In the developing taxonomy of US Attorney scandals, the firing of Paul Charlton appears to be most similar to the Carol Lam variety: Charlton was fired because he was getting too close to the Bush Crime Family's activities related to Rep. Rick Renzi's (R-AZ) funneling defense contracts to Renzi's father, a former Army General; and, a crooked land-deal that served as a $3 million kick-back to close friend and campaign contributor. As a bonus, firing Charlton stopped--or at the very least, sent a message to the Charlton replacement to not pursue--a potentially embarrassing investigation into Rep. Jim Kolbe's (R-AZ) field-trip with two underage male pages in 1996 that was uncovered thanks to the Rep. Mark Foley's sexually explicit messages to a male page.
I. Rep. Rick Renzi's scandals
A. Drafting Legislation that benefits his father's business in Virginia
News broke on the inquiry opened by Charlton just prior to the 2006 re-election, on October 25. From the New York Times:
Mr. Renzi, 48, a Republican who represents the First Congressional District, is a former insurance executive and real estate investor who was first elected in 2002. Almost from the start, he has been a target of citizen watchdog groups who have accused him of ethical laxity in office.
Law enforcement officials said that the most serious accusation involved Mr. Renzi's sponsorship of legislation in 2003 that appeared to indirectly benefit the ManTech International Corporation, a communications company based in Virginia that employs Mr. Renzi's father, Eugene, a retired Army general, as executive vice president.
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Mr. Renzi's legislation, which was signed into law in November 2003, exempted the Fort Huachuca Army base in Arizona from maintaining water levels in the nearby San Pedro River, as base officials had agreed in a 2002 deal with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Environmentalists criticized Mr. Renzi's measure, saying it threatened water levels in one of the last undammed rivers in the West and would benefit private contractors like ManTech that operated at the base and relied on its continued operation.
ManTech has more than $450 million in military contracts at the base, which include classified military work, as well as options for more than $1.1 billion in additional contracts, according to news reports about Mr. Renzi's legislation. Employees of the company were the largest contributors to Mr. Renzi's campaign in 2002 and the second-largest in 2004.
Groups like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have raised additional questions about Mr. Renzi, like his employment of a top staff member in December 2005 who continued to operate a fund-raising consulting business while she worked for Mr. Renzi. House ethics rules limit outside earned income to less than $25,000 a year.
B. The crooked land deal to benefit campaign funding source
A second area of investigation into Renzi has to do with a crooked land deal that transferred $3 million dollars to one of Renzi's sources of campaign donations. This from the Washington Post from October 25, 2006:
U.S. prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation into whether Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) twice pressured landowners to buy a 480-acre parcel owned by his former business partner, a major backer of Renzi's political campaign, according to federal law enforcement sources.
The deal ultimately netted the business partner a $3 million profit, according to Arizona land records.
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The Arizona transaction has drawn the interest of the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI's Phoenix field office. Three law enforcement officials said both are investigating Renzi's involvement in two land deals -- one of which was not completed -- designed to put the 480 acres under federal protection from development in exchange for land more fit for commercial development.
One of the officials said the inquiry is at a preliminary stage. No subpoenas have been issued, and public developments are not likely before the Nov. 7 midterm elections, said the official, who along with the other two spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation has not been publicly announced.
C. The FBI Raid Renzi's family business in Arizona
Two days ago, the FBI raided his family's business. This From the Arizona Republic:
Rep. Rick Renzi stepped down temporarily from the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, after the FBI raided his family's business in connection with an ongoing federal investigation.
Agents took documents, the Arizona Republican said in a statement issued late Thursday night.
"I view these actions as the first step in bringing out the truth," he said.
"Until this matter is resolved, I will take a leave of absence from the House Intelligence Committee. I intend to fully cooperate with this investigation."
The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, which first reported the FBI raid late Thursday, said agents went to the Patriot Insurance Agency in Sonoita. In a financial-disclosure statement filed last May, Renzi reported that his wife, Roberta, owned the agency. He valued the business at $1 million to $5 million.
Of course, it remains to be seen if the Patriot Insurance Agency is doing anything nefarious that we are not aware of yet. Their web-site explains that Our goal is to implement a definitive insurance program that will safeguard your organization, protect your assets and effectively drive down the costs of covering your exposures....Our agency has the distinction of insuring over 1200 non-profit organizations worldwide and is recognized as an industry leader in this field.
