The Feds are getting the goods on Rowland and his buds and making the state's case much easier, while undercutting Rowland's defense strategery.
Review Finds Rowland Rejected Gifts
By
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 20, 2004 Filed at 4:16 a.m. ET
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Gifts of expensive cigars and champagne were accepted by Gov. John G. Rowland, who later rejected them and said they violated state law, according to documents turned over to federal investigators and reviewed by The Associated Press.
The documents received Friday seem to run counter to the governor's current argument: that the thousands of dollars worth of improvements he accepted to his lakeside cottage did not violate state law.
Rowland is being investigated by the federal government and a state legislative committee who want to know whether he and state contractors traded favors. The governor has acknowledged receiving gifts from employees and contractors, but has said he did not provide anything in return. (...)
"Under Connecticut law, public officials cannot accept gifts from members of the public if the value exceeds $100," Assistant Legal Counsel Amy Lazzaro wrote.
The state impeachment committee would love some more indictments and plea bargains. If a crime was committed somewhere, it'd be easier to get Rowland to resign than to go through a messy impeachment with the requirement to go on record and - God forbid - defend your vote to the public. Hence, little movement by the state, lots of movement by the feds.
And more (there's always more). Note the convicted embezzler Rowland hangs with:
From the AP article:
Kurt Claywell, an electrical subcontractor, has told authorities that he gave the governor thousands of dollars worth of cigars and champagne over several years. The AP also reviewed handwritten notes from Rowland thanking Claywell for the gifts.
But in August 2001 the governor's office returned a box of cigars to Claywell and enclosed a letter saying such gifts were illegal.(...)
At the time, Claywell had just been sentenced to probation on a federal embezzlement charge.
Claywell's lawyer declined to comment Friday.
Rowland's attorneys are now challenging the very law cited in Lazzaro's letter.
Ross Garber, Rowland's legal counsel, said the governor's office agrees that no public official can use his position for financial gain. However, the office has taken the position that Rowland can accept gifts from people he considers friends or from contractors who do not perform work for the governor's office. Garber said the ethics law was ``at best ambiguous.''
Lazzaro, who still works for the governor, did not mention friendship in the letter.
from CT Political Watch
Associate A To Pratt: Destroy All Records
When Wayne Pratt agreed to launder the money in Bob Matthews' real estate deal that involved the purchase of Governor John Rowland's D.C. condo, he didn't agree to another condition Matthews set on the transaction: destroy all records of the condo deal. Hartford Courant reporter Ed Mahony writes "Pratt ignored the order and he has given federal investigators a canceled $5,000 check he wrote to Rowland for the contents of the condo." Pratt plead guilty in Federal court yesterday to an income tax violation. The plea was part of a cooperation agreement he reached earlier this week with federal authorities investigating alleged bid rigging in the Rowland administration. Ward: "The guilty plea is very serious, extremely disturbing." Sullivan: "This is a bad day for John Rowland." Lyons: "I think there's a lot of trouble there. You look at it, and you wonder how he can hang in there."
And directly from the Courant:
Well-known antiques dealer Wayne Pratt admitted in court Thursday that he helped disguise a financial transaction in which a millionaire state contractor who was a close friend of Gov. John G. Rowland paid an inflated price for the governor's condominium in Washington, D.C.
Businessman Robert V. Matthews also paid another $5,000 for the contents of Rowland's 400-square-foot efficiency unit, although he complained he was being "squeezed" for the extra money and that the furnishings were not worth it, a prosecutor said during Pratt's court appearance.
Pratt, a regular guest on the public television program "Antiques Roadshow," made the appearance in U.S. District Court in Hartford Thursday to plead guilty to an income tax violation. The plea was part of a cooperation agreement he reached earlier this week with federal authorities investigating alleged bid rigging in the Rowland administration.
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