Schmidt: commonly known as Mean Jean, occupying the congressional seat in OH-02 warmed for her by current Senate candidate Rob Portman.
Shmata: (Yiddish) a worthless set of rags
At this moment, Sibel Edmonds is testifying at a deposition in Washington, DC, in response to a subpoena issued by the Ohio Elections Commission in the Schmidt v. Krikorian case.
The Department of Justice, which had attempted to thwart the testimony, failed to file documents yesterday, or appear today, to restrict or suppress the testimony. According to second-hand reports from Brad Blog at http://www.bradblog.com/... Edmonds is spilling revelations about Turkish government and Turkish lobby influence on members of Congress.
Here I want to focus on the Ohio implications for the 2010 congressional race, likely to come down to the same contenders as the case -- Schmidt v. Krikorian.
In addition to the Brad blog, the national implications are also being covered by Lukery at http://www.dailykos.com/... with links to background articles, including my diaries.
At least half a dozen individual members of Congress have so far been named or described by Edmonds today as involved in illegal activities related to the Turkish lobby.
No specific word yet on whether Schmidt has been individually fingered in the deposition, but that is highly unlikely since Edmonds was fired from the FBI, the source of her knowledge, in 2002. Schmidt did not replace Rob Portman in the OH-02 congressional seat until 2005.
However, Edmonds has already disclosed today a web of activities involving predominantly Republican members of Congress (the named exceptions being Dick Gephart and Stephen Solarz, both no longer serving), who allowed Turkish interests to influence their activities in Congress. Republicans so far named today include congressmen Burton, Livingston, and Hastert, and Bush Administration official Brent Scowcroft.
According to the Brad Blog's interview with David Krikorian today during the lunch break, Krikorian said:
From my opinion, if I'm some of the current members of Congress, I'd be very very worried about the information that's going to come out of this. There are current members of Congress that she has implicated in bribery, espionage. It's not good. It's crazy, it's absolutely crazy. For people in power situations in the United States, who know about this information, if they don't take action against it, in my opinion, it's negligence.
When Schmidt did enter Congress in 2005, she became the darling of the Turkish lobby and a leader in the effort to suppress a House resolution that would recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915.
Today's disclusures would certainly implicate Schmidt in the web of Turkish-backed corruption. Since the case at hand involves Schmidt's charge that statements from Krikorian about the Turkish lobby offering "blood money" are "false," today's testimony would appear to at least eliminate the possibility that the Ohio Elections Commission case would tip in Schmidt's favor.
But Schmidt has much more to worry about. Her spurious case hinged on the willingness of the Department of Justice to suppress the testimony that Edmonds is giving today. The cat's now out of the bag, and Schmidt appears to have at least been part of the cover-up if not the actual crimes.
Face it folks, we just might not have Jean Schmidt to kick around any more.
Thank David Krikorian for pursuing Edmonds's testimony, thus leading to all of today's revelations. He's a fighter with tenacity and integrity. We need him as the next Congressman from OH-02. Support the Krikorian campaign through ActBlue at https://secure.actblue.com/...
UPDATE: See the Bradblog at link above for a lengthy report of the ad hoc news conference that followed the deposition. As reported there, major questions arose regarding Schmidt's attorney, Bruce Fein, and his own connections to the Turkish lobby, which are substantial. Edmonds named additional names, including former Bush State Department official Richard Armitage. Also, an unnamed Democratic congresswoman was reportedly extorted into supporting the Turkish lobby through a set-up by Turkish agents that threatened to expose her as a lesbian.
It is unclear when video and transcripts of the deposition will be available, but when it happens, it should rock more than a few boats.