Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm Shits On Andrew McCabe For Trump

In case you missed Chris Hayes' jaw-dropping interview with double (or triple) agent Felix Sater Friday night, MSNBC has actually posted it in embeddable form. That's it above. Sater is the kind of instinctual career criminal who will work for the Mob one day, the FBI or CIA the next day and the Russians the day after-- at the time, of course-- working for no one but Felix Sater. They don't come lower. But they do come as low. Remember Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm? Like Sater, he likes to immunize himself from criticism by screaming how he served in the military. But, like Sater, Grimm has flitted from one thuggish outfit after another, betraying each in turn and always looking out for Number One.

And, like Sater, Grimm is currently out of prison and trying to rehabilitate his image-- except he's going about it by running for his old Staten Island/South Brooklyn congressional seat-- the most Mafia-oriented House seat in the country. Staten Island is the last redoubt of the Italian Mafia and south Brooklyn is America's top Russian Mafia territory. Both areas voted for Trump in 2016. The district as a whole gave Trump 53.6% of the vote to Hillary's 43.8%. The current congressman, Dan Donovan is a conventional mainstream conservative, a Republican whose voting record is pretty much identical to what Grimm's was like before he got hauled away to prison. He's a former district attorney, fighting for his political life in a district that is evenly split between the cops and robbers.

Grimm was Steve Bannon's first House recruit, just before Bannon was unceremoniously banished from Trumpville-- his project to destroy the Republican Party establishment shelved. Grimm, who spent a couple months with his head up Bannon's ass, now routinely denounces him. Long before Grimm ever imagined he would run for Congress, he was an undercover agent for the FBI. And an undercover agent for the Mafia-- a double agent. I started following Mikey Suits before he got into politics, when he was just the lowlife bag man who took the Duke Cunningham long-disappeared and unaccounted for $400,000 bribe from Thomas Kontogiannis to George W. Bush. Funny how Grimm, Cunningham and Kontogiannis all went to prison but the "missing" $400K has never been recovered. So much water under the bridge in the last decade and a half!

And last night, while many of us were watching slime bucket Felix Sater spinning his lies on MSNBC, Grimm-- remember, an ex-FBI agent-- released a statement about Andrew McCabe's firing.

"The firing of Andrew McCabe is the first time I've seen true justice on the federal level since the corrupt witch hunt I personally endured. Don't be shocked when Peter Strzok, Loretta Lynch and James Comey are the next to be revealed for the corrupt partisans that they are. As a former FBI agent that was investigated and fully exonerated by Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of the Inspector General, I can attest to the integrity of that team of watchdogs. The FBI and DOJ's highest echelon of political appointees needs to be cleaned out and this was a necessary step in preserving the faith we all have in the nation's premier law enforcement agency and its brave rank and file."

Interesting perspective from the former Gambino Crime family operative! During the Romney campaign, when Grimm was already in Congress, enough Mikey Suits dirty laundry started leaking out that Romney staffers made the Staten Island congressman a persona non-grata and removed him from his campaign position and took his name off the official Romney website. The specific impetus was when Grimm snuck off from the the GOP frat party at the Sea of Galilee to visit some organized crime connections in Cyprus. The FBI was in hot pursuit and one of Grimm's Cyprus connections, Panayiotis "Peter" Papanicolaou, currently in prison. At the time, both the NY Times and the NY Post ran stories they'd been working on for a very long time... about Grimm's connection to the Mafia here at home, specifically he Gambino connection. Ironically, Grimm's first conversation with then Speaker John Boehner was to demand that Members of Congress be allowed to pack heat on the House floor. Instead Boehner had him banned from his office. The Post got excited about Grimm's Gambino connection.

Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm investigated the Gambino crime family as an FBI agent-- before opening a restaurant with a business partner so close to one of the mob clan’s capos, he considers him an “uncle,” according to sources and court documents.

The first-term Republican’s ex-business partner, Bennett Orfaly, regularly travels to the federal lockup in Fort Dix, NJ, to visit his pal Anthony "Fat Tony" Morelli, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said.

Morelli’s mob assignments included overseeing the family’s investments in pornography, labor racketeering and illegal dumping, law-enforcement sources said.

Late Gambino boss John Gotti put him in charge of the family’s Florida rackets, one source said.

Morelli, who is serving time on several convictions, is “like an uncle” to Orfaly, another source said.

Asked about his Gambino connections, Orfaly declined to comment. Grimm is under investigation for alleged fund-raising irregularities in his 2010 campaign.

As an FBI agent, Grimm was responsible for keeping tabs on John Gotti’s brother Peter. He also worked undercover on a case that resulted in the arrest of Gambino soldier Greg DePalma.

...An Israeli named Ofer Biton, who until recently was jailed on an a charge of immigration fraud.

He was released to house arrest on a $1.5 million bond after Orfaly posted his stake in several restaurants co-owned with Biton, according to court papers.

Biton’s lawyer, John Meringolo, says the feds are threatening his client with more serious charges unless he testifies against Grimm in the fund-raising probe.

...Before his election to Congress in 2010, Grimm and Orfaly had been partners in an Upper East Side eatery, Healthalicious.

McGinley [Grimm's lawyer] says that prior to making his run, Grimm sold his share of that business to Orfaly.

But three sources familiar with the ongoing probe, told The Post the purchaser was Biton. Either way, Biton now owns Healthalicious outright, sources said-- and he is partners with Orfaly in several Manhattan pita restaurants.

As far as Biton goes, prosecutors claim that a decade ago, he was a member of an ecstasy ring in California and was wiretapped talking to a senior Israeli organized-crime associate. Biton was never charged with any drug crime.

In addition to his problems with the feds, Grimm also faces a civil lawsuit by Healthalicious workers, alleging wage violations when he was part-owner.

A lawyer for the workers, Michael Faillace, said they settled with Orfaly, but Grimm asked that an agreement with him be postponed until after the election.

Now keep in mind that before Grimm ran for Congress, he had been kicked out of the FBI, mostly for taking payoffs from Kontogiannis. Kontogiannis' story would be the biggest political blockbuster of our lifetimes. He's been told he'd be found dead in his cell if he ever tries to tell it though-- and it involves Saudis, Greeks, a $400,000 cash bribe to George Bush and... Grimm. In August, 2013, Grimm's fundraiser Ofer Biton plead guilty in a sweet deal that saved Grimm a lot of trouble.

A former fund-raiser for Representative Michael G. Grimm, whose campaign finances are under investigation by federal prosecutors, pleaded guilty on Friday to visa fraud.

The former fund-raiser, Ofer Biton, an Israeli immigrant who helped direct hundreds of thousands of dollars from supporters of a revered rabbi to Mr. Grimm’s campaign before his election to Congress in 2010, was arrested last August and charged with lying on his visa application.

Followers of the rabbi, Yoshiyahu Pinto, have said in interviews that Mr. Grimm or Mr. Biton told them that the campaign would find a way to accept donations that were over the legal limit, were given in cash or were given by foreigners who did not have permanent resident status.

Is it any wonder Grimm hates the FBI today. Too bad they don't talk about what he was up to when he was a double agent. It would make the Bureau look too bad.

Wouldn't It Be Ironic If Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm Were Reunited With "Fat Tony" Morelli In Prison?

Most Americans never heard of Michael Grimm until the infamous "I'll break you in half like a boy" incident on the balcony of the Congress. If you're a DWT reader, you've been reading about Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm, Gambino Crime Family mobster turned Staten Island GOP congressman, since 2005 when he had a tangential role in a hushed up case of New York mobster/real estate developer Tom "Gus" Kontogiannis giving Randy "Duke" Cunningham $400,000 to try to buy a pardon from then President George W. Bush. Kontogiannis, a Long Island Republican real estate developer, could have his picture in a dictionary next to the definition of "sleaze." And he knew just where to turn for a presidential pardon after pleading guilty in a serious bribery, kickback and contract-rigging scandal that cheated Queens school students out of $5 million dollars worth of computers: Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Kontogiannis' partner in crime-- who also plead guilty, was the District School Superintendent and a failed Republican candidate for Congress (financed, of course, by Kontogiannis), Celestine Miller who wound up with 4 houses (worth approximately $1 million) + $80,000 in campaign contributions for her participation in the felony. Kontogiannis bought a boat, now abandoned and worthless, from ole "Duke," the "Kelly C." for at least $400,000 more than it was worth, to obtain Duke's help in getting Bush to pardon him.

