Mikey Suits (R-Staten Island) Is Still Not In Prison; Meet The FBI's "Candidate A"

Does this Mafia thug/GOP congressman look innocent to you?

Every time another Michael Grimm crony gets arrested I feel like I'm supposed to start all over again with how we first came into contact with him back during the heady days of the Duke Cunningham investigation in 2005 when he had a small role to play in a payoff by New York GOP mobster Tom Kontogiannis (currently in prison) to George W. Bush. But there's so much of it, spanning so many categories of corruption… here, just read it for yourself if you want the background and I'll just go into the latest news about Congress' most vulnerable-- to arrest-- congressman. The Daily News got the scoop this time.

FBI agents arrested a personal friend of Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm in Houston Friday on charges of circumventing federal campaign laws to funnel money to the candidate.

FBI officials in New York and Houston confirmed the arrest of Diana Durand, 47, on charges of election fraud and lying to agents about it.

The arrest is the latest to result from an ongoing federal probe into Grimm's 2010 campaign fundraising. Grimm, a Republican, is not charged with any wrongdoing, and it is not unusual for backers of a candidate to be charged with use of straw donations without the candidate's knowledge.

But in a complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York, the FBI says Durand was charged as part of a broader investigation into potential illegal contributions to the campaign. This summer, Ofer Biton, an Israeli who helped Grimm raise money in 2010, pleaded guilty to visa fraud as a result of the probe.

Durand is charged with using straw donors to exceed the maximum allowable contribution to the campaign committee of "Candidate A" running to represent a New York congressional district.

Candidate A is Grimm, according to a source familiar with the charges and a review of Durand’s publicly disclosed donations.

A Grimm spokesman referred questions to his attorney, who did not immediately respond.

Durand was a "personal friend of Candidate A," the complaint says, and hosted a November 2009 "meet and greet" to help him raise money.

After contributing $4,800, the maximum amount allowed under federal law, Durand separately offered to reimburse four friends if they contributed to the campaign, the complaint says. She reimbursed all but one, according to FBI officials, who obtained admissions, bank records and other evidence detailing the scheme from the donors.

Durand personally thanked two friends for helping dodge election laws.

"I just wanted to thank you both again for helping me out with (Candidate A'S) campaign last week," Durand wrote in an April 5, 2010, email quoted in the complaint. "I can't tell you how priceless it is to have friends that I can count on to do something like that, simply PRICELESS… I still have to make the deposit but I can write you both a check, or I can get your account numbers and do a transfers, whatever works for you."

One of the straw donors told FBI agents that he or she also made a straw contribution to another unnamed congressional candidate at Durand's request. She also reimbursed the donor for that contribution.

The FBI charged Durand with lying to agents in a June 2012 interview by claiming she did not reimburse the donors.

A friend familiar with the investigation told me this is simply a way to pressure Durand to rat out Grimm and that they FBI already have several co-conspirators willing to testify against Grimm in a way that will establish "an undeniable pattern of corruption and criminal malfeasance… going back even before 2010." Remember, though, Grimm was an FBI agent himself before joining the MAFIA and the GOP and he has a lot of dirt on a lot of FBI higher-ups. Grimm's official spokesperson, Carol Danko, quit his staff just over a week ago. The temp says the whole thing is just a "data-entry error." So there you go. What a shame Steve Israel recruited a corrupt piece of crap "Democrat" to run for the seat, someone nearly as bad as Grimm. Don't Staten Island voters care about who represents them in Congress?