Anchorage--
Charlie Savage of the New York Times had a roundup last week on the end of the John Edwards trial that surveys the state of the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, "a once-vaunted watchdog" which the article says "once enjoyed an elite reputation."
The story contains additional nuggets on the Justice Department's pursuit of Rep. Don Young (R.-Ak.) uncovered by the organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). These bits include links to an FBI memo setting out notes for an indictment of the Congressman for all Alaska as well as CREW's analysis of that draft indictment and other evidence released pursuant to requests for public records.
The federal government has never indicted Young, and Young's lawyer has announced that the federal government has advised that it will not prosecute Alaska's sole Member of the House of Representatives. Young and his lawyer have consistently asserted that Young has committed no crime.
(Hat tip to blog reader J.W., and thanks on an entirely different matter to blog reader D.S.)
Showing posts with label Don Young. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don Young. Show all posts
Monday, June 4, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Updated Biography of Cliff Groh with Yet More Disclosures
Anchorage--
As time marches on, facts about my life change and I also learn more facts about the past. So here is another updated biography with updated disclosures:
Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has been a lawyer for more than 20 years. He is now a writer and attorney in Anchorage. Formerly a prosecutor, Groh has represented some criminal defendants in his private law practice. His law practice focuses on the writing of appeals and motions and the revision of legal documents.
Groh has been doing research for a book on the Alaska public corruption scandals uncovered by the current federal investigations and the resulting trials. To that end, he has observed most of the trials of former state legislators Pete Kott and Vic Kohring in Anchorage and all of the trial of then-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens in Washington, D.C. He has taught two classes on Alaska public corruption through the Opportunities for Lifelong Education (OLE) program, and has also presented another lecture through that program. He maintains a blog on the Alaska public corruption scandals at www.alaskacorruption.blogspot.com on the Internet.
Groh was interviewed for an hour about Alaska public corruption on C-SPAN by the network's founder Brian Lamb, and he has also given a Polaris lecture on the subject at the University of Alaska Anchorage for the Forty-Ninth State Fellows program. Groh is a columnist for the Alaska Bar Rag, the official publication of the Last Frontier's lawyers, and most of his offerings in that periodical have addressed the cases arising out of the "POLAR PEN" federal probe into Alaska public corruption.
Groh's writings on Ted Stevens and the federal prosecution of him have appeared in various outlets, including the Anchorage Daily News, the Anchorage Press, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner website. He has also been interviewed live regarding "POLAR PEN" cases on the Alaska Public Radio Network, Anchorage's TV Channel 4, and KOAN-AM and FM. His comments on these matters have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Reuters news service and on Anchorage's TV Channels 11 and 2.
Groh served as the Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Revenue from 1987 through 1990. In that capacity, he served essentially as the State of Alaska's tax lobbyist in the successful effort in 1989 to revise the state's oil taxes in a way that increased revenues from the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields. The legislation adopted in 1989 created a regime for oil taxes that lasted until the Alaska Legislature adopted the Petroleum Profits Tax in 2006.
Groh was also the principal legislative staff member working on Permanent Fund Dividend legislation in 1982. That legislation produced the per capita Permanent Fund Dividend Alaska has today. Groh has co-authored two chapters for an academic book on Permanent Fund Dividends to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Groh worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage and in rural Alaska communities such as St. Paul, Unalaska, and Sand Point. He has handled approximately 30 jury trials as a prosecutor. He has also served as in-house and outside counsel for municipal governments in Alaska. He served as a delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in 2004.
When Groh was first out of college in the late 1970s, he worked as a reporter with a statewide newspaper called the Alaska Advocate. He has also published historical articles on topics ranging from the Permanent Fund Dividend to the history of journalistic coverage of the capital move campaigns.
Groh is a graduate of Harvard College, where his senior honors thesis was on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). His law degree is from the University of California at Berkeley (then called Boalt Hall, now known as Berkeley Law).
