"[Attorney General Kathleen] Kane said ... federal law enforcement officials agreed with her that the case was 'flawed and nonprosecutable.' But [Philadelphia District Attorney Seth] Williams and the other sources say the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia never made such a judgment about the sting during the several months that prosecutors reviewed the case file." (Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/9/15)
"Feb. 22, 2013: Attorney General Kane's Senior Executive Deputy Attorney General and Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Criminal Investigations meet with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI in Philadelphia to determine what, if any, interest they had in adopting the corruption investigation or using the informant in other investigations. Both advised they did not want to adopt the pending corruption case and had no interest in using the informant at that time (p.5, OAG response, Oct. 4, 2013)." (PA Office of Attorney General, 4/10/14)On January 15, 2013, at the same time Kane was taking the oath of office, Chief Deputy Attorney General Frank Fina directed an OAG agent to deliver to an FBI agent a a thumb drive of recordings, made during the course of a sting investigation into public corruption. Kane did not direct him to do so, and Kane was not aware that he did so. In fact, Kane first would learn about the investigation "in a cursory manner" two days later from Fina.
A little more than a month after that, two of Kane's top staffers met with the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI. The feds said they had no interest in pursuing the case.
Now, how they came to that conclusion without ever making a "judgement" about the case is not for us to say. Williams may have some method of determining whether or not to pursue a case without making a judgement about it, but what do we know? We're not lawyers.
Williams characterizes the feds declining to take the case as Kane "aski[ng] for the case back." We're not sure why someone would have to ask for something back from someone who never took it in the first place.
Furthermore, "federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of Case File No. 36-622 have shared with current members of the OAG executive staff their opinion that the case is flawed and not prosecutable." As Kane has not said who the officials are, Williams has no way of knowing what judgments they shared with Kane's staff.
Not content with being wrong about what happened with the feds, Williams compounded his mistake by insisting, "You [Kane] have repeatedly asserted it was the previous prosecutors who dropped charges against [Confidential Informant Tyron Ali], when in fact it appears that it was you who did so, and then sealed the proceedings to keep them from public scrutiny."
Again, we are not lawyers, but we are pretty sure that it is judges who seal court records, not prosecutors.
In this case, the judge sealed the records September 12, 2013, "after the informant's attorney initially requested charges to be dropped per agreement signed before Attorney General Kane took office."
A request, by the way, that was accompanied by an affidavit from none other than Frank Fina himself.
We have previously explained that Williams' childish insistence that Kane "dropped the charges" is disingenuous. Fina signed an agreement to drop all charges against Ali on November 30, 2012 - 45 days before Kane took office. Kane wanted to nullify the agreement Fina signed, but because the agreement was a legally enforceable contract, she was forced to honor it on November 8, 2013.
Considering that records in the case had been sealed - by a judge - two months earlier, the timeline does not support Williams' claim that Kane "dropped the charges, then sealed the proceedings."
How did Williams manage to come to such extraordinarily erroneous conclusions?
Walls are closing in. Aren't they, Frankie?
ReplyDeleteI would bet lil Frankie is doing Seth “I look like a fat ass in my JAG uniform” William public relations work on this situation ... think about it ... Frankie is the guy that has a history of creating in his head a theory of a case and then bullies weak people into telling his version of the story before a jury with the threat of prison held over their head until after the trial ... usually in PR, the exception being that libtard dying Rag in Philly, you have to substantiate your claims, you have to know the facts and if you don’t you have to do research. Lil Frankie, if you are going to lead Seth on the death march you better have the facts right, I tend to believe Seth can’t be this stupid, so it has to be lil Frankie trying to cover his own ass for the gestapo tactics and illegal acts he regularly employed while he worked at the OAG.
