Rick Renzi's Going To Spend A Lot Of Time In Prison-- But What About Jerry Lewis?

Last year, after months and months of bickering and posturing and half measures, the Republican House leadership finally forced serial criminal Rick Renzi (R-AZ)-- the R is for "racketeer"-- to retire from politics. He was replaced by a quasi-Democrat who votes with the GOP more frequently, at least on important substantive issues, than she votes with the Democrats. (Her ProgressivePunch score is a dismal 32.61.) Today the Justice Department announced that it has expanded its case against Renzi, adding 5 new corruption charges against the former key John McCain ally and campaign operative.

Prosecutors added insurance fraud and racketeering accusations in a second superseding indictment filed in late September. It is the second time the government has added charges to the original indictment, first filed in February 2008.

The government added a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud charge to the indictment. Explaining the charge, the government argued that Renzi, co-defendant Dwayne Lequire and others willfully embezzled funds and premiums from a risk retention company called Spirit Mountain to pay Renzi’s “substantial personal expenses.” Lequire helped conceal the embezzlement by transferring other funds into accounts of Renzi’s insurance company, Patriot Insurance, including proceeds from a line of credit and the real estate deal at the heart of the corruption case against him, the prosecutors allege.

Renzi is accused of telling executives for Resolution Copper Mining that he would not support a land swap bill unless they bought his former business partner’s property. Another company agreed to the deal, and Renzi pocketed more than $700,000 from it, according to the indictment.

The trial has been postponed while the judge deals with a barrage of Renzi motions to get the charges dismissed, to get evidence suppressed and to disqualify the prosecution team, etc. So far all of the obstructionist motions that have been ruled on have been denied. That got him to just file more. Meanwhile, the remnants of the most corrupt regime to have ever infested the nation's capital took a failed stab at forcing Charlie Rangel step down from his Ways and Means Committee chair. "To allow Mr. Rangel to continue to serve," says GOP hatchetman John Carter (R-TX), "as Chairman of the very committee with IRS oversight, without paying a nickel in penalties, and with no end in sight to his ethics investigation, sends a clear message to the American public that this government refuses to abide by the same laws they impose on the working people of this country."

It kind of makes you wonder what message the right-wing fringe loon Carter and his partisan cohorts thought was being sent to the American public while California Congressman Jerry Lewis was the head of the Appropriations Committee-- spending a million dollars a year fending off a halfhearted Bush Justice Dept. investigation while arranging for earmarks for every campaign donor he's ever had. And he's still up to his old tricks, just this week putting in for a $3 million earmark for Goldman Sachs, Pegasus Partners and Resource Capital Funds. In Lewis' case, Karl Rove was able to get rid of not one, but two-- Carol Lam and Debra Yang-- Justice Department attorneys sniffing around a little too close for comfort.

I don't doubt that Rangel has played fast and loose with rules governing ethical conduct-- and possibly criminal conduct; he is, after all, a politician. The Ethics Committee is investigating him, and I'll be interested in seeing what they come up with. Meanwhile, if Rangel set out to rip off the taxpayers of America and worked really hard at it, he might catch up with Rick Renzi before the next Republican wins the White House-- but he'll never catch up with Jerry Lewis.

Which brings us to a simple question: Why hasn't the new Administration staffed up the Justice Department? The answer, of course, is pure Republican obstructionism. They are simply holding up confirmations for months and months over their unrelated series of manufactured hissy fits. After senseless months of bottling up the nomination of Tom Perez to head the civil rights division, when it came to a vote yesterday Perez was confirmed 72-22, only the worst and most blatant obstructionists-- like Sam Brownback (KS), Miss McConnell (KY), Jeff Sessions (KKK), Jim DeMint (SC), John Ensign (NV), David Diapers Vitter (LA) and John Thune (SD)-- voting no. Confirm US Attorneys who will investigate criminal activities of members of Congress? I don't think so.

Coincidentally, People For the American Way president Michael Keegan was highlighting the obstructionist aspect of this problem today as well, pointing out Republicans' refusal to confirm Dawn Johnsen to her Justice Department post.

“For months now, Senate Republicans have been blocking the confirmation of President Obama's nominees to key positions in the federal government. Dawn Johnsen, the President's eminently qualified nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department, has been waiting longer than almost anyone else–nearly eight months!
 
“But they can’t play politics with justice forever. People are getting fed up with the constant obstruction. The logjam will be broken soon, and it couldn’t happen quickly enough.
 
