Posted on 03/15/2006 8:00:52 AM PST by SmithL
Theeeeey're back! After months of relative quiet, the Justice Department has kicked its influence-peddling investigation of state Senate leader Don Perata into gear again, with FBI agents interviewing members of the Oakland City Council over the past couple of days.
The interviews, conducted at council members' offices, appear to center on whether Perata, D-Oakland, was leaning on council members to vote in ways that would indirectly help his friends and relatives.
"Basically, they wanted to know what kind of influence Don had on votes," said Councilman Larry Reid, who was interviewed by the FBI on Monday.
Reid said the FBI was also interested in any contact he and other council members had with others in Perata's orbit, including:
-- Former Perata college friend and business associate Timothy Staples.
-- One-time Perata aide-turned-lobbyist Lily Hu.
-- And Perata's son Nick Perata, a political consultant.
Reid said agents had also shown him a list of Hu's clients and asked if he knew any of them.
"They seemed interested in the contracts that some members of the African American community feel they were locked out of," Reid said.
Councilwoman Nancy Nadel also got a visit from the feds Monday.
"They asked me if I knew about any corruption that Sen. Perata might have been involved in," Nadel said. She said she didn't.
"They also asked me if Lily Hu had lobbied me on certain contracts," Nadel said.
"They also asked me if I had ever taken any money for a vote," Nadel said. She said she hadn't taken a dime.
As he's risen from county supervisor to state assemblyman to Senate president pro tem, Perata has built one of the most effective political...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Just another criminal carry-over from the Grey Davis days of crime and corruption. Let us hope they nail this leftist criminal (is that redundant?) this time around -- ole Pistol-packin' Perata.
It will take a miracle to get these poverty pimps out of office.
bttt
"A life-long Alameda County resident, Perata was the first local legislator to organize a ban on assault weapons. His twelve-year effort was finally realized when, as a State Senator, he wrote the strongest assault weapons law in the nation."
PeRATaGate Bump..
The tax bullets and diapers Don..
Man, I would love to see Perata do a perp walk.
Put him in the same caell as Duke Cunningham.
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