Rep. Renzi indicted on fraud, finance charges

Reuters ^ | 2-22-08 | Randall Mikkelsen

[GraniteStateConservative]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal grand jury has indicted Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Renzi of Arizona on 35 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and official extortion, according to court papers unsealed on Friday.

The indictment stems from plan by Renzi and an associate to benefit from a land-exchange plan in order to receive Renzi's support for necessary federal legislation, court documents said.

"It was an object of the conspiracy for Renzi to enrich (his associate) and personally benefit himself," the indictment said.

It also accuses Renzi of embezzling premiums from clients of an insurance business to fund his congressional campaign.

Renzi was first elected in 2002.

U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa in Phoenix, where the indictment was handed down, has scheduled a news conference to details the charges.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Marvelous.

[Old Retired Army Guy]

Just what we need. Another crooked Republican.

[Kuksool]

At least Renzi had the sense to not run for Congress before he was indicted.

[cripplecreek]

And the hits keep coming.

[WVNan]

People please vet your candidates. This is getting ridiculous. The GOP is supposed to be the party for the “good” people of America. We are falling down on the job.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Obama will clean up DC, so this should all be a thing of the past soon enough...

[squidly]

Co-chair for McCain’s campaign in Arizona, not national.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Renzi probably appeared to be of fine character 6 years ago.

[advertising guy]

this is exactly what we need in fact. It is time to send the signal ,no rinos, no wife cheaters, no wide stance gay toe tappin, no bending the constitution and no wafflin’ on the WOT.

[org.whodat]

Just another attack by MSM on McCain. “sac off”

[cgbg]

McCain has a history of surrounding himself with slimebags.

This campaign season is going to be one for the ages.

[onedoug]

‘Must have been rehearsing for the Senate.

[Sherman Logan]

The art of writing coherent headlines is apparently a lost one.

It states that the grand jury is involved in land deals. Sheesh!

[wilco200]

Good. I hope Mccain has to withdraw before the convention.

NO more delegates!

[GraniteStateConservative]

Co-chair for McCain’s campaign in Arizona, not national.

Yeah, I knew that, but I wanted to squeeze in as many details about the story from the titles of other articles written about this in the past hour by various news sources as I could to keep duplicates here at FR at bay. I ran out of room and had to delete quite a few more words I wanted to add, including that he was a state co-chair, but that fact was viewed as important by kxmc.com (from a blog associated with KXMC CBS13), which also included this lovely photo:

[levotb]

We? Who “we”? Oh, REPUBLICANS!!

[DFG]

Now if we can get a US Attorney to go after Harry Reid for illegal land deals.

[levotb]

Yeh, me, too! Fat chance...

[SeaHawkFan]

I’m sure Harry Reid will be indicted soon for doing the exact same thing.

[Admin Moderator]

You’ve been here long to know altering published titles is off limits. Don’t do it again, if you value your posting privilges.

[GraniteStateConservative]

The art of writing coherent headlines is apparently a lost one.

That's on me. Because this is a breaking news story with dozens of various places reporting it, I tried to include bits of all the titles I saw to help stop duplicates here at FR. I could have done a better job of it, clearly!

[TheKidster]

Yep, only republicans will be investigated.

[Hoodat]

The indictment stems from plan by Renzi and an associate to benefit from a land-exchange plan in order to receive Renzi's support for necessary federal legislation

So basically, he pulled off a 'Harry Reid'.

Reid Land Deal Under Scrutiny

[GraniteStateConservative]

You’ve been here long to know altering published titles is off limits. Don’t do it again, if you value your posting privilges.

Yes, but this is a breaking news story with dozens of news agencies reporting it, and with only Renzi's last name being a common thread among them. I only picked Reuters because I'd have to excerpt from places like WSJ or can't post from Bloomberg at all. If someone doesn't include the word Renzi as a search term, they could easily repost this same information here at FR, causing a duplicate.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

This is exactly the kind of deal that profited Harry Reid in Nev to the tune of about a mil. The media seems unconcerned about that.

