That hasn't stopped Tom Corbett from offering it as an excuse for not one, but two colossal blunders: his failure to indict any Senate Republicans during his wide-ranging investigation of the General Assembly, and his failure to indict Jerry Sandusky for nearly three years.
Whenever he has been confronted with the staggering length of time between receiving the first Sandusky complaint in March 2009 and arresting Sandusky in November 2011, Corbett's stock excuse has been, "We needed to find more victims."
But Team Corbett never found another victim through its own efforts. Of the eight victims whose cases were prosecuted, none was discovered by an investigator. Victims 1 and 6, or their mothers, approached investigators on their own initiative. Victims 3, 4, 5, and 7 were identified by the mother of Victim 6. Victims 2 and 8 were not identified before the trial.
It's of course a lie that Corbett couldn't proceed on the complaint of one victim - he did it often when he was Attorney General. But even if you accept that he needed more than one victim to proceed, it doesn't explain what on God's green earth he was doing with the case for nearly two long years.
And even though the first "big break" in the case finally came right after the gubernatorial election in November of 2010 (through no efforts of the Attorney General's office) the lead (and for a long time, sole) investigator (a narcotics agent, not a child predator expert) says, "I never asked for help until 2011."
Corbett, by then, already was safely ensconced in the Governor's Office.
The "we didn't find anything" excuse is even lamer in the case of the Senate Republicans, because we know that a whistleblower tried to give Corbett evidence on former Sen. Jane Orie, and Corbett's office turned her away. After some initial scrambling, Corbett settled on the story that a receptionist in his office told the whistleblower to call the Allegheny County D.A.'s office. Not only are we expected to believe that a receptionist is the one who makes the decisions about which cases the state Attorney General's office will and won't investigate, but this whopper followed months of Corbett faux-begging the public to call his office to report suspected the legislative wrongdoing his investigators just could not seem to find:
"People have to come forward. We need evidence. If people have evidence, pick up the phone and call. Come and see my agents." -- Corbett in the Patriot-News in February of 2008
"As we obtain additional information, we always consider other charges against other individuals. And, that being the case, I would suggest to you, Larry, if you do have that information you forward it to the Office of Attorney General ... I can get very tired when I hear these people complain about that we haven’t charged other individuals if they have information and they haven’t passed it along. So, I’m going to urge you, Larry, to pass that information along.” -- Corbett on PCN in January 2009.
Furthermore, Corbett allegedly subpoenaed the Senate Republicans for the very evidence that the Allegheny County D.A.'s office used to indict Orie in February of 2008. Yet there it remained, on the Senate R servers, until the spring of 2009.
On top of the Orie fiasco, Senate Rs awarded the largest bonuses in the General Assembly to employees who did campaign work:
Despite all this staring him in the face, Corbett never subpoenaed a single Senate R member or staffer.
- $22,500 to Mike Long, former top aide to then-Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer.
- $19,647 to Drew Crompton, then a top lawyer on Jubelirer's staff.
- $15,000 to Erik Arneson, former chief of staff to then-Senate Majority Leader David Brightbill.
And he still thinks the question is whether he found any evidence on either the Senate Rs or Sandusky? The question is why didn't he look.
Gets worst, now a PA Judge has appointed Reeder is a former employee of the attorney general's office who played a role in the Sandusky prosecution to investigate the Grand Juries of Sandusky?????
ReplyDeleteA guy that was part of that investigation investigating himself and his own fellow workers at OAG????
That is a separate matter from AG Kane's review of Corbett's Sandusky investigation. Reeder is looking into whether grand jury rules were violated. But we agree, a Corbett crony should not have been appointed.
ReplyDeleteI respectfully disagree Signor Ferrari, Reeder was one of the bullies on Bonusgate threatening to take kids from witneses if they did not testify to his way of evidence and giving out immunity in fear of being prosecuted.
ReplyDeleteWe need a Federal Independent Special Prosecutor that will also investigate the Judicial Branch and Judges assigned to these Mock Up Grand Juries Corbett used for political purposes, and not for 6 months.
Reeder should be the first person put under oath and asked questions then he is on record, and he will not be go back on his record.
After all, Reeder is part of the Corbett-Kelly AG and such violations of the Grand Jury Records were under his own watch???
Judge Barry Feudale appointed attorney James M. Reeder, giving him six months to look into the matter.
Feudale also charged Reeder with looking into potential violations of another section, titled "Disclosure of Testimony Before Investigating Grand Jury." He also asked that the inquiry examine a law that criminalizes disclosure of grand jury proceedings by anyone but witnesses and another law that makes it a crime to obstruct the administration of law or other governmental functions.
Reeder has been an employee of the attorney general's office. A spokeswoman for the office could not immediately confirm whether he remains on the staff, and offered no immediate comment about the court order.
Bio of Deputy Attorney General James Reeder, Harrisburg Office Prior to becoming an attorney in 1995, Reeder worked in the banking and educational fields.
ReplyDeleteHe was a prosecutor in the York County District Attorney's Office for eight years and joined the Attorney General's Office.
He was involved in a number of criminal and ethics prosecutions of public officials, including the two employees of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.
