Washington (CNN) -- Panicked as the FBI closed in Friday morning, Prince Georges County Executive Jack Johnson and his wife Leslie raced to find a $100,000 check for an alleged kickback and flush it down the toilet.
With agents knocking at the door, Leslie Johnson stuffed nearly $80,000 in her bra. ::bantits::
The dramatic end to an alleged years-long kickback scheme is outlined in detail in an affidavit written by FBI investigator Wendy Munoz, whose team was monitoring wiretaps.
Johnson, who has served as the executive of Prince Georges County since 2002, was taken into custody along with his wife.
The Johnsons made a first appearance in federal court late Friday in Greenbelt, Maryland, just outside Washington.
They were both charged with tampering with evidence and destruction of records. U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein stressed the investigation is continuing.
The Johnsons were released on their own recognizance, but Jack Johnson will be required to wear a monitoring device. He presumably will be allowed to continue serving out the last weeks of his expiring term as county executive if he chooses. The judge, however, ordered him not to attempt to destroy any evidence.
Jack Johnson had been the Prince Georges County prosecutor prior to his eight years as executive.
Leslie Johnson was just recently elected to the nine-member Prince Georges County Council.
The ten-page affidavit says the FBI began investigating Johnson in 2006 when it learned that certain real estate developers were paying Johnson for contracts. That led to a "a series of authorizations for the interception of wire communications."
The frantic end began early Friday when Johnson allegedly received a $15,000 payoff, and the FBI suddenly barged into the room to demand an explanation.
Johnson told them the cash was for a party marking the end of his tenure as county executive. He also claimed he had no dealings with the developer who was with him.
The FBI says Johnson made a series of false statements. The agents let him go but then eavesdropped on a series of frantic phone calls between Jack and Leslie Johnson as Jack Johnson and the FBI headed for the Johnsons' Mitchellville, Maryland, home.
"Two women (agents) are at the door," Leslie told her husband.
"Don't answer it," Jack said. He told her to run upstairs to their bedroom and go to "my drawer."
"You will see a check in there that [an unidentified developer] wrote to me," he said.
The affidavit says when Leslie found the check Jack told her to tear it up. "Do you want me to put it down the toilet?" she asked. Jack Johnson replied, "Yes, flush that." The agents monitoring the phone calls heard a flushing sound. :B
Leslie Johnson grabbed cash from the bedroom and also ran to the basement and grabbed more cash. "Put in your bra and walk out or something, I don't know what to do, Jack said.
"I have it in my bra," his wife replied.
"FBI agents then searched the person of Leslie Johnson incident to her arrest and recovered $79,600 in U.S. currency from her underwear," the affidavit says. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The wild ending may end up costing the Johnsons. The FBI says there is probable cause to believe that the pair "tampered with ... evidence and engaged in destruction, alteration, and falsification of records in a federal investigation."
The FBI document does not say how much money Johnson may have received in kickbacks or bribes. It does say at least some of the funds involved were targeted from an $80 million dollar budget to programs supported by federal grants such as those from Department of Housing and Community Development.
When Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson and his wife, County Council member Leslie Johnson, were arrested last Friday with tens of thousands in alleged payola, authorities said the couple found an uplifting place to hide it.
With FBI agents pounding on the door, Johnson, in a wiretapped conversation, advised his wife to cram $79,600 into her underwear. She managed to get it all into her bra, agents said.
But is it physically possible to stuff that much bread into one's bust without drawing notice?
Provided it's a proper-fitting bra, yes, it is. It just wouldn't be very comfortable.
The highest-value note currently lining wallets in the United States is the $100 bill. In the most convenient scenario, the Johnson family's loot would have been entirely in Benjamins. At a gram each, 796 bills would weigh around 1.75 pounds and, if stacked horizontally, stand about 3 1⁄2 inches in height, according to a rep from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Handed those measurements, Lindsey Palacios -- a manager at Alexandria bra boutique the Full Cup -- says she thinks that it could be done. Dubious at first, she changed her mind after experimenting with some bills borrowed from the store's till.
For the cash to fit, Johnson would have to spread the wealth around.
"It would require full use of the cups, straps and band," Palacios says.
It also helps that Johnson is a conservative dresser. "In her pictures she's always wearing a jacket, nothing form-fitting," explains Palacios. "It would completely cover up those bills, so you would never see it."
She places a maximum value of $10K per cup, explaining that the elastic would be the real money spot. "She could probably stuff 100 to 200 bills just underneath her armpit," Palacios postulates. "She could have hid everything in her band. And that wouldn't have poofed up her cup."
The stack of money below represents the amount Leslie Johnson was said to have stuffed in her bra when FBI agents came to her door Friday. The 790 bills weigh about 1.75 pounds and stand about 3 1⁄2 inches tall.
I have done projects in P.G. County for the past 15 years. The funny part is during his first term as county exec. Johnson tried to shut down development. Do you think he had this plan all along? IMHO, he is a piece of shit.
AP
AUSTIN, Texas —
Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay -- once one of the most powerful and feared Republicans in Congress -- was convicted Wednesday on charges he illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002.
