Posted on 09/30/2005 4:33:27 AM PDT by bullseye1911
Money connected to Reid
Senator arranged for grant now involved in indictment of pastors
By TONY BATT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The money that led to the indictment this week of two Las Vegas pastors and the wife of one of them came from federal grants arranged by Sen. Harry Reid in September 2001, a Reid spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Moving to distance Reid from a possible scandal, aide Tessa Hafen said the senator sought the money on behalf of a nonprofit social services agency and not for the churches or persons who have been accused of mishandling the money.
"The money was administered by the Department of Justice, and it went to the agency in Nevada (Alliance Collegiums Association of Nevada)," Hafen said.
The Rev. Willie Davis, the longtime pastor of Second Baptist Church, and his wife, Emma, were indicted Tuesday on fraud charges with an associate minister, the Rev. McTheron Jones.
They are accused of spending $330,000 from federal grants on themselves although the money was intended for halfway houses for prison inmates in Southern Nevada.
The indictment identifies Willie Davis as president of the Alliance Collegiums Association of Nevada board of directors.
In late 2002, Emma Davis became executive director, and Jones was assistant director.
According to the indictment, a grant of $423,000 was approved for the alliance in September 2002.
The indictment charges the defendants of using the grant money to benefit themselves.
A Reid relationship with the Second Baptist Church surfaced in 1997, when the senator donated $250 to the church where Davis was and still is pastor.
The money came from John Huang, who was convicted of making illegal contributions to the 1996 re-election campaign of President Clinton.
At about the same time, Reid donated another $250 from Huang to the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Las Vegas.
Reid said he made the contributions to the churches instead of returning the money to Huang because he did not think Huang deserved it.
Hafen said Reid has not made contributions to Davis or his church since 1997.
Reid has attended services at the Second Baptist Church "about three or four times" since 1997, Hafen said.
"He says hello to the pastor (Davis) when he goes to the church, but apart from that, the only other time he has seen him was in May when he met with about 30 or 40 ministers to organize a faith-based summit," Hafen said.
Oops!, Posted about the same time. Moderators,feel free to pull.
And I agree that it's very doubtful the MSM will devote their attention to the Dim Reid.
This could have been avoided if Harry Reid, the pastors, the prosecutors, the reporters, and the people reading this article, including myself, had been aborted.
Thanks for posting. BTTT.
Unless Reid profited from the money or from a clear quid pro quo I don't see how this should hurt him. It looks like another con-man minister deal to me with the taxpayer as the mark.
At about the same time, Reid donated another $250 ...to the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Las Vegas...
Hafen said Reid has not made contributions to Davis or his church since 1997.
Reid has attended services at the Second Baptist Church "about three or four times" since 1997, Hafen said.
Reid was obviously not giving for the right reasons. Reid is LDS. Seems like vote buying, if you ask me.
There seems to be a culture of Corruption in the Democrat Party :-)
I agree Reid was probably not involved in the scam nor did he receive any money from the scam, HOWEVER what we have here is the purchase of votes with federal dollars. Reid used federal funds to buy the votes of these people.
Now lets face facts. If we locked up every politician that bought votes with federal funds, most every incumbent would be in jail.
Now lets place this in perspective with the case against Tom Delay who is being railroaded for doing what Democrats in his state were doing.
That would be more than enough to indict a Republican and cause him to step down from a leadership position. But since Reid is a Democrat, we are supposed to give him every benefit of the doubt, because Democrats fight for the public interest.
I would venture to say that Reid received the minority vote in Nevada.
Interesting read, but no suprise here. Thanks!
This will never be mentioned on any political shows - Stephanopolous and Russert already have their boners on full display, preparing to "objectively" discuss this Sunday how the Republican Party is in "tatters" and how the "mainstream" Democrat Party will regain power in 2006.
I wonder what the payoff was to cover. John Huang money went to the same criminals, after it was discovered John Huang gave illegal contributions to Reid. Curious web.
Not good for politicians to do business with shady characters, especially when you no longer run the justice department.
Have you heard this on Cnn/MSNBC/Fox???? Delay was breaking news.
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