Disclosures of Potentially Relevant Interests and Relationships
Groh’s work in government has included service in both partisan and non-partisan positions. Groh has worked for Democrats while serving in partisan positions in the Alaska State Legislature and the Alaska Department of Revenue. He is a registered Democrat who was a delegate to the 1988 Alaska Democratic Convention.
Groh socialized with Bruce Weyhrauch during periods in the 1980s and early 1990s when both lived in Juneau, and Groh had some social contacts with Weyhrauch afterwards. While serving as City and Borough Attorney for the City and Borough of Sitka, Groh arranged in 2002 or 2003 for Weyhrauch to act as counsel for the City and Borough in a case where Groh had a conflict of interest. Weyhrauch and Groh have never discussed the criminal case against Weyhrauch while those legal proceedings were pending, and have discussed only the case's effects on him since the case was adjudicated.
Groh knew Ted Stevens all of Groh's life, and Groh's father—who passed away in 1998—was a close friend and political ally of Ted Stevens. Groh lived in a dormitory in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1975 with interns of Stevens' Senate office while researching a college senior honors thesis on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. Ted Stevens apparently made the arrangements for Groh to live in that dormitory, and his office may have paid for the room rental. Groh sometimes used space in Ted Stevens' Senate office during the summer of 1975 while researching his thesis, and Groh both interviewed and had some social contacts with Stevens that summer.
Groh’s mother was a close friend of Ted Stevens’ first wife Ann Stevens, who died in an airplane crash in 1978. Ted Stevens and his Senate staff worked to arrange for additional medical care for both of Groh’s parents when they were stricken with cancer in the 1990s.
At various points over the years, Groh met and spoke with Jim Clark, Bill Weimar, and Pete Kott about various matters. Groh also exchanged e-mail messages with Vic Kohring about fiscal policy. Groh interviewed Don Young in the 1970s, and as a child he may have played with Ben Stevens.
In the 1980s, Groh’s father served as VECO’s lawyer in some legal matters. In one such matter, Groh's father defended the corporation against an enforcement action brought by the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) regarding VECO’s campaign contributions. One or both of Groh’s parents also had some business dealings with Bill Allen in the 1980s. In an apparent attempt to interest Bill Allen in buying real estate, Groh’s father reportedly took Allen to a subdivision in rural Alaska owned by a corporation controlled by Groh’s father. Neither Allen nor VECO purchased any property at the subdivision. Given the limited number of sleeping spaces available in the area at the time, however, that visit by Bill Allen probably means that Groh has slept in a bed that Bill Allen once slept in.
Groh's son was selected in 2012 as one of nine summer interns for U.S. Sen. Mark Begich (D.-Alaska). Groh made no efforts in his son's obtaining of the position.
Groh's law practice has included work for a law firm representing a municipal government in administrative proceedings and litigation over the property tax on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The opponents in those legal matters consist mostly of the major oil producers on Alaska's North Slope, who are the majority owners of TAPS.
Groh has also worked and/or socialized with a number of the Anchorage lawyers who have worked on matters associated with the federal government's “POLAR PEN” probe into public corruption in Alaska. Some of those attorneys are or have been prosecutors on those matters, and some of those attorneys have served as defense counsel on those matters.
As time marches on, facts about my life change and I also learn more facts about the past. So here is another updated biography with updated disclosures:
Updated Biography of Cliff Groh with Yet More Disclosures
Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has been a lawyer for more than 20 years. He is now a writer and attorney in Anchorage. Formerly a prosecutor, Groh has represented some criminal defendants in his private law practice. His law practice focuses on the writing of appeals and motions and the revision of legal documents.
Groh has been doing research for a book on the Alaska public corruption scandals uncovered by the current federal investigations and the resulting trials. To that end, he has observed most of the trials of former state legislators Pete Kott and Vic Kohring in Anchorage and all of the trial of then-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens in Washington, D.C. He has taught two classes on Alaska public corruption through the Opportunities for Lifelong Education (OLE) program, and has also presented another lecture through that program. He maintains a blog on the Alaska public corruption scandals at www.alaskacorruption.blogspot.com on the Internet.
