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True government leadership for sale in New York?

Whitewing

Well-known member
Rotten to the core it would appear and coming to a politician near you.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bribing_his_way_onto_the_ballot_3XFvV67oWZHFo7bVdoCkcO

State Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran were arrested this morning on charges they were plotting to rig this year’s mayoral election through fraud and bribes.

The pols allegedly formed an alliance built on cash payments and fraud to get Smith — one of the state’s top Democrats — placed on the GOP mayoral ballot, sources said.

FBI agents arrested them both at their Queens homes shortly after 6 a.m.

“I have no idea,” Halloran, in handcuffs, told a Post reporter when asked if he knew why he was being arrested.

“I’m sure the truth will come out once I have an opportunity to find out what’s going on.”

Smith would not say anything as he was hauled off. FBI officials confirmed the arrests.

“Elected officials are called public servants because they are supposed to serve the people. Public service is not supposed to be a shortcut to self-enrichment," FBI Assistant Director George Venizelos said in a written statement today.

"People in New York, in Spring Valley -- in any city or town in this country -- rightly expect their elected or appointed representatives to hold themselves to a higher standard. At the very least, public officials should obey the law.

"As alleged, these defendants did not obey the law; they broke the law and the public trust. There is a price to pay for that kind of betrayal.”

Prosecutors are planning to lay out the whole sordid scheme during a news conference later today.

As agents took Smith and Halloran into custody, the feds raided the homes of Bronx Republican Chairman Joseph Savino and Queens GOP Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone, who were arrested on charges of wire fraud and bribery. They allegedly agreed to take bribes to get Smith on the ballot.

Also hauled in this morning were Noramie Jasmin, the mayor of Spring Valley in Rockland County, and her deputy mayor, Joseph Desmaret.

All six are going to appear in White Plains federal court today.

At Smith’s home, two FBI agents led the grim-faced senator – in a business suit -- from a back door to an unmarked car.

Three FBI agents spent more than 30 minutes inside the home before arresting the powerful pol. A woman inside the home refused to open the door for a reporter.

After the agents took off, a Smith neighbor said "I'm glad he's arrested."

Ten miles away at Halloran’s home in northern Queens, agents drove up in four unmarked cars and spread out to cover front and back entrances before raiding the councilman’s place. Halloran’s dog could be heard barking throughout the episode.

After less than a half hour, Halloran emerged in custody, wearing blue jeans, a blue sweatshirt and a stunned look on his face.

Smith was trying to buy off Republican leaders because he needed the party’s support in at least three boroughs in order to run as a GOP candidate without even changing his own party affiliation, the sources said.

“It’s incredible,” a source said of the alleged plot.

To get on the GOP ballot, Smith allegedly enlisted Halloran, a Republican, to set up meetings with party leaders and negotiate thousands of dollars in bribes. The money was masked as payments for legal and accounting services, sources said.

Halloran allegedly collected thousands in bribes for himself along the way, the sources said.

He is separately charged with taking bribes from a consultant in return for up to $80,000 in City Council discretionary funding.

The feds were already investigating Halloran when they got wind of the alleged ballot-manipulating plan in November, the sources said. Smith met with his alleged co-conspirators as recently as February.

FBI spokesman Martin Feely, reached late last night, declined to comment.

Noramie Jasmin, the mayor of Spring Valley in Rockland County, and her deputy mayor, Joseph Desmaret, are also expected to be taken into custody today as part of the probe — although it was unclear how it relates to Smith.

The Rockland pair is accused of taking bribes in return for approving the sale of village land to a private concern. In addition to cash bribes, Jasmin is accused by the feds of demanding a secret ownership stake in the company that bought the property from her community.

That scheme dates to August 2011, the feds charge.

The four elected officials — and others being rounded up today — are expected to appear in White Plains federal court.

Smith’s arrest is a remarkable turn in what was once viewed as an ascendant bid to succeed Mayor Bloomberg.