Jurors deliberated for 19 hours before returning guilty verdicts against DeLay on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces up to life in prison on the money laundering charge.
After the verdicts were read, DeLay hugged his daughter, Danielle, and his wife, Christine. There was no immediate comment from him or his attorneys.
Prosecutors said DeLay, who once held the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives and whose heavy-handed style earned him the nickname "the Hammer," used his political action committee to illegally channel $190,000 in corporate donations into 2002 Texas legislative races through a money swap.
DeLay and his attorneys maintained the former Houston-area congressman did nothing wrong as no corporate funds went to Texas candidates and the money swap was legal.
The verdict came after a three-week trial in which prosecutors presented more than 30 witnesses and volumes of e-mails and other documents. DeLay's attorneys presented five witnesses.
Prosecutors said DeLay conspired with two associates, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, to use his Texas-based PAC to send $190,000 in corporate money to an arm of the Washington-based Republican National Committee, or RNC. The RNC then sent the same amount to seven Texas House candidates. Under Texas law, corporate money can't go directly to political campaigns.
Prosecutors claim the money helped Republicans take control of the Texas House. That enabled the GOP majority to push through a Delay-engineered congressional redistricting plan that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004 -- and strengthened DeLay's political power.
DeLay's attorneys argued the money swap resulted in the seven candidates getting donations from individuals, which they could legally use in Texas.
They also said DeLay only lent his name to the PAC and had little involvement in how it was run. Prosecutors, who presented mostly circumstantial evidence, didn't prove he committed a crime, they said.
DeLay has chosen to have Senior Judge Pat Priest sentence him. He faces five years to life in prison on the money laundering charge and two to 20 years on the conspiracy charge. He also would be eligible for probation.
The 2005 criminal charges in Texas, as well as a separate federal investigation of DeLay's ties to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, ended his 22-year political career representing suburban Houston. The Justice Department probe into DeLay's ties to Abramoff ended without any charges filed against DeLay.
another dirty Boston pol, playing the race card. eat shit turner. you should be in jail.
edit: he IS in prison! hahaha
By Joe Fitzgerald
December 1, 2010
Boston Herald Columnist
Two days after a jury of his peers convicted him of taking a bribe, having seen irrefutable evidence of his crookedness on film, Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner stood before a small band of adamant admirers, railing against the injustices white America had perpetrated on black Americans in the past.
“African-Americans were brought to this country as slaves,” he recalled. “We were whipped and lashed and hung . . . ”
“We?” No one whipped, lashed or hung this fraud; someone simply captured proof of his corruption, then someone else read him his rights.
To suggest that now places him in the ranks of martyrs is not only ludicrous, but scurrilously disrespectful of those whose persecution was truly ruthless.
Turner cheapens their shed blood when he uses it to wash his own dirty hands, as if that charade confirms him as a champion of civil rights.
Councilor, we know you have no conscience, but have you no shame either?
The game he’s been playing is offensive and obvious.
It’s the same one success-fully played by the late Johnnie Cochran in his notorious closing statement to the O.J. Simpson jury, when he referred to Hitler, then talked of black folks being burned alive by rednecks.
“Maybe this is why you were selected,” Cochran suggested to that jury of nine blacks, two whites and one Hispanic.
“There’s something in your background, in your character, that helps you understand . . . ”
Prosecutor Christopher Darden, also black, couldn’t wait to respond, bristling as he advised that panel, “What he’s really asking is, ‘Are you with The Man, or are you with the brothers?’ ”
That’s what Turner has been asking residents of Roxbury since the day a jury found him guilty. It’s an insulting question.
Despite his racist groveling, he has never been seen here as a black crook; he’s seen as a crook who’s black, a crook who offers no repentance, no regrets, no remorse, no apologies.
The Man is out to get him, don’t you know?
Please.
Today the City Council will vote on whether he should be removed from office or allowed to continue masquerading as a public servant.
he should have been cuffed and taken directly to jail! anybody else would have been.
AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) - A Texas judge is sending "The Hammer" to prison. Former Republican leader Tom DeLay was sentenced to three years in prison Monday after a jury found him guilty of money laundering and conspiracy.
DeLay emotionally asked the judge for leniency. "I've lost my right to vote. Just because someone disagrees with you, it's not enough, they have to bury you, throw you in jail." DeLay arrived at the Austin courthouse in good spirits earlier today jokingly telling reporters he "had a date with the judge today." During his days in Congress, he earned the nickname "The Hammer."
DeLay was found guilty in November of a campaign-finance scheme that funneled $190,000 in corporate donations through his Texas-based PAC to the Republican National Committee, and then into the campaign coffers of seven Republicans running for the Texas Legislature. By Texas law, corporate money is illegal.
"Mr. DeLay has suffered enough. He lost it all already." said DeLay's attorney, Dick DeGuerin. "He did not rob, he did not line his own pockets. He did what he did because he believes in conservative values."
The judge will allow DeLay to post a $10,000 bond while his case is being appealed. DeGuerin says DeLay is posting bond and will be released soon.
another poor dirty Boston pol is going bye bye tomorrow.
