Posted on 07/23/2011 10:23:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
Waters threatens to sue the House Ethics Committee for mishandling her case.
The long-delayed ethics probe of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) may be underway again, however Waters is now threatening to sue the House Ethics Committee.
Waters is accused of using her influence to gain special treatment for Massachusetts-based bank OneUnited, which received $12 million in bailout funds. Changing a law was required in order to get them the money. Her husband, former Ambassador Sidney Williams, owned more than $350,000 in stock in the bank, and had also been a board member.
Because of infighting following the November 2010 election, her trial had been postponed indefinitely. Waters is now seeking to have the case dismissed and is threatening legal action against the committee as well. According to Politico:
Rep. Maxine Waters is calling for the House Ethics Committee to dismiss the long-running case against her, claiming she can’t get fair treatment from the secretive panel in the wake of allegations that staffers improperly shared information in an investigation into her finances.
In another story, Politico claims information about Waters’ finances was funneled to Republicans on the committee improperly:
Blake Chisam, the former staff director and chief counsel for the Ethics Committee, accused the two lead investigators in the Waters probe of secretly feeding information to Republicans on the Ethics Committee, including [Congressman Jo] Bonner. Chisam also accused the staffers of misleading lawmakers and other staff on the status of the investigation.
Since these two stories broke, the committee has hired outside counsel to continue the investigation. NPR reports:
The House ethics committee has named Washington lawyer Billy Martin as an outside counsel to investigate California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters.
The announcement Wednesday follows months of conflict in the committee over handling of the case.
It’s notable that Waters is not asking for the case to be dismissed on the merits, but only because she claims she can no longer get a fair trial. According to Politico:
[Waters’ attorney Stan Brand] laid out several “categories of misconduct by current Committee members and staff,” including “prohibited and prejudicial ex parte communications” … “internal and malicious misleading of members and staff relating to the investigation” by the two ex-staffers; “Evidence of partiality and bias” against Waters; “the use of trumped-up federal obstruction and perjury charges by Committee counsel…”; and “the illegal leaking of confidential Committee documents, transcripts, emails and other information to the media to create a miss-impression regarding both the strength of the case against [Waters] and the Committee ability to proceed with the case.”
According to the Legal Times, Martin is a well-known trial lawyer with a resume that includes the Department of Justice, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, and former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell.
Hopefully the appointment of the special investigator in this case will speed things to a resolution. This case has been still for over a year, the delay originally caused by supposed new evidence in the case:
Her trial was delayed because new evidence had supposedly come to light. What that evidence is was not specified. But according to a story on SFGate.com, at least part of that evidence was an email from her grandson Mikael Moore, who is also her chief of staff:
The e-mail never mentioned OneUnited. Moore’s memo said Waters was “under the explicit impression” that provisions affecting small and minority-owned banks were still in the bailout bill. …
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that he inserted the provision for minority banks to protect OneUnited — because it is based in his state.
He said of Waters, “We never discussed it.”
The provision sought by Waters — and inserted by Frank — told the Treasury Department that it should consider — for bailout money — banks that had an asset size of $1 billion or less, and whose size dropped to a lower range because they owned devalued preferred stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The only bank that language would affect was OneUnited.
This case needs to be resolved one way or another, although it’s highly unlikely Waters will receive serious punishment even were she to be convicted.
South Central LA? Holder's People?
[ Where is the justice! Take this bitch down immediately. ]
Justice will come when monkeys fly out of Holders butt...
Unless he is indited and hung by his dreadlocks.. then spat upon..
2 House ethics attorneys suspended (includes lead attorney on Maxine Waters case)
Blake Chisam, the chief counsel and staff director for the ethics panel, initially sought to fire Kim and Sovereign on Nov. 19, but was unable to do so.
It is unclear if the decision to place Kim and Sovereign on paid leave was related to the Waters’ case or another matter, although they were placed in that status on the same day that Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), the chairwoman and ranking member of the committee, announced the Waters’ trial was delayed. The committee announced that it had new information, including e-mails from Mikael Moore, Waters' chief of staff, that would have an impact on the Waters’ matter.
.
“I have met Maxine Waters and she rhymes with witch”
Have you been decontaminated enough to be around polite society.
You used to be able to order a t shirt that said.
“Deny, stall, obfuscate, make counter accusations.”
The Democrat playbook.
I’m sure it’ll be different this time. /s
no one is going to touch this one for fear of the r word.
The Demwits should have taken care of it, even if they just acquitted the POS, but they passed it on, knowing it be back-burnered. Of course, they can’t very well point this out as a deficiency in the current House leadership, because the perp is one of theirs.
This is typical Obama thug stuff. You see Maxine is not cooperating to allow Obama to organize his on the ground Obamagehddon for the summer of 2012, when the local former slaves will arise and burn down the homes of the privileged with their ill gained wealth stolen from racial and ethnic minorites ( sic).Maxine is not giving Obama and his radicals free reign in her electoral district to radicalize it. Tamany Hall in New York was the same unil Obamatard and his political action thugs made the notoriously "dirty rotten" Charles Rangel knuckle under.( Obama is expert at defamation, he did a great number on Ghadhaffi). Obama has blackmail material on almost everyone in his party and in the Republican party, and those who tow the line ( Chris Dodd, John McCain, Harry Reid, Barnie Frank and their families made millions from the Fannie / Freddie affirmative action lending real estate fiasco, they towed the Obama line and survived.). Maxine is not dirtier than many of her colleagues, which is dirty enough. Her political sin was to go against the fascist who calls himself president, who seeks to organize Maxine's community for violence and mayhem.
She’s afraid if it goes into 2012 she won’t have her boy 0 to help her out.
Mxipad is scumming up the Cpngress where she is because teh dead brain liberals who keep electging her have not one clue. She nearly kissed Franklin Reins scrotum when he was being investigated by the Congress. She is a useless commie slug with an IQ in the range of snail slugs.
Would this fall under the classification of “unexpected”? /s =.=
Waters' Academy award-worthy acting job.
"Pay me, I'm a victim."
==================================================
QUESTION Do her working class constituents know Maxine Waters used their tax dollars to help her and her husband's investment in OneUnited Bank? Her working class constituents should know that their tax dollars were used to finance a luxurious lifestyle for OneUnited bank chairman and CEO Kevin Cohee, including a Porsche and a mansion on the exclusive Pacific Coast Highway.
Cohee's high-flying perks came despite his having been charged in 2007 with felonies after his arrest on suspicion of possessing cocaine, crack cocaine and concentrated cannabis, according to the Los LA County DA's office. The case was dismissed the next year after Cohee completed a drug diversion program.
Cohee was also arrested in 2007 after a woman filed a complaint alleging that Cohee had forcibly sodomized her, according to public records. Prosecutors did not pursue the assault charge.
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OneUnited Bank Chairman and CEO, Kevin Cohee
JD, Harvard Law School
Board Member, Boston Bank Of Commerce
Formerly with Salomon Bros, Inc.
I hear that, these days, Cohee has the affirmative action office of Harvard Law School on speed-dial.
What was that like? I do believe that she is one evil piece of work.
Or you can get raw with these strings. Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.
Do it!
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