[FormerACLUmember]

The official policy of Reuters is to make no mention of party affiliation for indicted or investigated democrat party members (ESPECIALLY not the headline!).

[Admin Moderator]

Baloney. You’re the only one dragging McCain’s name into this. Do it again and I’ll boot your arse out of here. Got that?

[tflabo]

Yeh Renzi needed to go or be kicked out...unlike Wm Jefferson who gets to stick around on the ‘Rat team.

[Lead Moderator]

For your sake, I hope I’ve made myself clear.

[Myrddin]

I was expect the NYT story for months. It happened as expected. This new announcement really isn't a big surprise. Senator "Keating 5" McCain runs with this crowd. This BS is going to have to be solved at the convention. McCain is not the right guy for us to be running.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I refer you to result #3.

It is a fact that this guy was chosen by McCain as a state co-chair, similar to any other appointments McCain would make as President. It's not irrelevant.

[calcowgirl]

I guess Alberto firing the U.S. Attorney, Paul Charlton, couldn’t even help Renzi, huh?

[BerryDingle]

35 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and official extortion

This guy is an amateur, thats not even 15 minutes of Clinton inc. time.

[nicmarlo]

A federal grand jury has indicted Republican U.S. Rep. Richard Renzi of Arizona on 35 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and official extortion, according to court papers unsealed on Friday.

McShamnesty's finance co-chair indicted............ping!

[GraniteStateConservative]

Actually, I just clicked the link again, and it’s now the #2 result.

[Sherman Logan]

Sorry, no offense intended. I was just amused by the grand jury being involved in crooked land deals.

Who will guard the guardians and all that.

[processing please hold]

Well I for one am truly shocked./sarc

[WVNan]

Yeah, Republicans. We are doing a poor job of selecting our candidates. I know, I know, it’s hard to find honest politicians, but we gotta try harder.

[nicmarlo]

Rick Renzi Indicted: mcCain Co-Chair Hit for Fraud Extortion

[nicmarlo]

totally shocked.

[calcowgirl]

Copy of Indictment from FoxNews (PDF-26 pages)

[mass55th]

He’s only been in Congress since 2002. It didn’t take him long at all to start selling himself to the devil.

[processing please hold]

Yep! lolol

It'll only get worse for Mcpain the closer we come to election time. The lms will make sure of that. Gotta have obamessiah lead this country. He's the new leftist, America-hating God.

God in heaven, help us all.

[nicmarlo]

Saved and to be read; thanks!

[indylindy]

This has been all over the news in Indiana today. I would assume the other guy is a Republican from here.

McLame was here today to drum up some money at a townhall meeting.

He spent a lot of his time going on about Gorebal warming and driving electric cars.

Man, our Pubbies are real democratic like these days.

[nicmarlo]

See my post #40....and Calcowgirl’s link to the indictment, post #42.

[calcowgirl]

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/washingtonpostinvestigations/2008/02/arizona_congressman_indicted.html

(snip)

The federal investigation of Renzi figured in the uproar over the Justice Department’s firing of U.S. attorneys allegedly for political reasons. The Post reported last April that Renzi’s top aide had called the office of Arizona’s U.S. attorney about six weeks before the prosecutor was fired, inquiring about the probe into the congressman’s role in the land deal. The U.S. attorney at the time, Paul K. Charlton, alerted Justice officials about the call. Charlton was the third of nine U.S. attorneys forced to resign in 2006 who had reported to Justice officials that Republican members of Congress or their staffs made inappropriate overtures to their offices about politically sensitive investigations they were supervising.

[nicmarlo]

God in heaven, help us all.

We certainly will be needing it, that's for sure!

[B Knotts]

I guess the response to that is that headline comes from the blog post that is merely reproduced at that link. The blog post was from democrats.org.

Anyhow, this is part of why there was a term limits movement in the 90s. It would be good to revisit that issue, and push for term limits again. It seems that just being in Washington for very long causes a lot of these guys to succumb to corruption.