ReplyDeleteIf my memory serves me correctly, didn't Manzo have to wait until after he testified in court against sitting House Members and Staff before he got his deal with Fina? Why would Fina agree to let Tyron B. Ali off scott-free before he testified at trail? Did Fina himself know the case was flawed and wanted to give Ali a sweetheart deal because he appreciated Ali taking the risk of recording public officials and didn’t want to see Kane squeeze his balls when she came into office? Or maybe Fina himself used the slush fund he had for this sting and spent the money himself? Has anyone asked Fina if he used the $32,000 in unaccounted funds to pay his staff bonuses or hush money to go along with his tactics? Was Frankie skimming money and that’s why there is no receipts for the $32,000 in taxpayer’s funds he used for his boondoggle? Has anyone executed a warrant on Frankie’s home to search for the $60 bow tie he bought with the taxpayer’s money? Is the bowtie Seth Williams is wearing the $60 bow tie that the taxpayers of the Commonwealth bought for Fina? The newspapers need to ask these questions, this slush fund sounds like the one the legislature has abused in the past and talk of a bonus program within the Corbett OAG sound much like the legislature as well … the thing is, Fina put people in jail for bonuses and at the same time ran his own bonus program!
ReplyDeleteThe agreement given to Ali was on the condition he testify at any trial. It would be voided if he didn't hold up his end.
DeleteBrett, you are still and will always be a convicted criminal. Manzo did the honorable thing by admitting guilt and helping the perfect prosecuters put you and your corrupt crew away. The taxpayers of Pa. thank you Mr.Manzo., you are a real American hero. Give it up guys, you are the only people who even read these lies.
ReplyDeleteIt is 2008. Ali and Williams are acquainted in Philly political circles. Ali comes under investigation for welfare fraud. He asks Williams, what can I do? Williams says deal with the AG. Tell them you will get them 2 McCaffreys. Ali goes to Fina and agrees to sting Dan first then work his way up to the Supreme. But the sting breaks down when Dan reports Ali to the AG. Fina and Williams can't prosecute Ali because he committed the crime with their approval. They can't prosecute Morrow or McCaffrey because it risks uncovering the failed McCaffrey sting. And what about this alleged cash payment to Josh Morrow? Ali stole $430K from the state and more from private investors. Fina and Williams believe him? What proof do they have that such a payment occurred? 5 African American politicians on the take are not the only Philly public corruption cases that have been dropped in the laps of Frank Fina and Seth Williams that they have failed to prosecute. They need to justify their failure to prosecute Ali and/or Morrow on campaign finance violations.
ReplyDeletePoor poor frank whatcha going do, things look bad for you whatcha going to do?
ReplyDeleteI think Seth followed the Mark of Cain, did he not?
Brett,Frank is and will always be doing great. He has the truth on his side. The only thing you have on your side is the memory of Bubba and his pals violating your backside in prison you convicted CRIMINAL.
ReplyDeleteManzo for Mayor. He out smarted all you criminal IDIOTS.
ReplyDeleteSeth's real name is Rufus.
ReplyDeleteLOL
How did Manzo outsmart anyone? Let's see..... He lost his job, reportedly his wife and his pension. He went to prison......
ReplyDelete“The spat between Pennsylvania's top prosecutors, both Democrats, is unprecedented, Madonna said. Williams shows unusual ‘emotion and anger’ in his comments, he said.”
ReplyDeleteMadonna comment is comical. Of course Rufus Seth Williams is emotional about this situation, he needs Fina’s credibility to be beyond reproach because he is counting on Fina to prosecute and convict Rep. Miranda. Williams wants to send Miranda to jail as payback for Miranda surfboarding with his ole lady in a bubble bath. Seth is hurt that Miranda was able to satisfy his ole lady and he couldn’t.
Ever since Frank joined our office there have been rumors flying around about how much Seth is infatuated with him, even though Seth has always presented himself as a straight mans man type A personality, maybe there is more to this rumor then meets the eye, after all Seth does enjoy big fat cigars and bow ties? Or maybe Seth sees a political advantage of having a public bromance, since it will gain him allot of votes in Philly from the LGBT community. Unfortunately, it seems like Seth will stop at nothing to raise his profile to run for higher office?
ReplyDelete