“Dawn Johnsen enjoys the support of former OLC heads from Republican and Democratic administrations. Republican Senator Richard Lugar, her home state Senator, has endorsed her. She served with distinction as acting head of OLC during the Clinton administration. Legal scholars and current and former colleagues have attested to her legal acumen and integrity.
 
“Simply put, Dawn Johnsen is anything but a controversial nominee. But she and other highly qualified nominees are being held hostage in a game of petty politics. Americans want the best possible people in charge of government, and it’s time for Senate Republican leaders to call off their blockade.”

NYT picks up the odd case of the L.A. U.S. attorney whisked away from investigating Republicrook Jerry Lewis by the very law firm defending him

"It is impossible to know how much of a setback Ms. Yang's departure was to the investigation of Mr. Lewis. It could be that it slowed down after she left. It could also be that it is going forward just as it would have had she stayed. If it has not been affected, that could be because the close attention Congress and the press are paying to United States attorneys has prevented the White House from installing a 'loyal Bushie,' in Mr. Sampson's famous phrase."
--NYT Editorial Board member Adam Cohen, in an Editorial Observer piece today

This isn't news to DWT readers, because Howie has already reported (most recently in March) on the strange case of Debra Wong Yang, the former Los Angeles U.S. attorney who was the point person in the federal investigation of the man who stands squarely atop DWT's honor roll of Republicrooks Who Should Be in the Slammer, long one of the most powerful and possibly the most corrupt member of the House, Rep. Jerry Lewis [right], who was chairman of the Appropriations Committee until the Democratic takeover of the House this year.

What's strange is that Yang wasn't one of the fired U.S. attorneys. No, as NYT Editorial Board member (and Editorial Page assistant editor) Adam Cohen puts it in an Editorial Observer piece today: "Ms. Yang, in a fortuitously timed exit, resigned in mid-October." Specfically, she was hired away from the U.S. attorney's office by the very law firm that has been defending Jerry Lewis in her investigation.

Cohen, who fleshes out some of the behind-the-scenes detail based on more recent disclosures from the Purge-Gate investigations, allows for the possibility that Yang took the cushy new job in utter innocence that it might have been devised as a way of getting her off Lewis's case. He even allows for the possibility that the existence and timing of the job offer are totally coincidental. Still, he seems to think that there are questions here that still demand answers:

May 4, 2007
Editorial Observer

The U.S. Attorney, the G.O.P. Congressman
and the Timely Job Offer

By ADAM COHEN

There is yet another United States attorney whose abrupt departure from office is raising questions: Debra Wong Yang of Los Angeles. Ms. Yang was not fired, as eight other prosecutors were, but she resigned under circumstances that raise serious questions, starting with whether she was pushed out to disrupt her investigation of one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress.

If the United States attorney scandal has made one thing clear, it is that the riskiest job in the Bush administration is being a prosecutor investigating a Republican member of Congress. Carol Lam, the United States attorney in San Diego, was fired after she put Randy Cunningham, known as Duke, in prison. Paul Charlton, in Arizona, was dismissed while he was investigating Rick Renzi. Dan Bogden, in Nevada, was fired while he was reportedly investigating Jim Gibbons, a congressman who was elected governor last year.

Ms. Yang was investigating Jerry Lewis, who was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Ms. Lam and most of the other purged prosecutors were fired on Dec. 7. Ms. Yang, in a fortuitously timed exit, resigned in mid-October.

Ms. Yang [right] says she left for personal reasons, but there is growing evidence that the White House was intent on removing her. Kyle Sampson, the Justice Department staff member in charge of the firings, told investigators last month in still-secret testimony that Harriet Miers, the White House counsel at the time, had asked him more than once about Ms. Yang. He testified, according to Congressional sources, that as late as mid-September, Ms. Miers wanted to know whether Ms. Yang could be made to resign. Mr. Sampson reportedly recalled that Ms. Miers was focused on just two United States attorneys: Ms. Yang and Bud Cummins, the Arkansas prosecutor who was later fired to make room for Tim Griffin, a Republican political operative and Karl Rove protege.

It is hard to see what put Ms. Yang on the White House list other than her investigation of Mr. Lewis, which threatened to pull in well-connected lobbyists, military contractors and Republican contributors. Ms. Yang, by all accounts, had a strong record. Alberto Gonzales hailed her as "one of the most respected U.S. attorneys in the country."

