THOMAS "GUS" KONTOGIANNIS HEADS OFF TO PRISON IN ONE OF THE MOST SECRETIVE POLITICAL CRIME CASES IN HISTORY

The photo of Kontogiannis with Bush has disappeared

Most Americans have never heard the name Thomas Kontogiannis. DWT readers have known all about him since 2005 when we started talking about how he is the link that ties Bush directly to convicted felon and Republican ex-congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Cunningham was Kontogiannis' very own "congressman-on-retainer." Today he was given an 8 year prison sentence "for his role laundering bribe money" for Cunningham. He was also fined over a million dollars. Kontogiannis pleaded guilty, making a deal with the prosecutors for a reduced sentence.

This is far from Kontogiannis' first brush with the law. In 2000 he was arrested for receiving more than $2 million in kickbacks in a bid-rigging scheme involving junk computer foisted on the Queens School District. The district Superintendent, Celestine Miller, a Republican scam artist, with absurd pretensions to get elected to Congress, helped Kontogiannis defraud the district. He financed her doomed campaign, in part by giving her a brown paper bag filled with $50,000 in cash. That Cunningham sold him a presidential pardon for $400,000 is the most covered-up part of the Randy "Duke" Cunningham scandals. That's because there's only one person who can grant presidential pardons and it isn't Randy "Duke" Cunningham (nor is it Vice President Cheney, nor Irving Libby, nor Mitch McConnell nor any of the myriad corrupt scoundrels Bush has surrounded himself with). Only George W. Bush himself can grant a presidential pardon. What was his cut of the $400,000 bribe from Kontogiannis? Cunningham brought Kontogiannis to the White House to meet him.

And there's more-- even more serious stuff that hasn't been dealt with-- yes more serious than Bush selling a pardon. But the Bush bribe and the treason parts of this case have been scrupulously kept out of the public record. Last month the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that the secrecy around this case was unprecedented. "Federal prosecutors asserted extraordinary powers of the executive branch over the judicial branch when it comes to information it has classified. In essence, prosecutors argued that once the executive branch says something is classified, courts are virtually powerless to review or disagree. That is true, they argued, even when the information is part of court records-- which historically have been considered open under the First Amendment."

Kontogiannis and a shady Saudi operative living in Southern California, Ziyad Abduljawad, took Cunningham and another crooked Republican California congressloon, Ken Calvert, to Saudi Arabia. Calvert and Cunningham were not there for sightseeing-- nor on government business, at least not legitimate government business.

Kontogiannis, in tears, was whisked off to jail immediately. This is a case that will either be buried or will be looked into by Attorney General John Edwards in the future. I'm betting Kontogiannis will either die in prison before then or be pardoned and disappeared.