Groh was interviewed for an hour about Alaska public corruption on C-SPAN by the network's founder Brian Lamb, and he has also given a Polaris lecture on the subject at the University of Alaska Anchorage for the Forty-Ninth State Fellows program. Groh is a columnist for the Alaska Bar Rag, the official publication of the Last Frontier's lawyers, and most of his offerings in that periodical have addressed the cases arising out of the "POLAR PEN" federal probe into Alaska public corruption.
Groh's writings on Ted Stevens and the federal prosecution of him have appeared in various outlets, including the Anchorage Daily News, the Anchorage Press, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner website. He has also been interviewed live regarding "POLAR PEN" cases on the Alaska Public Radio Network, Anchorage's TV Channel 4, and KOAN-AM and FM. His comments on these matters have also appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Reuters news service and on Anchorage's TV Channels 11 and 2.
Groh served as the Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Revenue from 1987 through 1990. In that capacity, he served essentially as the State of Alaska's tax lobbyist in the successful effort in 1989 to revise the state's oil taxes in a way that increased revenues from the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields. The legislation adopted in 1989 created a regime for oil taxes that lasted until the Alaska Legislature adopted the Petroleum Profits Tax in 2006.
Groh was also the principal legislative staff member working on Permanent Fund Dividend legislation in 1982. That legislation produced the per capita Permanent Fund Dividend Alaska has today. Groh has co-authored two chapters for an academic book on Permanent Fund Dividends to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Groh worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage and in rural Alaska communities such as St. Paul, Unalaska, and Sand Point. He has handled approximately 30 jury trials as a prosecutor. He has also served as in-house and outside counsel for municipal governments in Alaska. He served as a delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in 2004.
When Groh was first out of college in the late 1970s, he worked as a reporter with a statewide newspaper called the Alaska Advocate. He has also published historical articles on topics ranging from the Permanent Fund Dividend to the history of journalistic coverage of the capital move campaigns.
Groh is a graduate of Harvard College, where his senior honors thesis was on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). His law degree is from the University of California at Berkeley (then called Boalt Hall, now known as Berkeley Law).
Disclosures of Potentially Relevant Interests and Relationships
Groh’s work in government has included service in both partisan and non-partisan positions. Groh has worked for Democrats while serving in partisan positions in the Alaska State Legislature and the Alaska Department of Revenue. He is a registered Democrat who was a delegate to the 1988 Alaska Democratic Convention.
Groh socialized with Bruce Weyhrauch during periods in the 1980s and early 1990s when both lived in Juneau, and Groh had some social contacts with Weyhrauch afterwards. While serving as City and Borough Attorney for the City and Borough of Sitka, Groh arranged in 2002 or 2003 for Weyhrauch to act as counsel for the City and Borough in a case where Groh had a conflict of interest. Weyhrauch and Groh have never discussed the criminal case against Weyhrauch while those legal proceedings were pending, and have discussed only the case's effects on him since the case was adjudicated.
Groh knew Ted Stevens all of Groh's life, and Groh's father—who passed away in 1998—was a close friend and political ally of Ted Stevens. Groh lived in a dormitory in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1975 with interns of Stevens' Senate office while researching a college senior honors thesis on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. Ted Stevens apparently made the arrangements for Groh to live in that dormitory, and his office may have paid for the room rental. Groh sometimes used space in Ted Stevens' Senate office during the summer of 1975 while researching his thesis, and Groh both interviewed and had some social contacts with Stevens that summer.
Groh’s mother was a close friend of Ted Stevens’ first wife Ann Stevens, who died in an airplane crash in 1978. Ted Stevens and his Senate staff worked to arrange for additional medical care for both of Groh’s parents when they were stricken with cancer in the 1990s.
At various points over the years, Groh met and spoke with Jim Clark, Bill Weimar, and Pete Kott about various matters. Groh also exchanged e-mail messages with Vic Kohring about fiscal policy. Groh interviewed Don Young in the 1970s, and as a child he may have played with Ben Stevens.