Grimm later tried getting Kontogiannis off the hook for a life that was basically, like his own, an unending crime spree.

Staten Island  Rep. Michael Grimm urged a federal judge to spare a New York-based developer with three bribery-related convictions from serving a day in prison, the Daily News has learned.

Grimm sought leniency for Thomas Kontogiannis in 2008, before Grimm entered Congress as a Republican and after he had left a career as an FBI agent. Kontogiannis then faced sentencing on his third conviction-- for helping funnel $1 million in bribe money to former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R-Calif).

In a three-page letter, Grimm asked California Federal Judge Lawrence Burns to “be as lenient as the law will allow and your conscience accepts, granting him a noncustodial sentence.” Burns sentenced Kontogiannis to eight years [a sentence that has grown over the years].

Grimm had been kicked out of the FBI for extracurricular activities, working with the Mob, taking payoffs from Kontogiannis, as well as for shady dealings with Florida real estate and a Texas-based biofuel company. He later went into business serving fake organic food at an unhygienic "health food" restaurant, Healthalicious, a front for Gambino crime family boss Anthony (Fat Tony) Morelli, where he got into trouble with the law for cheating his employees. This is long before he financed his congressional campaign almost entirely with illegal foreign contributions-- and for urging Boehner to allow Members of Congress to pack heat. NY Times ace reporters Alison Cowan and William Rashbaum have been on Grimm's tail for a long time and reported on his unsavory "business dealings" for years, including the Healthalicious scandal that is reportedly part of the current indictment.

Twelve years later, Mr. Grimm was back in business in New York, where he formed a company called Granny Sayz, L.L.C., which operated Healthalicious, a restaurant on Second Avenue near 83rd Street in Manhattan. The company was affiliated with a company now connected to Mr. Biton, the Grimm fund-raiser who is under investigation.

The New York State Workers’ Compensation Board last month ordered Healthalicious to pay $88,000 for not carrying workers’ compensation insurance. And in 2011, two former deliverymen retained a lawyer, Dan Knauth, asserting that the restaurant had paid them less than minimum wage, did not pay for work beyond 40 hours per week and paid cash to evade scrutiny.

Mr. Knauth said he contacted Mr. Grimm’s office about the complaints. Shortly afterward, Mr. Grimm filed papers with the state to dissolve his company, Granny Sayz.

On Dec. 1, the deliverymen sued the restaurant, Mr. Grimm and others.

The defendants have not responded in court. But the restaurant has engaged in maneuvers that make it more difficult to sue.

The restaurant’s legal name originally contained the word Healthalicious, with a C. Then in 2010, it was changed to Healthalitious NYC (with a T).

Finally, right after the lawsuit was filed, the restaurant changed its legal name again, to Healthalicious Upper East Side-- with a C.

He became more famous for campaign finance fraud that included organized crime in Cyprus and Israel and for shocking public escapades like incidents in nightclubs involving guns and sex in toilets.

The indictments that have been filed could involve any of criminal activities that have defined Michael Grimm's life. Maddow got that right in the opening segment of her show last night (above). She did forget to mention that Grimm, who has already paid shady DC law firm/political entrepreneurs Patton Boggs around a quarter million dollars to keep him out of prison, owes them another $417,478. Rashbaum reported in the Times last night that the U.S. Attorney's case was "expected to include mail fraud and wire fraud, and to focus largely on his conduct in connection with a health food restaurant he owned on the Upper East Side of Manhattan after he left the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2006, two of the people said. He was also expected to be charged with obstruction of justice, for allegedly lying under oath in a federal lawsuit."

The investigation of the second-term congressman, by the F.B.I. and the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn, began more than two years ago with an examination of Mr. Grimm’s fund-raising for his 2010 race and expanded. Two of his fund-raisers have already been charged. One, Diana Durand of Houston, was charged with illegally funneling more than $10,000 into his campaign. The other, Ofer Biton, pleaded guilty to visa fraud charges.

But on Friday, it did not appear that the indictment would include any campaign finance charges or accusations that the congressman had misused his office, although several of the people noted that the investigation was continuing. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity as the charges had not been formally announced and they were not authorized to discuss the case.

Sad, tiny postscript: the two conservative Democrats running for Grimm's seat, Domenic Recchia (a corrupt Steve Israel "mystery meat" pick) and religio-sociopath Erick Salgado, are both so unsavory that even Grimm could beat either of them... campaigning from a prison cell! Recchia's only hope is that the rumors of Grimm be willing to resign as part of a plea bargain are true. Reportedly, it's now too late for the Republicans to get his name off the November ballot.

When Mikey Suits was arrested Monday an FBI spokesman said “As a former FBI agent, Representative Grimm should understand the motto: fidelity, bravery, and integrity."

Mafia's Rep In Congress-- Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm-- Is Still Not In Prison

Ken used to be an opera critic for the NY Times but, that aside, neither of us get many calls from ace Times reporters working on explosive investigative pieces about criminal congressmen. A couple years ago, though, several Times reporters called me because, it turns out, DWT was the first to report anything at all about a rogue FBI agent named "Mikey Suits" who went over to the Dark Side-- first to the Mob and then to the GOP for the Mob. It was 2005 and there was a frantic scramble to coverup a $400,000 payoff from Tom Kontogiannis to George W. Bush via bribe-happy San Diego Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham. Kontogiannis needed a presidential pardon and gave Randy "Duke livin' large free of charge" Cunningham the cash for Bush. No one has ever traced that biggish bundle of dough. But the Gambino Crime Family opertaive, "Mikey Suits" was involved with various "business" dealings with Kontogiannis (now in prison).

During the Romney campaign, enough Grimm dirty laundry started leaking out that Romney staffers made the Staten Island congressman a persona non-grata and removed him from his campaign position and took his name off the official Romney website. The specific impetus was when Grimm snuck off from the the GOP frat party in the Sea of Galilee to visit some organized crime connections in Cyprus. The FBI was in hot pursuit and one of Rep. Grimm's Cyprus connections, Panayiotis “Peter” Papanicolaou, is in jail now.

At the time, both the NY Times and the NY Post ran stories they'd been working on for a very long time... about Grimm's connection to the Mafia here at home, specifically he Gambino connection. Ironically, Grimm's first conversation with Boehner was to demand that Members of Congress be allowed to pack heat on the House floor. Wisely, Boehner has avoided him ever since. The Post got excited about Grimm's Gambino connection.

Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm investigated the Gambino crime family as an FBI agent-- before opening a restaurant with a business partner so close to one of the mob clan’s capos, he considers him an “uncle,” according to sources and court documents.

The first-term Republican’s ex-business partner, Bennett Orfaly, regularly travels to the federal lockup in Fort Dix, NJ, to visit his pal Anthony “Fat Tony’’ Morelli, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said.

Morelli’s mob assignments included overseeing the family’s investments in pornography, labor racketeering and illegal dumping, law-enforcement sources said.

Late Gambino boss John Gotti put him in charge of the family’s Florida rackets, one source said.

Morelli, who is serving time on several convictions, is “like an uncle” to Orfaly, another source said.

Asked about his Gambino connections, Orfaly declined to comment. Grimm is under investigation for alleged fund-raising irregularities in his 2010 campaign.

As an FBI agent, Grimm was responsible for keeping tabs on John Gotti’s brother Peter. He also worked undercover on a case that resulted in the arrest of Gambino soldier Greg DePalma.

...An Israeli named Ofer Biton, who until recently was jailed on an a charge of immigration fraud.

He was released to house arrest on a $1.5 million bond after Orfaly posted his stake in several restaurants co-owned with Biton, according to court papers.