II. Rep Jim Kolbe's sexual impropriety scandal
Briefly, the Kolbe investigation may also have been a factor in Charlton's dismissal. As you may recall, Kolbe's name came to light in relation to the Foley Scandal.
A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former representative Mark Foley's inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) confirmed yesterday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley (R-Fla.) was taking their e-mail relationship. Last week, when the Foley matter erupted, a Kolbe staff member suggested to the former page that he take the matter to the clerk of the House, Karen Haas, said Kolbe's press secretary, Korenna Cline.
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In interviews with The Post last week, multiple pages identified Kolbe as a close friend and personal confidante who was one of the only members of Congress to take any interest in them. A former page himself, Kolbe offered to mentor pages and kept in touch with some of them after they left the program, according to the interviews.
Kolbe once invited four former pages to make use of his Washington home while he was out of town, according to an instant message between Foley and another former page, Jordan Edmund, in January 2002. The pages planned to attend a first-year reunion of their page class. But because of a snowstorm, they did not take Kolbe up on his offer, according to one of the four pages.
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Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, is retiring at the end of the year.
The latest revelation in the growing House page scandal comes just a month before crucial midterm elections.
Two weeks prior to Charlton's announcement on Renzi, he announced an inquiry was starting on Rep. Kolbe:
Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took 10 years ago that included two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC News. NBC News first reported on the camping and rafting trip on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Justice Department in Washington said that the U.S. attorney in Arizona has started a "preliminary assessment" of the trip, after an unidentified source made allegations about the congressman's behavior on the expedition.
"The U.S. attorney is looking into allegations about the congressman taking a trip with the two pages," the spokesman said.
III. What the Bush Crime Family wants us to believe
A. Kyle Sampson's list
Charlton was not on the original list, but did appear on the list in September 2006. His dismissal has been referred to as 'policy-based' and not 'performance-based'.
Under questioning from Senator Feinstein, Sampson admitted his knowledge of the existence of the two investigations:
FEINSTEIN: Were you aware that Paul Charlton had opened preliminary probes into Republican Congressmen Jim Kolbe and Rick Renzi before the November election?
SAMPSON: I think that I was aware of that through news accounts.
FEINSTEIN: And of what were you aware?
SAMPSON: That he had -- that there was some preliminary investigation of those two congressmen.
FEINSTEIN: OK.
Senator Kyl (R-AZ) offered Sampson an opportunity to cover-up the actual reasons for Charlton's firing in the following exchange:
KYL: Was there any suggestion that anyone, to your knowledge, ever considered investigations, either in the U.S. attorney's office in Arizona or the FBI in Arizona -- was there any suggestion that Mr. Charlton be removed because of a pending or potential political corruption case?
SAMPSON: To my knowledge, that was not the case.
KYL: Could you say that you probably would have had knowledge, given all of the discussions that were occurring back and forth, that anyone sought to remove him because of his involvement and/or lack of involvement in a political corruption case in which they might have had a different point of view?
SAMPSON: I believe so. I was the aggregator of input that was coming in from sources. And based on everything I observed and heard, that was not a factor.
KYL: So you would have probably known, although I know you can't say for sure.
SAMPSON: I can only...
KYL: You would have probably known if anybody had ever talked about that?
SAMPSON: I can only speak for myself, and I was not aware of any of that, to the best of my knowledge.
What Kyl did not ask Sampson is why, on September 13, 2006, Sampson sent Harriet Myers an e-mail where Charlton, among others, were categorized in the group of 'we now should consider pushing out' group of US Attorneys.
B. Alberto Gonzales on Charlton
Alberto Gonzalez was asked why Charlton was fired in December 2006:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confirmed Thursday that former Arizona U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was fired after policy clashes that the Justice Department considered "poor judgment."
Democrats in Arizona have suggested Charlton was fired on Dec. 7 because his office had opened investigations before the 2006 election into a land deal by Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., and a camping trip retired Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took with two former pages.
In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales repeated what his deputies have said in the past: They objected to Charlton's handling of a death penalty case.
Tags: Paul Charlton, Alberto Gonzales, Rick Renzi, Jim Kolbe, Dianne Feinstein, John Kyl, Mark Foley, Organized Crime