That we investigated the Senate is laughable. I was told one Senate aide had an add in a campaign publication advertising his political consulting operation listing his Senate phone number. One staffer who was on a campaign most of the year got a huge bonus, which makes it hard to believe it wasn't for political work. Did they put any of the staffers in front of a grand jury to ask if they did political work during state time, or in state offices, or using state resources, or is that only illegal some of the time?
ReplyDeleteOne-Term Tom accepting gifts in conflicts with his official duties??? Might the NCAA be planting these type stories?
ReplyDeleteIt might not mean anything in court, but if it drags Corbett thru the gutter, it hurts the Penn State cause significantly now that Corbett made himself into becoming Penn State's Knight.
Does this mean Corbett is not a scumbag? No!
Public opinion....huge advantage for the NCAA
The Governor's Code of Conduct is an executive order that bans executive branch employees from accepting gifts under a list of situations that include when they are from persons or entities with commercial or seeking corporate interests before the state.
ReplyDeleteAppearance matters. Access matters, and Corbett clearly has a trail of cronyism and partiality preferential treatment. The common penalty for any state employee can rise to the point of dismissal. In the governor’s case, he would have to dismiss himself, but has made himself above the law.
Corbett got elected for his unfair and non-balance of prosecution of corruption inside the Capitol for ethical violations at best but Corbett made them criminal so he could become Governor.
With these disclosures about the favors Corbett took from lobbyists and corporate executives now needs investigated and Corbett does not deserve re-election.
We should not assume Corbett would want to maintain a squeaky spotless appearance but instead Corbett hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Pennsylvania lawmakers should join the company of their colleagues in about a dozen other states by passing a ban on gifts to elected and appointed state officials.
ReplyDeleteAnd Gov. Tom Corbett, who ran on a promise to make state government more transparent and accountable, but has yet to fulfill the full potential of that vow, should sign it.
Military officials descending on China's capital for the country's biggest political event have been told to bring their own toiletries. Legislative delegates arriving at the airport no longer find welcoming teams of photogenic, waving women, and police aren't clearing their way through Beijing's traffic snarl.
ReplyDeleteOnce feted with banquets of lobster and sharks' fin, the delegates now serve themselves at drab buffets, and stay in guesthouses instead of luxury hotels.
China's new leader Xi Jinping has declared a ban on official extravagance, and that has banished some of the usual pomp from this year's gathering of the National People's Congress.
"There's basically no more meat for breakfast now. We're eating at buffets as if we're traveling with an ordinary travel agency that has put us up in a hotel with no star grading," said Han Deyun, a lawyer from the southwestern megacity of Chongqing who has been a congress delegate for 11 years.
"Lunch and dinners are also simpler, four or five hot dishes, but no seafood."
The ethos of fair play, honesty, doing the right thing, abiding by the same rules as everyone else, hard work, proper preparation, and decency in all our endeavors is lost on Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett.
ReplyDeleteInsiders at the state attorney general's office speak of moral bankruptcy, blatant hypocrisy and raw politics in the AG's office under Corbett.
Tom Corbett misused the office of attorney general to win the Pennsylvania governor's office at any and all cost, by any means necessary, those around him say. Part of the great cost paid, we now see in the Jerry Sandusky case, included the safety, dignity and well-being of children.
Not so clearly seen and spoken about is that Corbett, on his political run to the governor's office, would leave in tatters the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, and potentially the careers and reputations of the many good and dedicated people who work there.
Well, the reckoning is now upon him as Frank Fina is panic and good people at the OAG will talk under oath!
"Corbettgate" is coming to fruition.
ReplyDeleteFina and friends need to be exposed.
The citizens of PA must hear the truth about the Corbett regime in the AG's office.
Impeachment starts in the PA House, do the Republicans have the stomach to apply the law?
ReplyDeletePennsylvania Turnpike Commission Chief Executive Officer Mark P. Compton today made the below statement in response to Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane’s news conference regarding a state grand jury probe of the Turnpike Commission:
We understand how important it is to maintain the public’s trust. And certainly, we’re troubled by today’s news from Attorney General Kane’s office.
It’s important to point out that we have taken steps in the past two years to reform and modernize Turnpike operations:
• We hired a Chief Compliance Officer, who is a former FBI agent, to make sure employee actions continue to be beyond reproach; and we provided the resources needed to do the job.
• We adopted, as policy, a more rigorous, transparent process for awarding professional-services contracts to ensure that only the most-qualified firms are considered and awarded.
HMMM. INTERESTING. EVERYTHING IS NOW ABOVE REPROACH. SO THE FACT THAT CORBETT'S TURNPIKE COMMISSION CHAIRMAN CONTINUES THE PRACTICE OF HITTING UP THOSE WITH TURNPIKE CONTRACTS OR THOSE INTERESTED IN GETTING THIS BUSINESS FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO TOM CORBETT AND MIKE TURZAI IS PURE COINCIDENCE, HUH? I SURE HOPE AG KANE AND HER LEFT-OVER CORBETT MINIONS CONTINUE TO INVESTIGATE THIS ON-GOING PROCESS. AS YOU PEOPLE AT CASABLANCA HAVE SO ELOQUENTLY POINTED OUT, UNDER AG CORBETT IT WAS ONLY A CRIME WHEN DEMS ENGAGED IN CERTAIN ACTIVITIES. I HOPE AG KANE WILL BE MORE BALANCED IN HER APPROACH. TIME WILL TELL.
This is cool!
ReplyDelete