The new job that Ms. Yang landed raised more red flags. Press reports say she got a $1.5 million signing bonus to become a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm with strong Republican ties. She was hired to be co-leader of the Crisis Management Practice Group with Theodore Olson, who was President Bush's solicitor general and his Supreme Court lawyer in Bush v. Gore. Gibson, Dunn was defending Mr. Lewis in Ms. Yang's investigation.

Several issues bear investigating. First, did Ms. Yang know or suspect that she might lose her job, and jump ship to avoid being fired? That is not hard to believe because Ms. Miers and Mr. Sampson were exchanging e-mail about dismissing her in mid-September, and she announced her departure in October. Ms. Yang served on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, which Mr. Gonzales has called "a small group of U.S. attorneys that I consult on policy matters." That may have put her in a position to be tipped off in advance.

A second possibility is that Gibson, Dunn dangled a rich financial package before Ms. Yang to get her out, and to disrupt the investigation of Mr. Lewis. Ms. Yang, who says she left her job purely for personal reasons, may not have known she was being lured away by people with close ties to Mr. Lewis and the White House, who were hoping to replace her with a more partisan prosecutor.

Another possibility is that the timing of her departure was coincidental. That would make her lucky indeed: after more than 15 years of working for government, she decided to take a private sector job precisely when the White House counsel was apparently trying to fire her.

It is impossible to know how much of a setback Ms. Yang's departure was to the investigation of Mr. Lewis. It could be that it slowed down after she left. It could also be that it is going forward just as it would have had she stayed. If it has not been affected, that could be because the close attention Congress and the press are paying to United States attorneys has prevented the White House from installing a "loyal Bushie," in Mr. Sampson's famous phrase.

United States attorneys serve, as the White House likes to point out, at the pleasure of the president. But if Ms. Yang, or any of the others, was pushed out to prevent justice from being done in a pending criminal matter, it would be a serious misuse of executive authority. It could also be obstruction of justice.

Congress is conducting closed-door interviews with Justice Department officials. That is important, but hardly enough. It is looking more and more as if the United States attorney dismissals were managed out of the White House. The way to put to rest the questions about Ms. Yang's suspicious departure, and the firings of the other prosecutors, is to require that Ms. Miers, Mr. Rove and other White House officials tell what they know, in public and under oath.

BUSH REGIME FIRED CAROL LAM TO PROTECT JERRY LEWIS BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER U.S. ATTORNEY WHO WAS MUCH EASIER TO GET RID OF-- MEET DEBRA WONG YANG

The San Bernardino Sun means a lot more to Jerry Lewis than the NY Times or the Washington Post, newspapers which have carried numerous stories about his outrageous, out-of-control corruption and a systemic criminality that even GOP presidential candidate John McCain felt compelled to allude to it while visiting the Inland Empire recently. Lately, though, the Republican-leaning Sun has been unable to keep Lewis' career in crime off its front pages. Lewis has now spent approximately one million dollars on lawyers-- and he hasn't been indicted yet. Of course, the $1,000,000 was to keep him from being indicted. And there are several theories about how that's been achieved.

In January I introduced readers to a former federal prosecutor from Los Angeles who was investigating Lewis. Her name is Debra Wong Yang. I don't know what federal prosecutors make but I'm guessing it was dramatically less than the $1.5 million signing bonus she got for leaving the feds-- in the middle of her investigation of Jerry Lewis-- and joining a top Republican law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, the very firm, coincidentally which Lewis has paid a million dollars to defend him.

This past week the Sun ran a page one story on the Department of Justice scandal involving the politicized firing of lots of U.S. attorneys including, of course, Carol Lam. They connected the dots. Referring to an e-mail that Gonzales' now-fired chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, wrote the same day news of the Jerry Lewis investigation broke (May 11), which mentions, ominously "the real problem that we have right now with Carol Lam," Dianne Feinstein said on the Senate floor that "the timing looks really suspicious and it raises serious questions that need to be answered."

The investigation into Lewis was brought forward by Debra Wong Yang, the former U.S. Attorney overseeing the Los Angeles office.

Tying the two investigations is Brent Wilkes, a defense contractor indicted by Lam's office shortly before she was fired. Wilkes and top CIA official Kyle "Dusty" Foggo were the ones mentioned in Lam's e-mail sent May 10, 2006.