Smith, 56, spent much of the summer trying to drum up support for a campaign, which was first reported by The Post. To bolster his effort, he met with officials around the state, including New York GOP chief Ed Cox.

At the time, he appeared to have more of a chance than the liberal group of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination.

Both Smith and Halloran are controversial figures.

Smith is facing heat for his ties to a shady Queens nonprofit, the New Direction Local Development Corp., which The Post found misused charitable funds intended for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Smith, representing much of southeastern Queens, was also involved in an embarrassing Aqueduct casino bid-rigging scandal, which remains under investigation by the FBI.

Never missing a chance to make headlines, Smith last year stunned the state’s political establishment by joining forces with Republicans to form a first-of-its-kind coalition to run the fractured state Senate.

By joining the Independent Democratic Caucus — along with four other Democratic renegades — Smith allowed the state Republican Party to keep control of the Legislature’s upper house.

Smith also once served as the majority leader of the state Senate, after Democrats captured control of the chamber in 2008.

Chaos reigned during Smith’s tenure and, by June 2009, two members of his conference had joined with GOP senators to oust Smith and trigger another crisis at the Capitol.

His brief period of leadership was considered a flop, and his Democratic Party subsequently lost control of the chamber to the Republicans.

Halloran, too, is no stranger to controversy.

During the Christmas blizzard of 2010, the first-term councilman from Bayside claimed he had evidence that Sanitation Department plow drivers were intentionally slowing down the cleanup as part of a wildcat job action.

But he refused to assist in the feds’ probe, citing attorney-client privilege.

The city’s Department of Investigation later released a report that found “no actual evidence about a possible slowdown.”

Halloran, a 42-year-old lawyer and former city cop, ran for Congress last year.

During that campaign, The Post reported the state Board of Elections had referred his campaign to the Albany DA for investigation and possible prosecution because he had not filed state campaign-finance reports for more than two years.

Halloran later filed the appropriate forms, but lost to then-Assemblywoman Grace Meng.

This OT, is why voters need to be suspicious of those who supposedly represent their interests. Nothing to do with anarchy, everything to do with common sense.
 

Steve

Well-known member
This is just a tactic by dictator Bloomberg to silence any challengers..

besides it isn't the first time a liberal ran as a republican in the Mayoral race.. and certainly not the first bribe ever in that liberal city.. so why is it now criminal.. ?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Corruption case a blow to GOP diversity


By Errol Louis, Special to CNN

updated 10:43 AM EDT, Wed April 3, 2013



(CNN) -- This is no way to run a party.

The details of the scandal sweeping the New York Republican Party are tawdry, sad and infuriating -- and a wake-up call to a national party that is urgently seeking to make inroads among black, Latino, and young voters.

Barely two weeks after RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and New York state Republican Chairman Ed Cox held a press conference at a black church in Brooklyn to launch the party's ambitious, $10 million diversity campaign, FBI agents arrested Malcolm Smith, a longtime black state legislator.

According to federal prosecutors, Smith spent months organizing cash bribes to two top city Republican officials in exchange for a slot on the ballot in this fall's Republican primary for mayor. Unfortunately for Smith, a real estate tycoon he enlisted to make cash payments was, in fact, an undercover FBI agent, according to federal prosecutors.

The criminal complaint against Smith and five others -- including a Republican City Council member and the chairman and vice chairman of two Republican county organizations -- details mind-boggling details of recorded conversations and alleged handovers of envelopes stuffed with money.

All the scheming, say prosecutors, was done in the hope that Smith might secure the Republican nomination and somehow win the race for mayor in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 6-to-1. Smith will get his day in court, along with the five other men and women named -- but the damage to the party is incalculable.

In a 100-page plan of action, Priebus and the RNC laid out a pilot project to build support among black urban voters, and specifically declared that "big-city mayoral races provide our best 2013 opportunities for these projects." New York can probably be crossed off that list, and the fallout will be felt in other cities as the case unfolds.