Biton’s lawyer, John Meringolo, says the feds are threatening his client with more serious charges unless he testifies against Grimm in the fund-raising probe.

...Before his election to Congress in 2010, Grimm and Orfaly had been partners in an Upper East Side eatery, Healthalicious.

McGinley [Grimm's lawyer] says that prior to making his run, Grimm sold his share of that business to Orfaly.

But three sources familiar with the ongoing probe, told The Post the purchaser was Biton. Either way, Biton now owns Healthalicious outright, sources said-- and he is partners with Orfaly in several Manhattan pita restaurants.

As far as Biton goes, prosecutors claim that a decade ago, he was a member of an ecstasy ring in California and was wiretapped talking to a senior Israeli organized-crime associate. Biton was never charged with any drug crime.

In addition to his problems with the feds, Grimm also faces a civil lawsuit by Healthalicious workers, alleging wage violations when he was part-owner.

A lawyer for the workers, Michael Faillace, said they settled with Orfaly, but Grimm asked that an agreement with him be postponed until after the election.

That's what Staten Island elected to Congress in the Great Blue Dog Apocalypse of 2010. The NY Times piece, where, unlike The Post, they reject sensationalistic reporting, sounds at least as tawdry as The Post's! Investigative powerhouse Alison Cowan asserts that the role of Healthalicious in the Grimm story was to "burnish his image as an entrepreneur" in his political biography.

It could not be determined whether Mr. Grimm ever had dealings with Mr. ["Fat Tony"] Morelli before or after he resigned from the F.B.I. in 2006.

New York City records indicate that Mr. Grimm’s ties to Mr. Orfaly begin as early as 2006, when Mr. Grimm began laying the legal framework for the restaurant that the two men would jointly operate at Second Avenue and 83rd Street.

Their work together continued for at least three years. In June 2009, both men signed a city health department application to renew a license for the restaurant, documents show.

A few months later, the accountant for the restaurant, Wayne Muratore, was listed in campaign finance documents as the first treasurer of Mr. Grimm’s 2010 campaign for the House. Mr. Muratore did not respond to phone calls or e-mails.

Mr. Grimm has said that he sold his interest in Healthalicious before taking office in January 2011, although he has given varying accounts of how and when the deal transpired.

Pictured below is Grimm's partner, Orfaly, leaving the U.S. Courthouse with Grimm fundraiser, Ofer Biton. Not sure who's daughter is being used as a shield.

Now keep in mind that before Grimm ran for Congress in Staten Island, he had been kicked out of the FBI, mostly for taking payoffs from Kontogiannis. Kontogiannis' story would be the biggest political blockbuster of our lifetimes. He's been told he'd be found dead in his cell if he ever tries to tell it though-- and it involves Saudis, Greeks, a $400,000 cash bribe to George Bush and... the freshman crook who represents Staten Island in Congress today. This past Friday, Biton plead guilty in a sweet deal that saves Grimm a lot of trouble.

A former fund-raiser for Representative Michael G. Grimm, whose campaign finances are under investigation by federal prosecutors, pleaded guilty on Friday to visa fraud.

The former fund-raiser, Ofer Biton, an Israeli immigrant who helped direct hundreds of thousands of dollars from supporters of a revered rabbi to Mr. Grimm’s campaign before his election to Congress in 2010, was arrested last August and charged with lying on his visa application.

Followers of the rabbi, Yoshiyahu Pinto, have said in interviews that Mr. Grimm or Mr. Biton told them that the campaign would find a way to accept donations that were over the legal limit, were given in cash or were given by foreigners who did not have permanent resident status.

Congressional campaigns are not allowed to accept cash donations of more than $100 and foreigners without resident status are barred by law from donating to political campaigns. At the time of Mr. Biton’s arrest, lawyers not involved in the case said that the charges appeared to have been meant to persuade him to cooperate with the authorities in the investigation of Mr. Grimm, a Staten Island Republican, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

There are rumors, completely unconfirmed, that Biton has promised to cooperate with DOJ prosecutors in the probe of Grimm. I'll believe it when I see it. The New York Daily News is reporting that the plea agreement does not mention cooperation as a condition, but the government and the judge agreed to spring him from house arrest, which he's been serving for the past 10 months. "After Biton was arrested a year ago, the feds said he was refusing to cooperate with their probe into whether Grimm received illegal campaign contributions."

Grimm has refused to take questions related to his Mafia connections and right now he's too busy picking fights with Rand Paul anyway. Grimm is tight with another Mafia-related Republican politician, New Jersey's corrupt governor, Chris Christie.

No, that's not Fat Tony; it's another Grimm Mafia pal

With All The Scandals Raining Down On His Head, Will Mikey Suits Grimm's Porno Involvement Make Any Difference?

First I ever knew of now-Congressman Michael Grimm (AKA, "Mikey Suits") was when he was still a two-bit hoodlum playing both sides of the fence between the FBI and Organized Crime. We only discovered him because of his sleazy relationship with the now imprisoned Tommy Kontogiannis, one of the guys bribing the also now-imprisoned ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA). Before Grimm ran for Congress in Staten Island, he had been kicked out of the FBI, mostly for taking payoffs from Kontogiannis. Kontogiannis' story would be the biggest political blockbuster made in our lifetimes. He's been told he'd be found dead in his cell if he ever tries to tell it though-- and it involves Saudis, Greeks, a $400,000 cash bribe to George W. Bush and... the freshman crook who represents Staten Island in Congress today.

Now, I'm sure CREW had no idea yesterday when they launched their latest Scoundrel of the Month poll featuring Grimm, that it would come out the same day as another exposé on the congressman who makes it into the newspapers every month with another scandal-- from associates being arrested to wild frat parties at the Sea of Galilee. This one, courtesy of the A.P., involves one of the old ones uncovered earlier in the year by the NY Times... but with a twist, a really twisted twist. Grimm's illegal campaign donation and blackmail scandal around Israeli-Brooklyn Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto has veered off into the pornography business.

In mid-August, FBI agents arrested an Israeli businessman who had helped Grimm raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from Pinto’s wealthy, zealous followers in New York. The entrepreneur and rabbinical aide, Ofer Biton, was charged with lying about his financial dealings in 2010 when he applied for a U.S. visa.

The arrest came as the FBI has been investigating claims made by other Pinto followers, who say they made tens of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions to Grimm during his 2010 run, including gifts that were passed through straw donors to hide the true source of the donations. FBI agents have recently been requesting records and interviewing people who were on the campaign staff.

Grimm, himself a former FBI agent, has repeatedly declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press about the matter. He has acknowledged raising $250,000 to $300,000 from Pinto’s supporters-- about a third of all money contributed in the first 12 months of his campaign-- but denied any knowledge of improprieties.

...“My campaign and I followed the fundraising rules, and took reasonable measures to vet the contributions received by my campaign,” he said in a statement to the AP. “Indeed, I relied on Rabbi Pinto’s status as a clergyman and holy man when agreeing to meet with individuals associated with his congregation.”

Campaign records and other public documents make it clear, however, that after tapping the rabbi’s followers for money, Grimm wound up getting help from people who candidates normally keep at arm’s length.

One of the rabbi’s closest aides, Benzion Suky, owned a company that distributed porn videos and has settled lawsuits by adult film studios who accused him of selling bootlegged DVDs, according to court records. Suky and his wife gave a combined $9,600 to Grimm’s 2010 campaign and a real estate partnership that lists Suky as its managing member gave $4,800, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Another big donor was Rafi Maman, proprietor of companies in North Bergen, N.J., that distribute adult films and sex toys. He also has settled lawsuits accusing him of bootlegging, including two which also named Suky as a defendant. Maman, his wife and a real estate partnership that he listed as his employer gave $19,200 to Grimm’s campaign. That total includes $7,200 in individual contributions from Maman, or $2,400 more than is allowed by law.

