew what the charges would be:
"[The charges will] shock the conscience of people. You will be stunned. It's the amount of money involved."Remember, Corbett was prohibited by law from discussing grand jury proceedings, and here is is revealing not only that the grand jury would indict, but what the substance of the charges would be [and how the public would react to them. How prescient!].
Corbett's response to accusations that his prosecutions have been politically-motivated has been a Pilate-like "It was the grand jury's decision to indict, not mine!"
But on April 5, 2009, the Allentown Morning Call reported that Corbett said nobody but he knows where the investigation is going and who else will be charged.
Nobody but Corbett knows .....
13 comments:
Speaking of bonusgate, I think you missed this story:
"Judge denies motion for mistrial in Bonusgate"
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10106/1050918-454.stm
"Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina said no one has ever been prosecuted in Pennsylvania for using campaign telephones for state business."
"Second, he said that the campaign phones have flat-rate billing, so calls to state offices cost no additional money...."
THIS IS A DIRECT ADMISSION BY A AG PROSECUTOR THAT CORBETT HAS USED STATE TELEPHONES AND STATE PAID PHONE CALLS ON STATE TIME.
JUST BECAUSE NO ONE HAS BEEN PROSECUTED IS NOT A DEFENSE, IT FACT, IT IS AN ACTUAL ADMISSION BY FINA THAT HE KNOWS HIS OWN OFFICE AND BOSS HAS BEEN VIOLATING ELECTION LAWS AND CAMPIAGNING ON STATE TIME.
HUH....ONE MORE THING.....CORBETT RAISING MONEY ON STATE PHONES, ON STATE TIME AND ON STATE DIMES...IS EVIDENCE OF VIOLATIONS OF ELECTION LAWS AND A DIRECT BENEFIT CORBETT'S OPPONENTS DO NOT HAVE....SO GO AND ARREST CORBETT AND LET A JURY DECIDE?
IF NOT ARREST YOURSELF....IF NOT...LET A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR CHECK INTO HOW YOU REFUSED TO DO YOUR JOB AND FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE.
Oil and gas executives, lawyers and doctors and health insurance companies are among top donors to Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett's campaign for governor, according to state campaign finance records.
Among Corbett's donors is Tribune-Review publisher Dick Scaife, who gave $5,000.
If you ask me, Tom Corbett is the darling of Pennsylvania Country Club Republicans & mob lackeys like Louis DeNaples.
Have you seen Tom Corbetts recent YouTube vid?
http://samrohrer.blogspot.com/
You can actually hear Tom Corbett snigger at gun owners and completly dismiss concerns from average Pennsylvanians when asked a question about martial law & civil unrest.
so much for the "law and order" candidate.
Sam Rohrer as a Private Citizen and Candidate for governor has a right to file a Private Citizen Complaint in every Pennsylvania County, requesting the each County District Attorney, to investigate the evidence presented in the Stetler Motion.
This includes the Phone Calls listed and admitted to by Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina that they happen using state equipment, state billing, but are not crimes, even though Attorney General Corbett and his Staffers did those calls to raise money, set up campaign meetings and events.
This is without question a Personal and Pecuniary money benefit to Attorney General Corbett and is a Conflict of Interest as well as a Conspiracy if other OAG Aides did it while at work on state time, using state resources paid by state taxpayers.
Sam Rohrer has that right to file such a complaint since he is a candidate for Governor and has no access such as Corbett has been using OAG State Resources. It is exactly what Ag Corbett and his Prosecutors have claimed in grand Jury Findings as well as at Trials.
Frank Fina has admitted that Tom Corbett has crossed the line from legal to illegal and Bonuses to State Employees were never prosecuted until Tom Corbett did it, so just because no one has been prosecuted is not a defense for tom Corbett either.
Tom Corbett is just another Tom Ridge Washington type of candidate out of touch with ordinary Pennsylvanians.
Corbett doesn't have the backbone or moral fortitude to be the Governor of Pennsylvania.
Tom Corbett is going to be just another toady for Washington.
In 2008 Tom Corbett reported a total family income of $215,568 that includes his wife income from her cushy job with the Gettysburg Foundation. Mr. Corbett's state salary for 2010 is $145,529.
Mr. & Mrs. Tom Corbett had little taxable income beyond their salaries.
Their investment income amounted to $53 in interest and they made $3,270 in cash gifts to charity.
Mr. & Mrs. Corbett reported about $189,00 in total income in 2007; $175,000 in 2006; $170,000 in 2006, and $126,000 in 2004.
Bottom line - Sam Rohrer unlike Tom Corbett practices what he preaches and lives his Christian faith by giving more than 20% of his income to Charity, how much did the Corbett's give?.