And that's a shame. Republican leaders are right to make their case to young, urban, black and Latino voters, and should be grooming candidates from all communities. America's two-party system can't function properly if the parties are racially divided.

The flirtation with the Republican Party by Smith, a lifelong Democrat
-- if done honestly -- might have started a new conversation within black circles about the cost and wisdom of always supporting Democratic candidates and policies. It has long been noticed that black communities contain their share of church-going social conservatives; the GOP theory is that intelligent outreach to those voters could tilt close contests to Republicans.

That's not likely to happen now. Smith's troubles -- and the arrest of Republican leaders accused of taking money to advance Smith's cross-party ambitions -- will supply ammunition to conservative party leaders who are skeptical about the new diversity strategy.

The scandal also weakens the argument, popular among national Republicans, that big-city Democratic political machines are corrupt and wasteful. In New York, at least, the shoe is on the other foot, with GOP party leaders in the nation's biggest city hauled from their homes in handcuffs and facing up to 40 years in prison or more.

It now falls to New York's Republican chairman, Ed Cox, to straighten out this mess. Cox knows his way around a scandal: As the son-in-law of the late President Richard Nixon, he had a ringside seat as the Watergate debacle unfolded.

Cox must do whatever it takes to chase any crooked characters out of his party -- and try, against the odds, to continue Priebus' outreach strategy. Doing so will be a challenge, because the next black or Latino Republican candidate will face the question: Are you another Malcolm Smith?


Looks to me it fits exactly what I've said for years-- a crook is a crook-- and neither cult has a monopoly on producing crooks !
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Looks to me it fits exactly what I've said for years-- a crook is a crook-- and neither cult has a monopoly on producing crooks !

Yeah, you've said that for years about both cults. :roll: :roll: :roll: So what do you dig up to post? A story about how it's bad for pubs.

Just admit it OT, you'd rather suck back a rotten egg than ever say anything negative about a donk.

But you're really quite conservative, right?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Whitewing said:
Oldtimer said:
Looks to me it fits exactly what I've said for years-- a crook is a crook-- and neither cult has a monopoly on producing crooks !

Yeah, you've said that for years about both cults. :roll: :roll: :roll: So what do you dig up to post? A story about how it's bad for pubs.

Just admit it OT, you'd rather suck back a rotten egg than ever say anything negative about a donk.

But you're really quite conservative, right?

Sounds like you prefer to be like FAUX News- and only want to see the story from one side... I only showed that their is more to the story you posted than just that one side....
 

Steve

Well-known member
Malcolm A. Smith
(D, WF) 14th Senate District

to call this a GOP scandal is outrageous by even MSNBC standards..

you might want to ask,.. who tipped the feds off?

Malcolm Smith’s Alleged Plot To Rent New York’s City Hall
Apr 3, 2013 4:45 AM EDT

Malcolm Smith, arrested Tuesday for allegedly trying to buy the Republican line in New York’s mayoral race, has a long history of playing fast and loose, reports David Freedlander.

On paper, he had the résumé to run for mayor. Malcolm Smith is a state senator from Queens, and as the former majority leader was the first African-American to lead a legislative body in Albany.

Smith was a real-estate developer who seemed to speak their language. And he was a life-long Democrat willing to switch sides if the GOP bigwigs would back him for a run for a mayor.

Tuesday morning he was hauled away from his home by federal agents, charged in a lurid bribery scheme to buy off the city’s five county GOP chairmen in order to run for mayor of New York City on the Republican line.

“The fact that Malcolm Smith is involved—that is not surprising in the least.”

mith told an undercover agent in a meeting at Grand Central Station to fork over tens of thousands of dollars to the local Republican powerbrokers intended to glide his way into City Hall: “You pull this off, you can have the house,” he told them. “I'll be the tenant."