In the 1980s, Groh’s father served as VECO’s lawyer in some legal matters. In one such matter, Groh's father defended the corporation against an enforcement action brought by the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) regarding VECO’s campaign contributions. One or both of Groh’s parents also had some business dealings with Bill Allen in the 1980s. In an apparent attempt to interest Bill Allen in buying real estate, Groh’s father reportedly took Allen to a subdivision in rural Alaska owned by a corporation controlled by Groh’s father. Neither Allen nor VECO purchased any property at the subdivision. Given the limited number of sleeping spaces available in the area at the time, however, that visit by Bill Allen probably means that Groh has slept in a bed that Bill Allen once slept in.
Groh's son was selected in 2012 as one of nine summer interns for U.S. Sen. Mark Begich (D.-Alaska). Groh made no efforts in his son's obtaining of the position.
Groh's law practice has included work for a law firm representing a municipal government in administrative proceedings and litigation over the property tax on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The opponents in those legal matters consist mostly of the major oil producers on Alaska's North Slope, who are the majority owners of TAPS.
Groh has also worked and/or socialized with a number of the Anchorage lawyers who have worked on matters associated with the federal government's “POLAR PEN” probe into public corruption in Alaska. Some of those attorneys are or have been prosecutors on those matters, and some of those attorneys have served as defense counsel on those matters.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Public May Get to See FBI File on Coconut Road Probe into Don Young
Anchorage--
A federal judge has ruled that the federal government must give a document-by-document explanation of why it wants to hold back files relating to the criminal probe into a change in an earmark engineered while U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) was Chairman of the House Transportation Committee. The Department of Justice investigated how language in a bill passed by Congress changed after passage to benefit a real estate developer interested in a Florida highway project who had organized a campaign fundraiser for Alaska's only Member of the House.
In litigation arising from a request based on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the court ruled that the federal government's claim that Young's privacy interests justified a blanket refusal to turn over files failed given that this investigation was never private. Indeed, Congress itself had taken the "decidedly uncommon" step of passing legislation directing the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate the change in language in the Coconut Road earmark.
Additionally, the court stated that "It is difficult to understand how there could not be a substantial public interest in disclosure of documents regarding the manner in which DoJ handled high profile allegations of public corruption about an elected official."
You can find a link to the ruling here.
A federal judge has ruled that the federal government must give a document-by-document explanation of why it wants to hold back files relating to the criminal probe into a change in an earmark engineered while U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) was Chairman of the House Transportation Committee. The Department of Justice investigated how language in a bill passed by Congress changed after passage to benefit a real estate developer interested in a Florida highway project who had organized a campaign fundraiser for Alaska's only Member of the House.
In litigation arising from a request based on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the court ruled that the federal government's claim that Young's privacy interests justified a blanket refusal to turn over files failed given that this investigation was never private. Indeed, Congress itself had taken the "decidedly uncommon" step of passing legislation directing the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate the change in language in the Coconut Road earmark.
Additionally, the court stated that "It is difficult to understand how there could not be a substantial public interest in disclosure of documents regarding the manner in which DoJ handled high profile allegations of public corruption about an elected official."
You can find a link to the ruling here.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
House Ethics Committee Dismisses Fundraising Complaint Against Don Young
Los Angeles, California--
The U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee has announced that Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) will not face sanctions based on a complaint about fundraising for his legal defense fund. The panel did, however, announce that the case had triggered a change in the rules to prevent future violations of the spirit of the restrictions.
The U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee has announced that Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) will not face sanctions based on a complaint about fundraising for his legal defense fund. The panel did, however, announce that the case had triggered a change in the rules to prevent future violations of the spirit of the restrictions.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Traffic Cop in the Alaska Winter: Notes on News of the Day
Anchorage--
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has written the U.S. Department of Justice seeking "an objective, thorough and independent" investigation of why the federal government has not prosecuted--and has apparently blocked the State of Alaska's prosecution of--Bill Allen for allegedly bringing an underage girl across state lines for "immoral and exploitative purposes."