A third Grimm contributor, Eli Halali, is listed in business records as the agent of another company that distributed pornographic movies. His name also appears on at least one such video, “Blonde & Beautiful Vol. 1,” as the keeper of records verifying that the film’s performers were over age 18. He gave $4,800. Two apparent relatives, Bluria Halali and Jaclyn Halali, each contributed $4,800.

Biton, formerly one of Pinto’s top aides, also had a hand in adult entertainment. Florida business records list him as being the president of AMOB Inc. The company is registered at the same address as the Miami Playground, a shop once named by an alternative newspaper as the city’s the best adult video store.

Election records do not list any donations from Biton, who, as an Israeli citizen without permanent residency in the U.S, is barred from giving money to political candidates.

But the Israeli helped Grimm in other ways that are allowed, including accompanying him on fundraising visits to congregation members, several of whom were heavy hitters in New York’s real estate and jewelry businesses.

...At age 38, Pinto has achieved a fervent following in Israel, and has become famous there for his connections to political figures and business tycoons, some of whom credit him with mystical powers to bless their deals.

His success as an adviser to the rich and famous has made his organization wealthy; the Israeli edition of Forbes magazine recently ranked Pinto as Israel’s 7th richest rabbi, based on organizational holdings. Long based in the Mediterranean port city of Ashdod, Pinto opened a second headquarters in 2002 in New York, where he resides in a $6.5 million town house and delivers sermons in a building purchased in 2009 for $28.5 million.

When Grimm’s campaign began, Pinto’s U.S. followers had also begun to establish themselves as a source of campaign cash for pro-Israel candidates. A handful had given hundreds of thousands of dollars to political committees controlled by U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, and U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat.

Grimm, a Catholic ex-Marine and a ferocious supporter of Israel, received his first bundle of checks from the rabbi’s supporters in December of 2009, just two months after entering the race.

One donor, New York deli owner Josef Ben Moha, said he and his wife gave a combined $4,800.

“It’s not something that I had to have my arm twisted. I was asked nicely. I decided he was a nice guy,” said Ben Moha, who has been one of Suky’s partners in a real estate venture. “The people who seemed to be helping him, they saw good qualities in him. I guess I did too.”

In the two years since the election, Pinto’s religious organization, Mosdot Shuva Israel, has been a frequent target of media scrutiny. News articles in the Jewish press accused it of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury travel and raised questions about its handling of millions of dollars in donations.

Pinto’s own father-in-law, an influential rabbi in Argentina, complained in a court filing that Pinto-- who professes to have no worldly possessions-- had enlisted him in a scheme to conceal his ownership of luxury apartments in Jerusalem.

More recently, a Pinto aide, rabbi Abraham Israel, was detained by Israeli police in April as part of an ongoing investigation into suspected money laundering and theft at an anti-poverty charity, Hazon Yeshaya. A spokesman for Pinto said he had no involvement in that charity.

Large amounts of Shuva Israel’s money have also disappeared, according to the organization’s lawyers. In December, Pinto and his supporters publicly blamed Biton, claiming he had embezzled large sums. They also made allegations, first reported last year in the New York Times, that Biton had conspired with another member of the congregation to extort money from the rabbi by threatening to plant damaging stories about him in the media.

Biton has called the extortion and embezzlement allegations lies.

In the waning days of the 2010 election, Pinto also began telling associates, including then-Congressman Anthony Weiner, that his support of Grimm had been coerced.

Weiner wound up reporting that murky allegation to the FBI. He told the AP he didn’t say anything publicly at the time and won’t discuss the details of the rabbi’s allegations now, because, “I didn’t know whether it was true or not.” A law enforcement official confirmed that the FBI had received the report.

Grimm has called any suggestion that he was tied up in some sort of plot with Biton, “profoundly absurd.”

So far Grimm has spent $320,000 in campaign contributions for lawyers fees to keep him out of prison on the "profoundly absurd" charges. And, yes, I voted for Grimm... in the CREW poll.

Mikey Suit's Got Talent-- But Not The Musical Kind... Nor Even The Legislative Kind

Mitt Romney seems to have picked a criminal operative as his main NY surrogate

The New York Times is on the Mikey Suits case-- big time. Mikey Suits? We first ran across him-- a dirty cop connected to the myriad scandals swirling around Thomas "Gus" Kontogiannis and Duke Cunningham. "Suits" was an FBI agent-gone-bad but after he was booted out of the FBI he went even worse-- way over to the Dark Side, so far over that he's wound up a Republican congressman from Staten Island-- Michael Grimm-- who, a freshman, is already mired in so many scandals, no one can keep track of them all! Tomorrow morning the Times has another story about his shady business connections. Grimm is the nexus between Congress and organized crime, although he always hides behind his service as a marine and as an FBI agent.

Although the NYC media is all over the stories, the heavy lifting is being done by Alison Cowan and Willie Rashbaum at the Times, two of the best investigative journalists in America. Last month they got the ball rolling with a campaign finance scandal that's proving to be just the tip of an iceberg. Short version: hundreds of thousands of dollars laundered from foreign sources not by Grimm operatives but by Grimm personally. But that's his cowboy/mobster style-- like when he came roaring into a Manhattan bar at 4am with some armed thugs, screaming "All the white people get out of here," so he could deal with the nonwhite people without white witnesses. He's even brought his thuggish demeanor to Congress, suggesting that Members carry guns.

Grimm is just another Republican-- a junior more gutter version of Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Spencer Bachus (R-AL)-- using his position to rake in the dough, stinking to high Heaven but being protected by John Boehner who, not so long ago, vowed a "zero tolerance" stance towards corrupt members of his own caucus. Even before the heavy duty connections between Grimm and Kontogiannis become public, the drip, drip, drip from Grimm's sewer would have seen him suspended from the House Financial Services Committee within moments. But he's still participating on both his very sensitive subcommittees, Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit and Capital Markets and Government-Sponsored Enterprises. This week the NY Daily News makes it clear to its Staten Island readers that another Grimm bribery scandal may be conveniently legalistic... but it's certainly still bribery.

Seven months after sponsoring legislation to run a pipeline under Jacob Riis Park, the freshman congressman has collected some $3,000 from its backers.

Grimm, a former FBI agent, won his Staten Island campaigning as an outsider who wasn't going to buy into the crippling go-along-to-get-along ethos of inside the Beltway.

"The American people are sick and tired of the way Washington works," Grimm told the Daily News last May. "It's broken and I'm here to do things in a different way."

But the intersection of money, power and legislation is highlighted in the latest campaign financial disclosure statements-- not just for Grimm but others in the New York delegation.

"It's truly a system of legalized bribery," said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center.

"You can't go in and say, 'Please vote for this bill, or kill this bill and I'll send you a check.' But you can go in and say, 'We'd like you to be a leader on this issue.' That's perfectly legal," she said.

A recent example where money follows legislation is Grimm's bill to allow the Williams Companies and National Grid to run a natural gas pipeline under Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways.

Remember when one of Mitt Romney's top surrogates was Larry Craig-- just before Craig was caught in a public toilet soliciting sex from a male undercover cop? If you thought that was embarrassing for the clueless Willard campaign, just watch what happens when the Grimm-Kongtogiannis scandals start rearing their heads in the media.


UPDATE: Fall Out On Staten Island

Guy Molinari, still il duce of Staten Island Republican politics, in a move to protect his brand, replaced the tarnished and exposed Grimm as a Republican presidential convention delegate.

A borough Republican suggested that the Romney campaign was looking to distance itself from Grimm, who has been accused of taking illegal campaign contributions. Grimm has denied the allegations... The Romney campaign declined to comment.

Sometimes The Wheels Of Justice Turn In Fits And Starts-- Will Republicrook Thomas "Gus" Kontogiannis Rat Out Ken Calvert?

DownWithTyranny has been following the criminal escapades of Thomas Kontogiannis ever since he attempted to buy a pardon from George W. Bush for $400,000, most recently when a former Kontogiannis associate wrote a guest post on the imprisoned gangster. 