Boston Herald
On the eve of a possible 12-to-20 year prison sentence, a somber and contrite ex-House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi addressed the court saying he’s a “broken man” asking himself nights how did he “go wrong.”
The 66-year-old disgraced North End pol will be sentenced tomorrow, but today he pleaded with a U.S. District Court judge for leniency.
“They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I don’t want to go to hell and I don’t want to go to prison,” DiMasi told U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf.
“I appear before you today a broken man standing here before you in pieces. My family is devastated. I have lost everything I have worked for so hard for my entire life,” DiMasi said. “My pension and health-care benefits will be lost at a time when my family needs them so desperately. My home is in foreclosure. I am virtually unemployable.”
DiMasi told Wolf that since his conviction, he has stayed awake nights asking himself: “How did I go wrong?”
The disgraced speaker, convicted in June of pocketing $65,000 in bribes as part of a complex scheme to score multimillion-dollar state contracts for a Canadian software firm, said, “I have brought dishonor to the office I held — a pain I will never be able to soothe.”
DiMasi will be sentenced sometime tomorrow. The judge indicated today he is not inclined to slap a 20-year maximum sentence on him. However, he chastised DiMasi for abusing an office that had already seen it’s two previous speakers convicted on criminal charges.
edit to add:
Disgraced ex-Speaker Salvatore DiMasi was lambasted today for betraying hard-working constituents by a federal judge who sentenced him to eight years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf, in a lengthy address to the former North End pol, said DiMasi "betrayed the promise of America."
The judge added DiMasi let voters down in a time the state was slashing the state budget taking money away from the elderly and from scholarships -- all while the ex-Speaker was accepting $65,000 in bribes.
they always go hide in a hospital!!
oh i was a. sick b. drunk. c. insane d. bi-polar e. bored. f. a dirty chickenhawk.
A Minnesota state lawmaker who authorities say admitted having a liaison with a 17-year-old boy at a rest stop faced calls from party leaders on Monday to give up his re-election bid.
Rep. Kerry Gauthier, 56, hasn't been charged in the July incident, and authorities said he wouldn't be because the boy was older than 16, the legal age of consent, and no money was exchanged. Police say the teenager responded to the lawmaker's Craigslist ad for "no strings attached" sex.
Gauthier admitted to the liaison, according to police reports made public late last week. The teen told police the two had oral sex, according to the reports.
The scandal has hurt Democrats' hopes of retaking at least one chamber of the Legislature. They need to pick up at least six seats in the House, and Gauthier's Duluth-area seat is usually reliably Democratic. But if he drops out, any Democrat seeking to replace him would have to run as a write-in candidate, making the race much more difficult to win.
Still, Democratic leaders called on Gauthier to withdraw from the race. House Minority Leader Paul Thissen, D-Minneapolis, said he was "deeply disappointed" in Gauthier's conduct and wants him to step aside.
"As I shared with Rep. Gauthier, I believe he should withdraw from the race for re-election," Thissen said in a statement released by his office.
Less than an hour later, state Democratic Party Chairman Ken Martin echoed Thissen's comments, although neither man asked Gauthier to leave office before his term ends in January.
Gauthier hasn't commented to reporters on the incident. A call to his cellphone rolled to voicemail on Monday. Thissen's statement said he expects Gauthier to "address these issues publicly and soon."
Gauthier was hospitalized for an undisclosed condition until last weekend, which prompted Thissen to wait to issue his statement. House Speaker Kurt Zellers, a Republican, on Friday urged Gauthier to resign.
Why in a rest stop bathroom? Those places are filthy! Gauthier doesn't have the money to rent a flippin' motel room? Asshat was just begging to get caught.
(CNN) -- The mayor of New Jersey's capital city was arrested on Monday on corruption charges for allegedly accepting bribes during an undercover sting operation, FBI and court records showed.
Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, 46, his brother, Ralphiel Mack, 39, and business associate Joseph A. "JoJo" Giorgianni, 63, faced charges in connection with an alleged kickback scheme to sell city owned land to investors for well under the assessed value.
The three were due in court later in the day, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said at a news conference.
From the archives: Ex-mayor in New Jersey gets two years in prison
"The investigation revealed evidence of a conspiracy among these defendants and others to corrupt certain functions of Trenton City government in favor of purported developer seeking to build a parking garage on city-owned property in exchange for cash payments totaling approximately $119,000," according to a complaint filed in federal court.
Mack, who was charged specifically with conspiracy to corrupt commerce by extortion, employed intermediaries, "used code words and limited discussions of the scheme over the telephone" to avoid detection, the complaint said.
For example, Giorgianni would use the term "Uncle Remus" in conversations with the mayor to connote when he had received a cash payment, Fishman said.
The charges were the result of a two-year FBI investigation that incorporated two informants cooperating with law enforcement. Fishman said at least one of those moles wore a wire to record conversations for the FBI.
Each conspiracy charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, Fishman said.
Any trial would not likely occur until next year, he said.
Mack's office declined to comment when reached by CNN.
He bonded out & the media up there are stuck up his ass, they were like feeding sharks when he walked out of the courthouse. He didn't say a word to them & was quickly thrown into a car that sped away with news vans in hot pursuit.
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