KTVA-TV, Anchorage's Channel 11, interviewed me about this letter, and that station's report should appear tonight. My earlier thoughts on Sen. Murkowski's question are here.
The U.S. House Ethics Committee will decide by January 11 whether it will investigate U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) on a matter that apparently involves contributions to his legal defense fund.
Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch has a substantial piece exploring whether the collapse of the prosecution of then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska) will lead to reforms aimed at stemming prosecutorial abuses of the discovery process.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has written the U.S. Department of Justice seeking "an objective, thorough and independent" investigation of why the federal government has not prosecuted--and has apparently blocked the State of Alaska's prosecution of--Bill Allen for allegedly bringing an underage girl across state lines for "immoral and exploitative purposes."
KTVA-TV, Anchorage's Channel 11, interviewed me about this letter, and that station's report should appear tonight. My earlier thoughts on Sen. Murkowski's question are here.
The U.S. House Ethics Committee will decide by January 11 whether it will investigate U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) on a matter that apparently involves contributions to his legal defense fund.
Amanda Coyne of Alaska Dispatch has a substantial piece exploring whether the collapse of the prosecution of then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska) will lead to reforms aimed at stemming prosecutorial abuses of the discovery process.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
New Judge, New Trial Dates Coming Up, but Still No Guarantee of Trials for Kott and Kohring
Anchorage--
I'm engaged in pressing personal business that will limit my blogging for a few more days. Today's news is that the move of U.S. District Judge John Sedwick to senior status (semi-retirement) later this year has resulted in the transfer of the cases of former State Reps. Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River) and Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla) to Judge Ralph Beistline.
None of the recent developments have shaken my belief that neither of those former lawmakers will be retried on the federal corruption charges which put them in prison before discovery problems produced the reversals of their convictions.
I'm been lax lately on the posting. To compensate, here's a copy of my column in this month's edition of the Alaska Bar Rag, the quarterly publication for the Last Frontier's lawyers:
What Does the Federal Probe into Public Corruption Mean for Alaska?
by Cliff Groh
(First of several installments)
Born in the Territory of Alaska in 1954, I grew up in a skinny Anchorage media environment in which there was no live TV until the first moon walk occurred when I was 15.
Reading newspapers and magazines as a boy in the 1960s, I noticed occasional stories of public corruption—of police on the take, government officials who accepted bribes—in states like Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Illinois. I really didn’t see that in Alaska, so I asked my father about it. He was a former President of the Alaska Bar Association who had served as both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney; he had also been on the City Council, the Borough Assembly, and the School Board.
My father said “Well, son, there’s not enough money to steal.”
Back in the mid-1960s, Alaska was a young state with a thin economy. Although people on the Last Frontier felt poor, there was still some of that aura of idealism and optimism that remained from the excitement of achieving statehood in the late 1950s.
The announcement in 1968 of the discovery of a super-giant oilfield at Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope brought billions and billions of dollars to Alaska, both to the private economy in paychecks and to the state government’s coffers in taxes and royalties on oil development.
The long-running federal investigation into Alaska public corruption has underscored some of the changes seen in the 49th State, and that probe has also caused some. Most of the cases produced by the federal investigation involved alleged efforts to influence public officials regarding the state’s taxes on oil development.
This probe electrified Alaskans. Think back to the wild days between the late summer of 2006 and the fall of 2008. In those 27 months, 11 people got charged with federal felonies. Those 11 included:
Ø legendary U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska);
Ø five state legislators (some of whom had left office)—State Sen. John Cowdery (R.-Anchorage) and State Reps. Tom Anderson (R.-Anchorage), Bruce Weyhrauch (R.-Juneau), Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River and a former Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives), and Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla);
Ø Jim Clark, the chief of staff to former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski;
Ø Bill Allen, a political kingmaker who was the long-time CEO of the multinational oil-services giant VECO, a billion-dollar company;
Ø Bill Weimar, the multimillionaire former head of the private corrections corporation Allvest;
Ø Rick Smith, a VECO vice president who served as Allen’s chief political lieutenant; and
Ø Bill Bobrick, a prominent lobbyist working on municipal issues in the Municipality of Anchorage.