Far from a household name, Kontogiannis has been bribing public officials and showering ill-gotten loot on Republicans for decades. He's best known nationally as the man whose bribes sent Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) to the federal penitentiary. But there's so much more to Kontogiannis than just bribing sleazy pols like Bush and Cunningham. He was at the very forefront of the nascent mortgage meltdown and the foreclosure crisis. When Republicans talk about "freedom" and about "liberty," it's always, always, always about the freedom and liberty of sociopath goons like Kontogiannis to prey on society without interference from government or any countervailing forces working to protect consumers and workers-- the law of the jungle.

Yesterday Businessweek reported that Kontogiannis, already serving a prison sentence for the Cunningham scandal, pleaded guilty for his role in an unrelated real-estate swindle.

Kontogiannis, 61, pleaded today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York. He led a scheme to defraud Washington Mutual Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG’s DLJ Mortgage Capital in connection with the development of properties in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, said prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch.

“I used the funds generated by the fraudulent transactions primarily to finance the construction of ongoing real-estate development projects,” Kontogiannis told U.S. District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto. “While I never intended to cause any financial loss to any financial institution, I knew that the means I was using to obtain these loans was wrong.”

Nine people were indicted in the case last year, accused of obtaining multiple mortgages and staging repeated sales of the same properties to straw buyers to obtain the home loans. The fraud began in March 2003 and ran until September 2007, prosecutors said. Three defendants pleaded guilty earlier this year and one has died.

Kontogiannis, who admitted to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, previously pleaded not guilty in the case in June 2009. The conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, Matsumoto said in court.

...Kontogiannis is serving a sentence of eight years and one month for helping to launder Cunningham’s bribe money through fraudulent mortgages that allowed the former congressman to buy a $2.4 million mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Kontogiannis was sentenced in San Diego in May 2008.

Cunningham, a California Republican, resigned from Congress after pleading guilty in 2005 to taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. He is serving a sentence of eight years and four months.

The defendants in the Brooklyn case also allegedly obtained permits to construct multi-unit housing in Queens and Brooklyn and, to finance the projects, subdivided the land tracts and staged sales of the properties financed by the mortgage loans, the U.S. said.

They are accused of preparing false loan filings to create the appearance the properties were being purchased by credit- worthy individuals.

One defendant provided fraudulent appraisals to support the price of the properties, even when no buildings existed or had fictional addresses, prosecutors said.

Kontogiannis “controlled every aspect of the mortgage-lending process,” Lynch said in a statement today.

Loans were financed by lenders controlled by Kontogiannis and later sold to Washington Mutual and DLJ, prosecutors said. The defendants stopped making the mortgage payments in 2007 with about $92 million in principal outstanding on the fraudulent mortgages, the government said.

Sound complicated? The Wall Street Journal summed it up in a very straightforward paragraph yesterday. Kontogiannis, as our informer first revealed last month here at DWT, 

employed family and workers who acted as straw buyers on properties he owned and directed false loan files. The mortgages included false appraisals and other documentation. After the loans closed, Kontogiannis prevented the mortgages and deeds from being recorded, so he could sell the same property repeatedly. He eventually sold the loans to Washington Mutual or the Credit Suisse unit DLJ Mortgage Capital Inc. 

It is widely believed that he's busy ratting out some of his criminal conspirators, including a crooked nephew, John T. Michael, and possibly even one of his shady daughters! The question, of course, is how far up the food chain he's willing to go. While no one expects him to turn state's evidence against Bush, he could certainly send Cunningham-crony congressman Ken Calvert to prison for a good long time. Kontogiannis arranged for a meeting in Saudi Arabia with that country's future king for Cunningham, Calvert, himself and Ziyad Abduljawad, another sleazy operator, late in 2004. 

Calvert has acted as a Saudi agent inside Congress, although he has gone to great lengths to claim he has no involvement with Kontogiannis other than one trip on a private jet to meet with members of the Saudi royal family-- paid for by a known Saudi intelligence operative. When Fox News revealed that Calvert is probably the single most corrupt Member of Congress, they concentrated on his record of real-estate fraud and ignored his arrest record as a sexual predator and deadbeat dad and his involvement with the Saudis. Kongtogiannis could help make the latter case if he chooses to.

Blue America has endorsed Calvert's opponent, Bill Hedrick, and we even have a page especially dedicated to Calvert's one-man crime spree where you can donate to Hedrick's campaign.

Plenty More Beans To Spill On Republican Criminal Thomas "Gus" Kontogiannis

Here at DWT we've been covering the antics of two-bit Republican crime operative Tommy "Gus" Kontogiannis for a long time. His myriad shenanigans are fascinating, of course, and his moment of national notoriety for bribing Randy "Duke" Cunninghan was obvious, but for us it was always the big $400,000 he paid for a pardon that made him worth keeping tabs on. Kontogiannis is a loathsome and contemptible creature, who, among other things, sold defective computers to an inner city school district on behalf of a sleazy Republican Party candidate looking to finance a campaign, but he wasn't stupid and he certainly knew that a fifth rate Republican Congressman from San Diego County didn't have the power to pardon him, 400,000 clams or not. Only one person could do that and until a few days ago I never met anyone who had first hand knowledge of the plot to bribe George W. Bush. And then I met Mr. X.

His name isn't really Mr X but he knows Kontogiannis long enough and well enough to also know his life and the lives of his family would be in jeopardy-- even with Kontogiannis in prison-- were word to get out that he's talking about the big unmentionable. Here's Part I of Mr. X's story:

The question is: does a monster know that he's a monster or does he think that he's just like everyone else? Does he ever realize he is nothing more profound then a piece of human debris, a full blown sociopath?

As Tommy Kontogiannis cried to Judge Burns upon his sentencing for bribing a dissolute U.S. Congressman, "I'm sorry for all those people that I hurt and let down, I didn't mean to hurt anybody." Burns bellowed back "You come to this court asking for leniency while at the same time your rear end is on fire for stealing money for your mortgage scam! Let's put you in a free hotel for the next 10 years-- the U.S. Federal Prison."

Yeah, Mr. Stolen Net Worth of $550,000,000-- something revealed in a Brooklyn, NY courtroom in the early part of this summer-- was finally and spectaulary sent away, a consequence of fracturing and distorting our government and so many people's lives.

In the infamous case of world class gangster and cold blooded thief, Tommy Kontogiannis, he was a truly self delusional sociopath whose crimality bear no contrition or remorse.

Self delusional after his conviction on bribing a NYC Board of Education official, Celestine Miller-- who was also a Republican congressional candidate-- with a bag containing $50,000 in cash (hey, we all need inside deals for real estate and computers from time to time). When Miller ran for the Queens House seat vacant because of the resignation of right-wing embezzler Floyd Flake in 1997, the larceny-minded Republican, financed by Kontogiannis, came in 4th (with 8.8%) after the Democrat (56.5%), the Conservative (Alton Waldon who had once served in the seat as a Democrat; 20.8%, and an independent (13.1%).

For the "minor" transgression-- bribery and selling defective computers to the school system-- Kontogiannis received a 4 month house arrest sentence and a $5,000,000 fine (which, until his recent conviction, he paid off at a rate of $50,000 monthly, on time, every month for the last 5 years). His dopey lawyer, Ray Shane, took much of the rap for that, went to jail for a year and lost his attorney's license. Tommy boy told him not to worry; he'll take care of poor Ray for his selfless deed.

Uhhh, sorry about that Ray; lying is what Tommy does and lying is what Tommy is. No help for Ray.

Then, in a way that could be described as griandiose, arrogant and/or delusional, he cozied up to self-described Top Gun, Randy "Duke" Cunningham and helped finance an aristocratic lifestyle for the trashy southern California wingnut. He did that so that the blustering Cunningham, always the loud-mouthed braggart, would help him get him a Presidential Pardon from none other then Mr. Innocent himself, George W. Bush, a pardon he desperately needed for the 1st conviction (the bribing of the Board. of Ed. official). Without the pardon he couldn't directly do business with the government and he was at the mercy of a daughter who is so much like him in a business sense that he knew he could never trust her. That's 2 bribes and nothing to show for it but a jail sentence. But there's more... a lot more.