A lawmaker from a neighboring district there pled guilty to embezzling $87,000 from a phony nonprofit. Gregory Meeks, the longtime congressman and a Smith protégé, has repeatedly found himself named as one of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics list of Congress’s most corrupt members, and the duo were already reportedly under federal investigation for setting up a charity for victims of Hurricane Katrina that paid out only a tiny fraction of the money raised.


Smith helped steer a sought-after contract to operate a new casino in Queens to a group backed by the Rev. Floyd Flake, a highly connected political powerbroker in southeast Queens and something of a mentor to the lawmaker. That contract— which Smith reportedly referred to as his “golden parachute” for whenever he left the state senate,

“The surprising thing is that he seemed to find every form of bribery and graft available to him—straw donors, discretionary funds, ballot access,” said one Democratic operative as news of the latest alleged scandal emerged on Tuesday. “But the fact that Malcolm Smith is involved—that is not surprising in the least.”

On inauguration day, he openly wept when he thanked his wife—a reference to the fact that he had recently copped to fathering a child with a former aide.

seems to me that this is not about the GOP... but about a crooked democrat caught in a snare..

Reading over the 28-page complaint, that is the overwhelming impression: even when it seemed remarkably unlikely that the Republican Party would rent out its mayoral line to a lifelong Democrat trying to shuffle off a series of federal investigations

When it seemed to him the county chairmen were delaying, he’d ask if they needed more money, or help with a real estate deal from his office.

“He’s smooth, likable, but to me he seemed like a guy always one step away from being arrested,” said one Democratic operative

funny how the other side of the story seldom gets told on the national news...
 

Steve

Well-known member
City Councilman Dan Halloran—everyone's favorite elected pagan—was arrested this morning along with State Senator Malcolm Smith for allegedly plotting to "rig this year’s mayoral election through fraud and bribes." The 28-page criminal complaint reveals not just the details of Halloran's alleged transactions,

The cooperating witness went on to pay Halloran $7,500 in cash. Near the end of the conversation, Halloran remarked: "Money is what greases the wheels—good, bad, or indifferent."

September 27, 2012. An undercover FBI agent, a cooperating witness and Halloran meet in a Manhattan hotel. During the meeting, the undercover agent gives Halloran $6,500 in checks. The cooperating witness asked Halloran for $20,000 from the City Council discretionary fund. Halloran replied:

Absolutely, that's easy,
that's not even an issue, not even an issue...In fact,
I might even be able to get you more.

In a particular twist of irony, Halloran also requested Smith use his power to appoint him Deputy Police Commissioner, being that he served on the NYPD and all. The current Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne was quick to clarify in a statement that Halloran was only "a police cadet, the equivalent of a college intern," for three months in 1990, before he resigned.

in New York.. both sides are liberal... (like Bloomberg who ran on the republican ticket)..

it is a shame the GOP party elite can't figure that out...

but to tie a sincere effort of raising awareness in the black communities of the damaging policy of progressives to a democrat corruption scheme and a fruit-loop is obscene..
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Whitewing said:
Oldtimer said:
Looks to me it fits exactly what I've said for years-- a crook is a crook-- and neither cult has a monopoly on producing crooks !

Yeah, you've said that for years about both cults. :roll: :roll: :roll: So what do you dig up to post? A story about how it's bad for pubs.

Just admit it OT, you'd rather suck back a rotten egg than ever say anything negative about a donk.

But you're really quite conservative, right?

Sounds like you prefer to be like FAUX News- and only want to see the story from one side... I only showed that their is more to the story you posted than just that one side....

Let me follow your logic here.

I post a story clearly showing corruption on the part of both donks and pubs.

You come back with a story about how this hurts pubs.

Yet I'm the one choosing sides? :???: :???: :???:

Again you accuse me of doing EXACTLY what you're doing, seeing the news from only one side. Assclown hypocrite. :roll:
 
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