Add confidential FBI files that aren't supposed to be discussed publicly to the list of things Democrats will use to try to block President Bush's judicial nominees. Speaking on the Senate floor last week, Minority Leader Harry Reid referred to "a problem" in confidential files on Michigan Appeals Court Judge Henry Saad. "All you need to do is have a member go upstairs and look at his confidential report from the FBI, and I think we would all agree that there is a problem there," he said. In so doing, Mr. Reid brought the battle over the president's nominees to a new, character-assassinating low. But if Mr. Reid has been following the rules, he hasn't even seen the files. He only knows about them through hearsay, some perfunctory news articles in the Detroit Free Press and the Gannett News Service a year ago or an apparent mistaken Internet broadcast of a Judiciary Committee hearing on Judge Saad.

http://www.epic.org/privacy/databases/fbi/filegate/

The FBI File Controversy

In June 1996, it was revealed that the White House had requested and obtained the FBI records on over 400 individuals without their permission. Other unconfirmed news reports now say that as many as 900 files might have been pulled. Many of those individuals were former employees during the previous Republican Administrations. Congress is now investigating the affair and had held several hearings. In addition, many of the individuals are considering filing actions against the FBI for violation of the 1974 Privacy Act.

In Nevada (his home state), Reid Is the Name to Know; Members of this one lawmaker's family represent nearly every major industry in their home state. And their clients rely on Sen Reid's goodwill.

Ponder this: It was the kind of legislation that slips under the radar. The name alone made the eyes glaze over: "The Clark County Conservation of Public Land and Natural Resources Act of 2002." In a welter of technical jargon, it dealt with boundary shifts, land trades and other arcane matters — all in Nevada.

As he introduced it, Nevada's senior U.S. senator, Democrat Harry Reid, assured colleagues that his bill was a bipartisan measure to protect the environment and help the economy in America's fastest-growing state. ..... What Reid did not explain was that the bill promised a cavalcade of benefits to real estate developers, corporations and local institutions that were paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in lobbying fees to his sons' and son-in-law's firms, federal lobbyist reports show.

The IRS is looking into these phony trusts.

They need to nail Reid's collusion with businesses ---particularly officers of publicly-held companies---- in the scheme that might include corporations' misusing corporate reserve accounts, concealing losses, inflating asset values and improperly accounting for transactions, as well as deferring profits into reserve accounts, improperly shifting capital funding to other projects to hide illegal payments to Reid, and might have employed money laundering schemes to siphon money into Reid's campaign accounts, in order to evade the IRS, SEC, FEC and US banking laws.

Anyone with concerns should contact the SEC here: EMAIL enforcement @SEC.gov.

The "trust" itself should be looked at for excessive "legal fees" and "admin fees" which are classic money laundering schemes.

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