Finally, and always in self denial, after destroying hundreds of hard working people's livelihoods and credit in a $300,000,000 mortgage Ponzi scam, which, as he sits in Federal Prison for the second transgression with Cunningham, he currently under indictment for. To make matters more hideous, all these people worked for him at a company he stole, looted and bankrupted; Blue Ridge Farms/Chloe Foods. But that's a story for another time.

For a career criminal like our old buddy Tommy "Gus" Kontogiannis, life is just one crime bumping up into another, paralleling themselves and falling into a constant tragic theater for all those he touches. Whether it's his family, such as likable nephew John Michael, his daughter, "I wish I had a penis like Dad's," Annette, his other simpleton daughters Lisa and Chloe, Georgia, the big GOP contributor in the family and the wife who thinks that donating stolen charity is somehow flamboyantly spiritual and grants you Absolution and Providence, or the big boys: Congressmen Duke Cunningham, southern California Southern U.S. Attoney Carol Lam, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez (he got rid of Lam for pursuing Rep. Jerry Lewis and Tommy boy too aggresively), CIA Executive Foggo, or the uncle of Assistant U.S. Attorney Halpern, whose home Tommy bought for his daughter, while he was prosecuting the same Duke Cunningham. There are plenty more. Not only in the US, but in Greece, Chile, Saudi Arabia and new places that we will talk about.

This whole story starts with a brilliant dark scheme called mortgage fraud. You see our boy was poignantly ahead of his time. This little skip of his over banking rules didn't happen when it was in vogue however, like in the mid 2000's, but commenced about 15 years before. As a young builder starting out in Queens, NY he developed a vulgar appetite for "the good life." He quickly found out that in order for a builder to make money from housing he must sell the ones that are built. However, when he couldn't sell them fast enough, he just took out mortgages for those already on the market, but unsold, and paid himself. The more homes he built, the more mortgages he needed and he pawned them off to the unsuspecting banks and, with no one to negotiate the prices, the profits just rolled in. He then used the new mortgages from the current homes to pay off the older ones and away we went. A mortgage Ponzi scheme was born. If he sold a piece of developed property that was great, but as his need for more cash grew, so did the size and the cost of the new homes. He was constantly buying new mortgages to pay the old ones off and the new ones where getting larger and larger.

This went on for years and Tommy amassed a fortune from stolen mortgage money. He then set up his own mortgage companies. This way he avoided messy questions like: why does someone need 10 mortgages on the same block or why does 1 piece of property have 3 mortgages attached to it? When business got really good, he bought a small bank in Texas, the Sanderson Bank, for his daughter Annette Apergis. This way he would be able to wash all the money through with nobody on the outside to get suspicious. This was one of the first banks to implode in the mortgage crisis of 2008.

He built the house, mortgaged the house through his mortgage company, bought the initial mortgage with his bank and wrapped the whole thing up and sold them to the larger banks. This prodigious scam went on until it slammed up against the banking collapse of 2007 caused by... mortgage scams. Tommy's personal bank and his mortgage companies could no longer get the funds that were needed to fund his Ponzi empire. The lawsuits and indictments are continuing to pour in for the Kontogiannis crime family.

But there is more. When you have a need for a lot of mortgages, you need a lot of people. Beneath this lies the improbable connection to hundreds of lower middle class working people who were either duped, threatened or coerced into signing these illegal toxic documents. Tommy would give the irresistible sales pitch "Sign this mortgage for $1,500,000 and you'll be saving your job and your company. Don't worry, it's from my mortgage company, no one will ever bother you; I'll
pay it off real soon and you can even take the tax deduction for the interest that you don't even have to pay!"

Where did our boy get all these people to sign his mortgages from? Why they all worked in one of his construction companies that were building the homes that were necessary to write the phony mortgages. When those people ran out, he just wrote more to the same people. He just didn't bother with the troublesome detail of letting them know. That was no longer necessary because he had their Social Security numbers in the grip of his grabbing hands.

Eventually, even some banks would only lend so much money to people making $35,000 a year. That was no problem for Tommy. He then turned his attention to relatives, in-laws, prospective in-laws, new friends, old friends and any and all candidates to fuel his formulaic Ponzi drive.

In the ultimate bit of chutzpah, he raided the personnel records of the food company he stole, Blue Ridge Farms, and took hundreds of employees' Social Security numbers and wrote up hundreds of millions of dollars of new worthless mortgages. In this poignantly sad chapter he destroyed all of these working people's livelihoods and credit. These are so many of the struggling people that need the credit to live week by week. To this day this parasitic crook says he did it to help the companies that they all worked for stay open. As he lived in his 5 acre, marble columned, Long Island Gold Coast estate, sailing the Mediterranean summers, they lost everything.

Eventually all of these companies went bankrupt. Looted and destroyed, many of them having won millions of dollars of judgments against Tommy, documenting the theft.

But that my friends, that isn't even why the guy with the Barbie Doll hair plugs, bad teeth and table manners in jail!

[To be continued]

Do You Remember Thomas Kontogiannis, The Republican Crook Who Paid Duke Cunningham $400,000 To Get Him A Presidential Pardon From Bush?

In the late 70s I was so smitten by the energy and revolutionary zeal of punk rock that I decided to start a magazine. Some friends at Warner Bros gave me so advice. In defining ourselves-- as well as a new genre-- we'd have to not just talk up the music and artists we loved, like the Clash, Ramones, Talking Heads, Pistols and Buzzcocks but also differentiate them by blasting away at the worst of the "old wave." I picked all the easy targets: Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Kansas...

Almost 3 decades later I started DownWithTyranny and I still remembered their advice. In place of Journey, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon and Styx we had Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, Jack Abramoff and Thomas Kontogiannis. (Kansas was replaced by... well, Kansas, of course.) We eagerly reported on all their crimes and eventually all 4 were sentenced to prison, to be replaced by equally horrible characters, from Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Jerry Lewis and Mean Jean Schmidt to more recent demons like Michele Bachmann, Jeffereson Beauregard Sessions III, Virginia Foxx and Paul Ryan.

Anyway, this morning I was surprised when I noticed a large number of Germans on the site, having come by way of the German Wall Street Journal pointing to DWT as a place to read about Thomas Kontogiannis. I was busy with President Obama's speech in Cairo and didn't pay it much mind. At least not until this evening when I came across a Reuters story, Nine accused of $92 million U.S. mortgage fraud scheme.

Staring in July of 2005 we did a couple dozen posts mentioning Kontogiannis, all of them mentioning that he is a Republican criminal of the first order tied with the sleaziest politicians in our system. What first attracted me to his story was how he paid Duke Cunningham $400,000 as a middleman to buy him a presidential pardon from George W. Bush. It always amazed me that the Justice Department never followed up on that. It wasn't til a few years later that we learned exactly what the Bush Justice Department had turned into.

Just when it looked like things couldn't get any worse for San Diego suburban congressman/right-wing lunatic/bribe-taker Randy "Duke" Cunningham, up pops convicted felon and Cunningham "business associate" Thomas Kontogiannis. At least in this case Cunningham wasn't arranging no-bid contracts for his criminal pal to sell military equipment to the Pentagon (like in the other case he's involved with). In this case Cunningham was peddling a pardon from his pal George Bush to a crook who cheated the NYC public school system. In October, 2002 the Congressman's bud Kontogiannis (of whom Cunningham's sleazy lawyer said "Duke's business dealings with Mr. Kontogiannis have been entirely proper and any suggestion to the contrary is simply false") pleaded guilty in a bid-rigging, bribe and kickback scheme. Sounds like he and "Duke" were made for eachother. And he bought ole "Duke's" crappy old boat-- worth $200,000 tops-- for $600,000. Is that a great way to pay someone off with a $400,000 bribe or what? This seems to be ole "Duke's" modus operandi. Oh, and Kontogiannis arranged for the financing of "Duke's" $2.5 mansion. No one has indicated whether or not Bush was in on the scheme and if he was getting any of the cash in return for the upcoming pardon.

