Many new voices are now asking why the Federal investigation of the NH's 2002 phone-jamming scandal moved so slowly. (Paul Krugman called it a "slow-walk.")
How long should it take the US Department of Justice--and NH's Bush-appointed US Attorney Thomas Colantuono--to investigate phone-jamming? Just for comparison, in Virginia in 2002, a GOP official was indicted in April of 2002 for a phone-crime committed in March of 2002.
If you're new to this angle, or wondering where to dig further, this post would be a very good place to start.
If you want to look into this further, here are the fishiest bits in this whole fishy story:
- In August, 2003, the FBI first contacted Chuck McGee. What was the DOJ doing to investigate in the months beforehand?
- Why the seven-month delay between McGee's proffer interview with the FBI and his guilty plea?
- On October 13, 2004, NH Democrats were assured by the DOJ they could conduct discovery for their civil case. On October 14, 2004, NH RSC refused to honor a court order to produce evidence, based on a motion which the DOJ didn't file until October 15, 2004. What communication happened between the DOJ and the NH Republicans and was it improper?
- For their civil suit, NH Democrats asked NH Republicans for a list of the names of people who knew about the phone-jamming. NH Republicans came back with a list of three names, omitting mention of many others who knew--others of whom the DOJ was well aware.
- By December of 2003, James Tobin's role as a phone-jamming go-between had been described to the FBI by Chuck McGee. Allen Raymond's plea also emphasized Tobin's role, although Raymond's plea was crafted to omit Tobin's name. Why did it take the DOJ until December of 2004 to indict James Tobin, and did fear of embarassing Bush before the US Presidential election in November of 2004 (Tobin was the NE regional director for Bush-Cheney '04) play a role in the DOJ's slow-motion prosecution?
...
Election day, early morning of November 5, 2002. Ready to give people rides to the polls? Well tough--because in NH the get-out-the-vote phones are ringing and ringing--but not with calls from people who need a ride. Hang-up calls! NH phones jammed by a phone bank in Idaho--hired by GOP Marketplace in Virginia, who had been paid $15,600 by the NY Republican State Committee to jam GOTV phones of five different Democrat HQ in NH--and of the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters.
But this is the timeline of the US DOJ's investigation--which didn't start until February of 2003.
2003
- 2/7/2003
- Federal investigators have been called in by Manchester, NH police. Manchester Union Leader breaks the phone-jamming story, and Chuck McGee resigns as Executive Director of the New Hampshire Republican party.
Union Leader story (pdf), Talking Points Memo, and Betsy Devine
- 2/10/2003
- NH Democrats ask US Attorney Thomas Colantuono to investigate. Letter and news story, pdf
- 2/20/2003
- In the Union Leader, John DiStaso reports on the changing stories he's getting from NH Republican leaders. He also contacts GOP Marketplace, the firm paid $15,600 to arrange hang-up phone calls to NH. The company has shut down its website, and its attorney said "the firm hasn’t heard from federal or state investigators, either."
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=18369, my blog's report
- 7/10/2003
- BushCheney 2004 announces its regional chairpeople. Chair for New England (ME, NH, RI, VT, CT, MA) is James Tobin, whose former jobs include being national political director for Forbes for President, Northeast political director for the NRSC under Sen. Bill Frist, regional political director at the RNC for Chairmen Barbour, Nicholson and Racicot, and as a consultant to the NRCC.
- August, 2003
- According to McGee's sworn testimony at the trial of James Tobin, McGee got his first phone call from the FBI in August of 2003. (Chuck McGee's testimony)
[See DailyKos story for dates from DiStaso in summer 2003 http://www.dailykos.com/...
- 12/12/2003
- Chuck McGee completes full "proffer interview" with FBI agent Cathleen Fuller. (Chuck McGee's 9-page statement, pdf)
2004
- 2/12/2004
- John DiStaso in Union Leader: It's been about a year since we reported on a federal investigation into allegations that a Republican consultant had Democratic get-out-the-vote telephone lines intentionally jammed on Election Day 2002. There's been precious little to report since, but we can say today that, according to U.S. Attorney Thomas Colantuono, the matter is "still under active investigation by the Justice Department in Washington."
- 6/30/2004
- Allen Raymond pleads guilty, admitting he took $15,600 from the NH Republican Committee to pay for a phone bank to make repeated hang-up calls to NH Democrats and Manchester firefighters, blocking their get-out-the-vote effort on Election Day 2002.
- 6/30/2004
- Prosecutor Todd Hinnen tells the court that had Raymond chosen to go to trial, the government would have been able to prove that "in late October 2002, the defendant, Allen Raymond, then the president of Virginia-based political consulting company GOP Marketplace, LLC, received a call from a former colleague who was then an official in a national political organization. The official indicated that he had been approached by an employee of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee with an idea that might give New Hampshire Republican candidates an edge over New Hampshire democratic (sic) candidates in the upcoming election."
