Under the settlement, Williams admits no wrongdoing. He did not face criminal charges in the case, says Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office within the Justice Department.
Just one more of the infinite reasons Bush must be forced from office.
It will not be enough simply to remove Congressional Republicans.
Armstrong Williams used PROPAGANDA (yes, real prosecuteable propaganda) to sell Bush's political agenda to the American people, and he disguised it as news.
Armstrong Williams is a criminal. But not anymore.
Armstrong Williams, thanks to Bush, settled his propaganda case; he's not guilty of anything.
Settled? A propaganda case? You agree to pay so that we won't investigate your propaganda?
That's justice in Bush-world?
http://www.usatoday.com/...
WASHINGTON -- Conservative pundit Armstrong Williams, whose 2003 deal to promote President Bush's education reforms on TV, radio and in newspapers spawned a government-wide crackdown on propaganda, will pay $34,000 for not delivering all that his contract required, according to documents signed Friday.
The settlement puts to rest a civil investigation that stretched more than a year and a half and could have cost Williams $64,000 -- but which did not address whether he wrongly promoted the Bush administration's education agenda. Instead, the Justice Department investigation examined whether he was paid for public service ads he didn't produce.
...
Wow. $34,000.
So did Bush just go ahead an give him that money directly or did he have to launder it through to him somehow?
"The (Education) Department is pleased to see this matter come to a close," Katherine McLane, spokesperson for Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said Friday.
...
I'm sure she is. Pscho-witch.
...several Cabinet-level agencies have revealed that they paid freelance commentators to write pieces promoting administration policies on marriage and on the environment without disclosing the arrangements -- either to write the pieces or to support their interest groups.
"Hopefully they've learned their lesson -- they've stopped engaging in propaganda" said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee.
Miller, don't excuse this whitewash you coward.
$34,000?
Armstrong Williams didn't learn a goddam thing other than that he can spit on George Miller and the rule of Law and get away with it.
UPDATE
Johndorff sums it up well:
He wasn't pardoned
He settled the civil case concerning whether or not he was "paid for ads he did not produce." In the civil case "The Justice Department pursued Williams under the federal False Claims Act, which deals with false or fraudulent billing to the U.S. government. If the government had taken the case to trial, Williams could have faced about $64,000 in penalties for work that he was paid for but didn't do."
As for a criminal investigation:
The Justice Department didn't pursue the propaganda case, but a 2005 report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress's non-partisan watchdog, found that the contract violated a government ban on "covert propaganda."
by jorndorff on Fri Oct 20, 2006 at 10:28:25 PM PDT