It got worse from there and even included unproved treason allegations featuring a secretive trip to Saudi Arabia with Cunningham, another GOP crook, Ken Calvert, and Ziyad S. Abduljawad, a naturalized American of Saudi origin living in San Diego. In mid-2007 Kontogiannis pleaded guilt to some bribery charges involving Cunningham. Exactly one year ago he was sentenced to 8 years in prison and fined a million dollars. Read the 42 comments at the post announcing that.

I guess we all had reason to believe that Kongtogiannis had left the national stage, right? I mean, he's in prison. But yesterday he was back in the papers, along with 8 others indicted on charges of conspiring to defraud Washington Mutual Bank and Credit Suisse in a $92 million mortgage fraud scheme. Kontogiannis was the leader of the pack.

Thomas Kontogiannis and eight others are accused of using staged sales, straw buyers and inflated appraisals on two tracts of land in East New York and Queens to defraud Washington Mutual Bank and DLJ Capital, a Credit Suisse subsidiary.

The scheme unfolded between 2001 and 2003, according to a release issued by Brooklyn acting U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell.

Kontogiannis, 60, is serving an eight-year federal prison sentence for laundering bribes paid to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.).

He also pleaded guilty in 2002 to being part of a bid-rigging and bribery scheme involving New York City Board of Education computer contracts in Queens.

Other defendants in Thursday's case include John Michael, Elias Apergis, Steven Martini, Nadia Konstantinadou, Stefan Delgiannis, Ted Doumazios, Edward Hogan and Jonathan Rubin.

The North Country Gazette has the most detailed coverage and points out that Kontogiannis could get 30 years added to his 8 year sentence. He's still got $50 million in property and that could be subject to forfeiture.

Who Will Bush Pardon Today?

Last week hack Republican pols, led by Snarlin' Arlen Specter, did all they could to associate self-serving and outrageous pardons with Democrats through the Eric Holder confirmation hearings. No one thinks Holder isn't going to be confirmed but Republicans are happy to smear him and stick his shaken and damaged credibility-- at least among Fox News and Rush Limbaugh consumers (those who Krugman includes this morning, in another context, as cranks, charlatans, and Republicans)-- in the bank for future use.

Of more immediate use is the breathing room Bush needs as he prepares to flee town, his tattered Bush Legacy Program stuffed into bags, his own pardons left behind. Yep, today's the day for the Bush pardons. Josh Gerstein has a list of the most likely recipients over at Politico, although he left off big Republican donor Roger Clemons and convicted cranky old ex-Senator who knows where the bodies are buried Ted Stevens.

I guess the preemptive pardon for Cheney is out (same for himself), but the case I'm most interested in following is that of former Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham, convicted of taking more bribes than any other member of Congress ever. One of Cunningham's "clients" was another GOP crook, Gus Kontogiannis who paid Cunningham $400,000 to get him a pardon from Bush. That $400,000 has never been fully accounted for and many think it will now go towards buying Cunningham himself a commutation (if not a pardon). Politico rates Cunningham's chances a mere 50 to 1 shot; I think they're wrong. We should know by the end of the day. I sure would love to hear from a disappointed and vindictive Duke Cunningham.


UPDATE: THE PARDONS

Wingnuts of the Lou Dobbs variety will be dancing in the streets. Bush just commuted the sentences of border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean who shot a fleeing drug suspect in the back (and then tried covering it up). It's not a black-and-white case that lends itself to simple answers and Alex Koppelman at Salon did the best writing I've found on it, back in 2007.

With the help of reporters and activists promoting -- and embellishing -- the defense's version of the case, the two convicted agents were transformed into martyrs for the battle against illegal immigration. Instead of rogue officers who shot a fleeing, unarmed suspect and then lied about it, they became stand-up cops who were forced to shoot an armed drug dealer and then sent to prison by a legal system run amok. After they went to prison in January 2007, they even became the tragic heroes of a country song called "Ramos and Compean."

Nearly 400,000 people have signed a petition demanding a presidential pardon for the agents. There are two bills to pardon them pending in Congress, one with more than 100 cosponsors, including five Democrats [xenophobic reactionaries Zach Space, Bart Gordon, Tim Holden, Lincoln Davis and Buddy Cramer].

How did Ramos and Compean get reinvented as right-wing heroes? The answer lies in the way Americans get their information, from a fragmented news media that makes it easier than ever to tune out opposing views and inconvenient truths. When people seek "facts" only from sources with which they agree, it's possible for demonstrable untruths to enter the narrative and remain there unchallenged. The ballad of Ramos and Compean is a story that one side of America's polarized culture has gotten all wrong and that much of the other side-- and the rest of the country-- has never even heard.

Federal prosecutions of law enforcement agents are not undertaken lightly. "No prosecutor ever wants to be in a position of prosecuting a cop or a federal agent," says Johnny Sutton, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, whose office prosecuted Ramos and Compean. "They're our co-workers, they're our friends, we represent them in court ... But when one steps over the line and commits a serious crime, it's very important that they be held accountable ... [and] most agents would say what these guys did was outrageous."

Prosecutors in Sutton's office considered the conduct of Ramos and Compean outrageous enough that the two men were charged with seven and nine counts, respectively. Both were charged with assault with intent to commit murder. At trial, government prosecutors presented a case, supported by eyewitness testimony, that alleged the following: On Feb. 17, 2005, Aldrete-Davila led Border Patrol agents on a high-speed car chase that ended at a ditch about 120 yards from Mexico. Aldrete-Davila abandoned a van with 743 pounds of marijuana inside and made a dash for the border. Compean, on foot, intercepted Aldrete-Davila, who put his hands in the air to surrender.

The NY Times is reporting that that's it for Bush and he's not going to grant any other commutations or pardons in the hours left of his term. This one means that "the prison sentences of the men, both from El Paso, will expire on March 20, the Justice Department said. The supervised release and fines will still apply."

“These agents shot someone whom they knew to be unarmed and running away,” said the prosecutor, United States Attorney Johnny Sutton. “They destroyed evidence, covered up a crime scene and then filed false reports about what happened. It is shocking that there are people who believe it is O.K. for agents to shoot an unarmed suspect who is running away.”

...The leniency was granted to the former agents even though the Justice Department had not completed its review of the case, according to officials at the agency. A president’s constitutional power to grant pardons or commutations is unfettered, but Justice Department officials sometimes feel resentful if leniency without their full review.

A commutation is not as generous as a presidential pardon, which essentially erases a crime from a defendant’s record. There had been speculation that President Bush would grant clemency to some high-profile defendants, but the White House official said the two ex-agents would be the last to benefit.

I. Lewis Libby Jr., former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, could have been granted a pardon for his role in the leaking of a C.I.A. agent’s name and an attempted cover-up. In July 2007, Mr. Libby’s prison sentence was commuted. Nor was there any clemency for former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who in late October was convicted of ethics violations for not reporting gifts and services given by friends. Mr. Stevens would lose his bid for a seventh term.

UPDATE: NO MORE PARDONS

Michael Isikoff is confirming: no pardons for Scooter Libby, Alberto Gonzales, Duke Cunningham, Michael Milken, George Ryan, Conrad Black, Edwin Edwards, Ted Stevens, Roger Clemens, et al. On his last day in office, Bush finally does something right!

A DWT Contest: Who Will Bush Pardon?

Republicrook Tom Kontogiannis already paid Bush $400,000 for his pardon

Most observers feel certain that pre-emptive pardons will be granted to everyone involved in the organized unconstitutional operations the Bush Regime was involved in, especially torture and the policy of non-cooperation with congressional investigations after the 2006 elections. But what about the garden variety criminals petitioning Bush as his term winds down? This morning's Washington Post points to some high-profile clemency requests. Personally, I've always felt that Bush will be eager to pardon all the Republican politicians who have the goods on him-- like Randy "Duke" Cunningham-- and that he'll make that seem more palitable by just pardoning all the crooked politicians currently incarcerated or headed for incarceration plus a couple of sleazy Louisiana nominal Democrats.