Anonymous said...Oil and gas executives....are among top donors to Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett's campaign for governor, according to state campaign finance records. Executives at oil and gas companies donated about $400,000 to Corbett last year and in the first three months of 2010. The state's Marcellus Shale formation -- a vast reserve of natural gas made accessible by horizontal drilling technology -- is estimated to hold trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, according to the Department of Environmental Protection. Corbett opposes levying a tax on its extraction...."It's one of the cornerstones to the economic recovery of Pennsylvania," Corbett said. "We need to get this business in here." April 17, 2010 4:53 PM~Tribune Review
The attempt to alter Pennsylvania trout-fishing culture is at least partially linked to a boom in drilling for Marcellus shale natural gas.
Individual wells can use 4 million to 8 million gallons of water that is pumped in under high pressure to fracture the underground shale and release the gas.
About half of the "frac water" is drawn back to the surface. Some is reused in other wells, but state Department of Environmental Protection secretary John Hanger recently said water discharges from Marcellus shale drilling operations have already harmed aquatic life in the state and impaired and degraded sources of drinking water, including the Monongahela River.
The threat of environmental damage related to the drilling boom has so concerned the Fish and Boat Commission that it recently launched an ambitious trout management plan that seeks anglers' help in identifying and surveying 45,000 unmanaged streams in search of native trout.
Where sustainable wild populations are discovered, DEP regulations would automatically protect the trout, their habitat and upstream tributaries from development on public and private properties.
The restrictions ban all outflow into the water.
"We need to get out there, get on site and identify those streams with wild trout in them and protect them from this [drilling] activity," said Dave Miko, Fish and Boat's chief of fisheries management.
"If we find a Class A trout stream, it automatically receives a High-Quality Protection designation from DEP.
In a Class A stream, you can't degrade the physical habitat, add siltation or affect the water temperature [and] you have to maintain a water temperature cold enough for those trout to reproduce."~Post-Gazette
Anonymous said...so much for the "law and order" candidate. 8:51 PM
This is why Judge Lewis should hold Formal Hearings and make Tom Corbett and other OAG Prosecutors and Corbett's OAG Campaign Staffers take the stand to testify under oath.
Once under oath they cannot lie and will either take the fifth or tell the truth.
If a Special Prosecutor is appointed or one County District Attorney sends investigators to Corbett, His Prosecutors and Campaign Staffers, they will have to answer honestly or lie or ask for Attorney.
Obstruction of Justice is something to be avoided at all costs!
It will be interesting to see how judge Lewis rules and explains why in his calls on Monday.
Even if denied, it is not over, the evidence is there and cannot be destroyed now.
If or once a Special Prosecutor is appointted
"With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plea; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost."
William Lloyd Garrison
US abolitionist & editor (1805 - 1879)
The damage is done when 14 Convictions of 159 Charges are made, and even if overturned on Appeal, where does one go to remove the blood stain clothes, reputation, and resurrect careers.
Once Republican senators And indeed the Office of the Attorney general are asked the same questions especially in the manner conducted by Deputy Attorney Generals Prosecutors in violations of their own ethics as Attorneys, and once charges that are not illegal are brought forth to confuse any reasonable jury by admitting if enough muddy charges are thrown, one or 2 or 14 will stick, to the same Republicans you see them collapse in a frenzy as we saw in Orie Families attempts to win a case in public.
However, the Special Prosecutor will not need 159 counts, or the need to abuse witnesses, or keep exculpatory evidence from the Grand Jury.
All that is necessary is to gain access of to OAG Staffers, Attorneys, Prosecutors, and Campaign Staffers and have them put under oath, then confronted with the Stetler Motions Allegations, once one Domino falls the rest will fall.
We will know soon if Judge Lewis will conduct a Formal Hearing and if not we know then these prosecutions are planned political parades for the charade of republican Power grabs under the disguise of justice, and then others seeking justice will have to look for a Special Prosecutor or US Attorney’s to begin their own investigations.
Then you will see Republican Domino’s fall upon each other later than sooner sees but fall nonetheless!
Corbett has charged 25 lawmakers, former lawmakers, and current and ex-staffers with using public resources for political work.
So far, seven Democrats have pleaded guilty and three others, including Veon have been convicted. One staffer and a former legislator have been acquitted.
Nine people with ties to the House Republican Caucus, including former Speaker John Perzel of Philadelphia, face a preliminary hearing this week. DeWeese is a former speaker and Democratic leader. Orie, until she was charged, was the highest-ranking woman in the General Assembly as majority whip.
Costopoulos called the investigations "an assault on the Legislature" that must be stopped. The statute was never intended to "criminalize" officials' behavior but rather to prevent conflicts of interest such as state contracts going to a company in which a legislator has an interest, he said.
The line between official functions and campaigning is "quite blurry," and violations should be handled as code violations by the state Ethics Commission, not the courts, the filing argues.
"The prosecution of state senators, representatives and support staff for doing campaign work is out of control," Costopoulos said in a brief comment.
If Orie and DeWeese are unable to obtain relief in state court, they "will have no alternative but to pursue remedies ... in federal court," he said.
Be aware. There is deceitfulness in the air. As time grows closer to the day of decision. There is much derision. Be aware.
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