Wilkes was a client of Copeland Lowery Jaquez Denton & White, the Washington D.C. lobbying firm tied to the Lewis investigation. The now defunct firm's founder, Bill Lowery, is a former San Diego congressman-- who was replaced by Cunningham-- and longtime friend of Lewis'.

Wilkes was also a contributor to Lewis' campaign, and he worked for a former defense contractor who has claimed to have been been interviewed by federal investigators. The former contractor, Tom Casey, said he told investigators that Lewis asked him to hire Lowery's firm and give stock options to Lowery under a false name when the contractor was seeking a federal contract to digitize documents in 1993.

Yang resigned last November from her office to take a job with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher - the same firm Lewis has paid at least $900,000 to defend him.

She reportedly was paid a $1.5 million bonus for joining the firm, one of the most powerful in Los Angeles.

And while Yang was not one of the eight fired prosecutors, some speculation has arisen that she, too, was a casualty of the Justice Department's purge.

People in the know claim Yang was not purged-- just bought off. To this day, Lewis, a linchpin in the entire Republican Culture of Corruption that pervaded Washington, D.C, in recent years, has not be charged with any crimes. By firing Lam, the Bush Regime has signaled the law enforcement community that that's exactly the way they want it.

LEAHY MAY HAVE A LOT OF WORK CUT OUT FOR HIMSELF IF HE'S GOING TO COUNTER BUSH'S NEWEST STRATEGY TO PROTECT CORRUPT CONGRESSIONAL ALLIES

Patrick Leahy, the new Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wasted no time going after two crucial pillars of the Bush Regime: war profiteers and congressional corruption. As Bush goes on an unprecidented firing spree of Federal prosecutors, including Carol Lam, who bagged Cunningham (an investigation far from finished), and otherwise ridding himself of aggressive U.S. Attorneys not in tune with his regime's highly partisan interpretation of law and order-- wait a moment and you'll hear about Debra Wong Yang, who went from prosecuting Jerry Lewis to working for the ultra-Republican law firm that represents him-- Senator Leahy is preparing an anti-corruption package that will extend the statute of limitations on "bribery, deprivation of honest services, and extortion by a public official" by three years. The goal is to make it far more difficult for congressional wrong-doers, like Jerry Lewis, Tom DeLay, Virgil Goode, Conrad Burns, John Doolittle, etc, to escape indictment, trial, conviction and, ultimately, prison for corruption. (And, unlike the legislation depriving corrupt officials of their pensions, this one is retroactive and can be used to go after crooked pols who were pillaging as far back as 2002.

Brian Beutler explains at Raw Story that "current law mandates that, in the absence of an indictment, a public figure will escape criminal prosecution or penalty once five years have passed since committing an act of corruption. Leahy's legislation, which is retroactive to crimes committed five years ago, extends that statute of limitations to eight years." That means the Republicrooks like Hastert and DeLay and Lewis will be liable to prosecution after Bush is out of office.

The solons with the most to loose if Leahy's legislation becomes law are the Abramoff conspirators like Tom DeLay, John Doolittle, Conrad Burns, Eric Cantor, Dirty Dick Pombo, Roy Blunt, Denny Hastert, Thad Cochran, J.D. Hayworth, David Vitter, as well as congressional operators who were taking bribes from contractors including Duncan Hunter, Jerry Lewis, Virgil Goode, Katherine Harris, Ken Calvert, Bill Young, etc.

Leahy's legislation also authorizes an additional $25 million per year for federal investigators and prosecutors to help battle corruption. Interesting that just as Leahy is giving them the resources they have been begging for, Bush is firing them and replacing them with overtly partisan Republican stooges who have not been approved by the Senate.


The most egregious case of unpunished contemporary congressional corruption is that of Jerry Lewis, once Chair, now ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee. With the possible exception of Tom DeLay no one was able to wring more money out of his government service than Jerry Lewis. By forcing one U.S. Attorney out (Lam) and luring one away with a cushy job that promises to lead to a lifetime judgeship (Yang), Bush has done all he can to make sure Lewis will not see the inside of a courthouse.

Yang announced, just before the election that she would be leaving law enforcement-- where she was in charge of the Lewis investigation-- to work for Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a firm stuffed full of extremely partisan right wing hacks like former U.S. solicitor general Ted Olson and former U.S. Attorney for L.A. Robert Bonner. Last year the blue chip firm was enriched by over $800,000 in legal fees from... Jerry Lewis (who still hasn't been indicted).