With a backlog of applications piled up at the Justice Department, high-profile criminals and their well-connected lawyers increasingly are appealing directly to President Bush for special consideration on pardons and clemency, according to people involved in the process.

Among those seeking presidential action are former junk-bond salesman Michael Milken, who hired former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, one of the nation's most prominent GOP lawyers, to plead his case for a pardon on 1980s-era securities fraud charges. Two politicians convicted of public corruption, former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and four-term Louisiana governor Edwin W. Edwards (D), are asking Bush to shorten their prison terms.

Ted Stevens claims he doesn't want a pardon because he thinks he can win an appeal-- and knows full well that if he loses, Obama will pardon him anyway; the most exclusive club in the world sticks together and Justice isn't something any of them every really have to face.

To me the most interesting crooked Republican looking for a pardon, which he already paid $400,000 for via Cunningham, is Thomas Kontogiannis, but I'm also eager to watch what happens with some of the other GOP criminals who were superstars of Bush's lawless reign, from Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff to Tom Noe, Irving Libby (AKA "Scooter"), Mitchell Wade, Rick Renzi, Doolittle and his moll, Dusty Foggo, Brent Wilkes, et al.

How about a DWT contest? We'll ship 50 brand new CDs (so even at just $10 each, that's $500 dollars worth) to the person who names the most people who get pardons, although if your list includes someone who doesn't get a pardon, that's deducted from your score. Submit all lists to downwithtyranny@gmail.com before Bush starts issuing the pardons. Before you start working on it though, consider the resolution Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) just introduced, H.R. 1531, which urges Bush not to pardon senior administration officials for crimes the President authorized. In his resolution Nadler urges Congress to investigate the Bush Regime's most serious crimes and any pardons relating to them, and urges the post-Mukasey Attorney General to appoint an Independent Counsel to prosecute any criminal activity that's discovered.


UPDATE: THE PARDONS BEGIN WITH SMALL FRY... COKE DEALERS AND SUCH, NONE OF THE BIGGIES YET

Did Bush just wake up from his pisco sour hangover and start pardoning random criminals? The first batch of 18 looks fairly nonpolitical and kind of random, although the first guy, Leslie Owen Collier of Charlestown, Missouri appears to be an anti-environmental nut who poisoned three bald eagles, a red-tailed hawk, a great horned owl, a opossum, a raccoon and seven coyotes. Actually, the second guy, Milton Kirk Cordes, was also pardoned for an offense against animals, violating the Lacey Act: "The Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 3371-3378, protects both plants and wildlife by creating civil and criminal penalties for a wide array of violations.  Most notably, the Act prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold. Thus, the Act underscores other federal, state, and foreign laws protecting wildlife by making it a separate offense to take, possess, transport, or sell wildlife that has been taken in violation of those laws."

Looks like there are some drug deals and bank embezzlers too, all stuff Bush can easily relate to from his own and his family experiences. Here's the whole list for you to go over while I check to see if any of them have donated to Bush's campaigns:

PARDONS:

Leslie Owen Collier (Charleston, Mo.)
Offense: Unauthorized use of a registered pesticide, 7 U.S.C. §§ 136j(a)(2)(F) and 136l(b); violation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, 16 U.S.C. § 668(a).
Sentence: Feb. 2, 1996; Eastern District of Missouri; two years’ probation and $10,000 in restitution.

Milton Kirk Cordes (Rapid City, S.D.)
Offense: Conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act; 18 U.S.C. § 371, 16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(2)(A), 3373(d)(1)(B).
Sentence: Dec. 14, 1998; District of South Dakota; 18 months’ probation conditioned on loss of hunting privileges for one year, performance of 100 hours of community service and payment of a $2,000 fine.

Richard Micheal Culpepper (Mahomet, Ill.)
Offense: False statements to the United States; 18 U.S.C. § 287.
Sentence: Jan. 15, 1988; Central District of Illinois; five years' probation conditioned on payment of a $1,000 fine and $4,351.90 in restitution.

Brenda Jean Dolenz-Helmer (Fort Worth, Texas)
Offense: Misprision of a felony; 18 U.S.C. § 4.
Sentence: Dec. 31, 1998; Northern District of Texas; four years' probation, with the special condition of 600 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine.

Andrew Foster Harley (Falls Church, Va.)
Offense: Wrongful use and distribution of marijuana and cocaine; Article 112a, Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Sentence: April 17, 1985, as approved June 13, 1985; U.S. Air Force general court martial convened at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.; 90 days' confinement, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and dismissal from the Air Force.

Obie Gene Helton (Rossville, Ga.)
Offense: Unauthorized acquisition of food stamps; 7 U.S.C. § 2024(b), 18 U.S.C. § 2.
Sentence: April 1, 1983; Eastern District of Tennessee; two years’ probation, $500 fine and $875 in restitution.

Carey C. Hice Sr.- Travelers Rest, S.C.
Offense: Income tax evasion; 26 U.S.C. § 7201 and 18 U.S.C. § 2.
Sentence: March 5, 1996; District of South Carolina; three years’ probation condition on 180 days' home confinement and a $13,000 fine.

Geneva Yvonne Hogg (Chamblee, Ga.)
Offense: Bank embezzlement; 18 U.S.C. § 657.
Sentence: June 19, 1980; District of South Carolina; five years’ probation and a $500 fine.

William Hoyle McCright Jr. (Midland, Texas)
Offense: Making false entries, books, reports or statements of bank; 18 U.S.C. § 1005.
Sentence: Oct. 20, 1986, as amended September 23, 1987; Western District of Texas; two years’ imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.

Paul Julian McCurdy (Sulphur, Okla.)
Offense: Misapplication of bank funds by a bank officer; 18 U.S.C. § 656.
Sentence: Feb. 12, 1988; Eastern District of Oklahoma; five years’ probation and $5,000 in restitution.

Robert Earl Mohon Jr. (Grant, Ala.)
Offense: Conspiracy to distribute marijuana; 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846.
Sentence: Oct. 22, 1987; Northern District of Alabama; three years in prison.

Ronald Alan Mohrhoff - (Los Angeles)
Offense: Unlawful use of a telephone in furtherance of a narcotics felony, 21 U.S.C. § 843(b); possession of cocaine, 21 U.S.C. § 844(a).
Sentence: Oct. 9, 1984; Central District of California; one year of in prison followed by five years’ probation with the special condition of 2,500 hours of community service.

COMMUTATIONS:

John Edward Forte (North Brunswick, N.J.)
Offense: Aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine; 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(A)(ii), 18 U.S.C. § 2.
Sentence: Nov. 20, 2001; Southern District of Texas; 168 months in prison, five years’ supervised release and a $5,000 fine.

Terms of commutation: Sentence of imprisonment to expire on Dec. 22, 2008, leaving intact and in effect the five year term of supervised release with all its conditions.

[Forte is a graduate of the elite Phillips Exeter Academy prep school who later became a producer for the The Fugees and put out a couple of his own albums. Not sure if Bush has his stuff on the White House iPod. Fellow songwriters Carly Simon and Orrin Hatch were pushing for the commutation.]

James Russell Harris (Detroit, Mich.)
Offense: Conspiracy to aid and abet the distribution of cocaine, 21 U.S.C. § 846; attempted money laundering, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(3) and 2; aiding and abetting the attempted distribution of cocaine, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1); conspiracy to affect interstate commerce by obtaining property under color of official right, 18 U.S.C. § 1951; attempt to affect interstate commerce by obtaining property under color of official right, 18 U.S.C. § 1951.
Sentence: May 10, 1993; Eastern District of Michigan; 360 months in prison, five years’ supervised release and a $50,000 fine.

Terms of clemency grant: Unpaid balance of fine remitted; sentence of imprisonment commuted to expire on Dec. 22, 2008, leaving intact and in effect the five year term of supervised release with all its conditions save the obligation to satisfy the unpaid balance of the fine.