At the end of 2008, 10 of those 11 people had pleaded guilty or heard juries deliver guilty verdicts on all or almost all counts they faced. FBI surveillance tapes—many made at the VECO-rented Suite 604 in Juneau’s Baranof Hotel—greatly aided the prosecutors in their cases at trial. Alaskans were mesmerized by iconic images of Allen telling Kott “I own your ass” and Allen handing cash to Kohring, and many citizens were stunned by how little it seemed to take to get some public officials to sell their offices.
Long accustomed to serving either as a sugar daddy or a political punching bag on the Last Frontier, between late 2006 and late 2008 the feds seemed to be on a roll straightening out a mess in Alaska.
Back in 2008, those 11 defendants seemed very likely to increase by a lot. Multiple sources told Alaska journalist Bill McAllister that 26 people would be indicted in the federal investigation into public corruption in the state. Speculation on potential additional defendants centered on U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) (identified in media reports as being under investigation for alleged campaign fund-raising violations, among other things) and former State Senate President Ben Stevens (R.-Anchorage) (whom federal prosecutors got Bill Allen and Rick Smith to say that they had bribed).
Code-named “POLAR PEN” (apparently for its origins in an examination into corruption regarding private prisons), this federal investigation has had big effects, both for people and for policy.
Eight defendants ultimately went to prison, and one served a sentence of home confinement. The executions of the search warrants on the offices of six state legislators beginning in August of 2006 helped fuel the gubernatorial campaign of insurgent Republican candidate Sarah Palin, already running on a platform of “I’m not one of the good old boys.” The oil tax legislation in 2006 that sent some lawmakers to prison was amended the next year to increase taxes substantially on the oil companies after the first indictments frightened some legislators into avoiding even the appearance of being in the pocket of the petroleum industry.
And after almost 40 years in the U.S. Senate, Ted Stevens got defeated for re-election in November of 2008 eight days after a jury returned guilty verdicts on seven felony counts of failing to disclose gifts on U.S. Senate forms. At the Senator’s insistence, the trial started only 55 days after the indictment instead of eight months or so later as would normally have occurred in this kind of case. Given the small margin in the voting, it’s clear that Stevens would have been re-elected if the trial had either not started or still been in progress on election day.
But now—about eight years after the investigation started—it’s all different. The POLAR PEN probe has fizzled out in ways that are both surprising and disappointing.
The case against Ted Stevens collapsed in the wake of revelations of prosecutors’ substantial failures to share evidence with the defense; the seven guilty verdicts got overturned, and Attorney General Eric Holder elected not to seek a retrial. The meltdown of the Ted Stevens case led to the federal government finding discovery failures in the cases against former Reps. Kott and Kohring, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed their convictions. (Although as of this writing the federal government could retry Kott and Kohring, I predict that this will never happen. Note that this forecast comes from the same analyst who confidently predicted that Ted Stevens would never testify in his own defense.)
Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that substantially narrowed the scope of the honest-services fraud statute—a law that provided a favorite arrow in the quiver of federal prosecutors—the Department of Justice dismissed the federal felony charges against Weyhrauch and let him plead guilty to a unique state misdemeanor that resulted in no jail time. (Weyhrauch’s lawyers have also gotten permission from the U.S. District Court to forward to the Alaska Bar Association evidence that they allege shows “serious misconduct by government prosecutors appearing before the grand jury,” including the suborning of perjury.) Clark was also allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in the wake of that Supreme Court decision.
The prosecutors charged a 12th defendant in 2009—former State Rep. Beverly Masek (R.-Willow)—who pleaded guilty and served a prison sentence, but she is clearly the last defendant in the POLAR PEN probe.