- 6/30/2004
- James Tobin donation to Tom Delay (TX) $2000 (More on Tobin's donations to friends of DeLay and Abramoff.
- 7/1/2004
- Union Leader story discloses that Raymond worked with "co-conspirators known to the government," but does not identify them.
- 7/10/2004
- James Tobin donation to Kit Bond (MO) $500
- 7/13/2004
- John DiStaso in the Union Leader, articles on July 13 and 14: NH State Democratic Party files suit against the Republican State Committee, seeking monetary damages and answers about the 2002 jamming of Democrats' phone banks on Election Day.
- 7/28/2004
- Chuck McGee pleads guilty to phone-jamming role. U.S. DOJ Attorney Todd Hinnen tells reporters the investigation into the phone-jamming is ongoing but declines to say whether anyone else would be charged.
- 8/11/2004
- After obtaining guilty pleas from McGee and Raymond that mention an unnamed "official in a national political organization", Todd Hinnen will be reassigned, forcing a delay while a new attorney gets up to speed on the phone-jamming case.
- 8/26/2004
- James Tobin donation to Sandhills PAC (Chuck Hagel) $500
- 9/3/2004
- James Tobin donation to Iowa Priorities PAC (Jim Nussle) $500
- 10/7/2004
- Union Leader reports that court officials and the DOJ have agreed that sentencing for both McGee and Raymond, originally scheduled for this month, will be postponed until after the election.
- 10/11/2004
- Josh Marshall's TalkingPointsMemo reveals the name of James Tobin, based on information in the Democrats' lawsuit.
- 10/14, 2004
- The Manchester Union Leader becomes the first mainstream media outlet to name James Tobin in connection with the phone-jamming scandal.
- 10/14/2004
- "Judge Mangones had ordered the Republicans to answer the Democrats' questions at an Oct. 14 deposition. But attorney Lamontagne showed up without the promised Republican official for the Democrats to depose and he did not bring the records subpoenaed by the Democrats." (Union Leader story published Oct. 23). Twenty minutes before Democrats are set to depose to interview phone-jamming witnesses for their civil suit, the DOJ intervenes, with a phone call asking to shut down their investigation for six months. USAToday version: At the last minute, Justice Department lawyers involved in the criminal case called and said they were going to ask for a stay. The GOP witnesses did not show up, despite a state court order requiring them to do so."
- 10/14/2004
- NH Democrats file a detailed and informative motion for contempt after DOJ and NH Republicans work together to prevent them from getting sworn testimony on their civil suit at a deposition authorized by the Superior Court.
- 10/15/2004
- The US DOJ's Motion to Intervene & Stay Discovery (pdf) is served on Democrats, one day after NH Republicans refused to provide withnesses for depositions that had been ordered by the Superior Court.
- 10/15/2004
- James Tobin resigns as Bush-Cheney New England campaign chair. TPM story. On the same day, the US Department of Justice faxes from DC a motion (pdf) to stop NH Democrats from getting testimony on their civil suit.
- 10/22/2004>
- Superior Court Judge Philip Mangones says the NH Republicans must respond within 24 hours to questions from Democrats, but sets a limit of 20 written questions and says the answers must be submitted to the court "under seal." In a separate order, Mangones says the Republican State Committee's decision not to attend the October 14 deposition was made "unilaterally and without lawful authority," ordering the RNC to reimburse both Democrats and the court for costs of the hearing. (Union Leader story, October 23.)
- 10/29/2004
- Judge Mangones ends Democrats' efforts to learn more until after the 2004 presidential election. According to Boston Globe story on Oct. 31, Democrats, for one of their twenty permitted questions, asked who had prior knowledge of the phone-jamming. Republicans disclosed the identity of only three people--Raymond, McGee, and former NH RSC chairman John Dowd. Attorney Ovide Lamontagne told the court that revealing any names beyond these three would violate attorney-client privilege. (Union Leader article, Oct. 30).
- 12/1/2004
- Federal grand jury indicts James Tobin on four counts related to the get-out-the-vote phone-jamming. The indictment describes Tobin as the go-between who put McGee and Raymond in touch with each other. Tobin pleads innocent to the charges.
- 12/9/2004
- According to RNC financial disclosures, the Republican National Committee paid the high-powered Washington law firm Williams and Connolly $162,646 on Dec. 9, 2004, eight days after a grand jury charged that Tobin had aided former state GOP executive director Charles McGee in setting up an operation to jam voter-turnout telephone banks at Democratic and labor union offices throughout the state. Union Leader, Aug 13, 2005, "RNC paid Tobin legal bills since indictment."
Bonus links: