Posted on 07/28/2002 8:33:26 PM PDT by Jean S
Although he's been banished by the House and disgraced by 10 felony convictions, James Traficant's claims of a government vendetta live on and will be looked at by the White House, thanks to an unusual move by the House ethics committee.
Spurred by Traficant's close friend and ethics committee member Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio), the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct agreed to forward to the White House Counsel's Office a transcript of the testimony of Traficant's star witness - an indicted co-conspirator in the former Ohio lawmaker's bribery case - who alleged that he was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct.
Why would the ethics committee think that White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales would be interested in an unsubstantiated tale from a witness whose credibility has been openly challenged by several lawmakers and his own attorney?
Gonzales, it turns out, will play a major role in deciding whether the Justice Department lawyer who successfully prosecuted Traficant gets a promotion and the president's nod to be the next U.S. Attorney in Cleveland.
Craig Morford, whom Traficant attempted to vilify in daily eruptions during his trial, is being considered for the post along with two other candidates upon the recommendation of the Buckeye State's two GOP Senators.
The current U.S. Attorney, Emily Sweeney, is a Clinton administration holdover. The first pick by the Bush administration for the post withdrew from consideration after questions were raised during an FBI background check.
Senior Justice Department officials, along with lawyers from the White House Counsel's office, are in the midst of interviewing and reviewing the three candidates, Justice sources said. A recommendation to Bush is expected to be made soon.
During a hearing before the ethics committee July 16, Traficant posed questions to his co-defendant, Richard Detore, that elicited a barrage of charges of improper conduct by Morford.
Detore, a former executive of the now- defunct U.S. Aerospace Group, accused Morford of pressuring him to lie about Traficant and said that he was threatened with claims of bank fraud and an IRS investigation if he did not cooperate, depicting a nine-hour meeting with Morford in June 2001 as a "Nazi interrogation," with Morford "yelling, screaming, throwing papers, throwing pencils."
Morford has categorically denied Detore's charge. And Detore's attorney at the time, who was present at the 2001 interview, has contradicted Detore's account, according to a July 26 government filing.
Detore and Traficant also accused staff lawyers working for the ethics committee of improper conduct, which was denied by committee members and aides. And he accused an Ohio businessman of providing improper gifts to Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), another charge that was strongly denied and refuted.
Another one of Detore's former attorneys told Roll Call that his former client gave the ethics committee false information.
Detore contended during his sworn testimony that John Dowd, a partner with the firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, charged him $359,000 in legal fees for filing just three motions and that Dowd dropped him abruptly just before the trial was to begin because Detore had no more money.
"His statement is false," Dowd told Roll Call in an interview. The reason Dowd's firm left the case is explained in documents under seal in Ohio, he said.
"His statements to the committee are not correct, and I can tell you that he was not overbilled," said Dowd, adding that the firm was fully prepared to go to trial and did a great deal of work on the case.
Dowd also disputed Detore's characterization of Morford. "My dealings with Mr. Morford were always quite correct and he was quite courteous to us. In my relations with Craig Morford, he was highly professional and I found him to be straight. The bottom line is that he just never believed Richard."
But LaTourette, who repeatedly recalled his own days as a county prosecutor, took up Detore's story. He cited it as one of his main reasons for attempting to put off a vote on Traficant's expulsion until September.
"I found him to be credible," LaTourette said in a telephone interview last week. While noting Detore would have faced more challenging questioning in a courtroom, LaTourette said that "what he did tell me and then the members of the committee, I found to be of concern."
"If you believe Congressman Traficant and you believe the government twisted five people, including Detore - his claim was that they threatened them with their families, their livelihoods, their businesses. And we had a witness in front of us who said that's what happened to him. I think it's evidence of something. But whether it's conclusive, who knows?" LaTourette said.
LaTourette, who once threatened to seek the firing of Justice Department officials if they were found to have leaked information on the Traficant investigation, denied he was attempting to derail Morford's nomination or that he had anything against the prosecutor.
LaTourette said he has never met Morford. "By reputation, he's a fine man and a fine prosecutor," LaTourette said.
He said the ethics committee - comprised of five Republicans and five Democrats - forwarded the Detore testimony to the White House because "the president was just embarrassed because the last nominee that was sent up by the Ohio Senators had to withdraw. I don't want that to happen to the president again."
The ethics committee also forwarded a copy of Detore's transcript to the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.
Experts said that claims of prosecutorial misconduct are fairly common from defendants, and criminal defense lawyers have been known to make such claims a standard part of their overall strategy.
"It is not an unusual event to have these kinds of complaints made against assistant U.S. attorneys and other federal prosecutors," said Bill Shockley, former president of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys.
The ethics committee's ranking member, Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), openly scoffed at Detore's credibility during the floor debate on LaTourette's postponement motion.
"The adjudicatory subcommittee found Mr. Detore either lacking in credibility or found his testimony outweighed by the overwhelming evidence against Mr. Traficant," Berman said.
"It has been argued that as an indicted co-defendant, which he is, he placed himself in great peril by testifying before our committee and that this bolsters his credibility,"Berman added. "I think it can be argued just as well that this was his Hail Mary pass to discredit the Assistant U.S. Attorney before his case goes to trial. Mr. Detore clearly demonstrated that ours is the forum where he intended to try to save his neck."
Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) said that while Detore may be "a nice fellow, I did not find him to be a credible witness on even the issues he was trying to talk about. I felt like he was out of the loop."
Berman declined to comment on why the panel's five Democrats agreed to send Detore's testimony to the White House.
I'm not sure I understand your point. This article is about James Traficant and the possibility that the White House Council's office may look into the case against him. I don't know where Condit fits in.
Stay tuned for the evolving drama of "The Dumb and the Hairless."
Traficant did imply that he was set up, and that he did nothing wrong. Furthermore, he stated that there are reasons that people fear their government, and that he is a victim of the corruption that has taken over the government. It was interesting that he noted that child molestors are given a free pass, when that has been proven, but he wasn't even given a fair chance to provide the courts with evidence that would help prove him innocent.
I'm not sure what to believe, for the ommission, double standard, unilateral vote, and conviction/ejection indicate that the whole thing was done in haste without attention to certain key facets of the case.
They will simply refuse to seat him. They can do that aLa Hanson...
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