It is the probers who are now on the griddle. The federal government is conducting two probes of the conduct of the prosecutors and investigators who worked on the federal government’s investigation of Alaska public corruption. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog unit—the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR)—is holding one of the two satellite probes; the other investigation is a highly unusual criminal probe run by a special counsel selected by the trial judge in the Ted Stevens case. Fingerpointing among various prosecutors over the discovery and handling of allegations against Bill Allen involving sexual abuse of minors appears to have contributed to the delays in wrapping up the two probes, which have each gone on for more than two years.
A story that seemed to start out with white hats and black hats has picked up a lot of shades of gray. The arc of some Alaskans’ feelings went from the bumper stickers of “We don’t give a damn how they do it Outside” to “Thanks FBI for cleaning up Alaska”—now it’s more like “How could the feds foul this up?”
This is the first in a series of columns to examine the causes, effects, and significance of the federal investigation into Alaska public corruption. It will rely on my extensive experience in Alaska, which brings both knowledge of how the state works and a number of other associations that might be seen as conflicts of interest when writing about this subject. (The full list of disclosures can be found at my blog at http://alaskacorruption.blogspot.com/2011/05/even-more-updated-biography-with-still.html on the Internet.) There are some lessons here and some elemental human stories, and this series of columns will have some of both.
Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has worked as a prosecutor and represented some criminal defendants in his private practice. He maintains a blog on the federal investigation into Alaska public corruption at www.alaskacorruption.blogspot.com on the Internet. He is a lawyer and writer in Anchorage whose law practice focuses on the writing and revision of briefs and motions.
I'm engaged in pressing personal business that will limit my blogging for a few more days. Today's news is that the move of U.S. District Judge John Sedwick to senior status (semi-retirement) later this year has resulted in the transfer of the cases of former State Reps. Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River) and Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla) to Judge Ralph Beistline.
None of the recent developments have shaken my belief that neither of those former lawmakers will be retried on the federal corruption charges which put them in prison before discovery problems produced the reversals of their convictions.
I'm been lax lately on the posting. To compensate, here's a copy of my column in this month's edition of the Alaska Bar Rag, the quarterly publication for the Last Frontier's lawyers:
What Does the Federal Probe into Public Corruption Mean for Alaska?
by Cliff Groh
(First of several installments)
Born in the Territory of Alaska in 1954, I grew up in a skinny Anchorage media environment in which there was no live TV until the first moon walk occurred when I was 15.
Reading newspapers and magazines as a boy in the 1960s, I noticed occasional stories of public corruption—of police on the take, government officials who accepted bribes—in states like Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Illinois. I really didn’t see that in Alaska, so I asked my father about it. He was a former President of the Alaska Bar Association who had served as both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney; he had also been on the City Council, the Borough Assembly, and the School Board.
My father said “Well, son, there’s not enough money to steal.”
Back in the mid-1960s, Alaska was a young state with a thin economy. Although people on the Last Frontier felt poor, there was still some of that aura of idealism and optimism that remained from the excitement of achieving statehood in the late 1950s.
The announcement in 1968 of the discovery of a super-giant oilfield at Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope brought billions and billions of dollars to Alaska, both to the private economy in paychecks and to the state government’s coffers in taxes and royalties on oil development.
The long-running federal investigation into Alaska public corruption has underscored some of the changes seen in the 49th State, and that probe has also caused some. Most of the cases produced by the federal investigation involved alleged efforts to influence public officials regarding the state’s taxes on oil development.
This probe electrified Alaskans. Think back to the wild days between the late summer of 2006 and the fall of 2008. In those 27 months, 11 people got charged with federal felonies. Those 11 included:
Ø legendary U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska);
Ø five state legislators (some of whom had left office)—State Sen. John Cowdery (R.-Anchorage) and State Reps. Tom Anderson (R.-Anchorage), Bruce Weyhrauch (R.-Juneau), Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River and a former Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives), and Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla);
Ø Jim Clark, the chief of staff to former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski;
Ø Bill Allen, a political kingmaker who was the long-time CEO of the multinational oil-services giant VECO, a billion-dollar company;
Ø Bill Weimar, the multimillionaire former head of the private corrections corporation Allvest;
Ø Rick Smith, a VECO vice president who served as Allen’s chief political lieutenant; and
Ø Bill Bobrick, a prominent lobbyist working on municipal issues in the Municipality of Anchorage.
At the end of 2008, 10 of those 11 people had pleaded guilty or heard juries deliver guilty verdicts on all or almost all counts they faced. FBI surveillance tapes—many made at the VECO-rented Suite 604 in Juneau’s Baranof Hotel—greatly aided the prosecutors in their cases at trial. Alaskans were mesmerized by iconic images of Allen telling Kott “I own your ass” and Allen handing cash to Kohring, and many citizens were stunned by how little it seemed to take to get some public officials to sell their offices.
Long accustomed to serving either as a sugar daddy or a political punching bag on the Last Frontier, between late 2006 and late 2008 the feds seemed to be on a roll straightening out a mess in Alaska.
Back in 2008, those 11 defendants seemed very likely to increase by a lot. Multiple sources told Alaska journalist Bill McAllister that 26 people would be indicted in the federal investigation into public corruption in the state. Speculation on potential additional defendants centered on U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) (identified in media reports as being under investigation for alleged campaign fund-raising violations, among other things) and former State Senate President Ben Stevens (R.-Anchorage) (whom federal prosecutors got Bill Allen and Rick Smith to say that they had bribed).
Code-named “POLAR PEN” (apparently for its origins in an examination into corruption regarding private prisons), this federal investigation has had big effects, both for people and for policy.
Eight defendants ultimately went to prison, and one served a sentence of home confinement. The executions of the search warrants on the offices of six state legislators beginning in August of 2006 helped fuel the gubernatorial campaign of insurgent Republican candidate Sarah Palin, already running on a platform of “I’m not one of the good old boys.” The oil tax legislation in 2006 that sent some lawmakers to prison was amended the next year to increase taxes substantially on the oil companies after the first indictments frightened some legislators into avoiding even the appearance of being in the pocket of the petroleum industry.
And after almost 40 years in the U.S. Senate, Ted Stevens got defeated for re-election in November of 2008 eight days after a jury returned guilty verdicts on seven felony counts of failing to disclose gifts on U.S. Senate forms. At the Senator’s insistence, the trial started only 55 days after the indictment instead of eight months or so later as would normally have occurred in this kind of case. Given the small margin in the voting, it’s clear that Stevens would have been re-elected if the trial had either not started or still been in progress on election day.
But now—about eight years after the investigation started—it’s all different. The POLAR PEN probe has fizzled out in ways that are both surprising and disappointing.
The case against Ted Stevens collapsed in the wake of revelations of prosecutors’ substantial failures to share evidence with the defense; the seven guilty verdicts got overturned, and Attorney General Eric Holder elected not to seek a retrial. The meltdown of the Ted Stevens case led to the federal government finding discovery failures in the cases against former Reps. Kott and Kohring, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed their convictions. (Although as of this writing the federal government could retry Kott and Kohring, I predict that this will never happen. Note that this forecast comes from the same analyst who confidently predicted that Ted Stevens would never testify in his own defense.)
Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that substantially narrowed the scope of the honest-services fraud statute—a law that provided a favorite arrow in the quiver of federal prosecutors—the Department of Justice dismissed the federal felony charges against Weyhrauch and let him plead guilty to a unique state misdemeanor that resulted in no jail time. (Weyhrauch’s lawyers have also gotten permission from the U.S. District Court to forward to the Alaska Bar Association evidence that they allege shows “serious misconduct by government prosecutors appearing before the grand jury,” including the suborning of perjury.) Clark was also allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in the wake of that Supreme Court decision.
The prosecutors charged a 12th defendant in 2009—former State Rep. Beverly Masek (R.-Willow)—who pleaded guilty and served a prison sentence, but she is clearly the last defendant in the POLAR PEN probe.
It is the probers who are now on the griddle. The federal government is conducting two probes of the conduct of the prosecutors and investigators who worked on the federal government’s investigation of Alaska public corruption. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog unit—the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR)—is holding one of the two satellite probes; the other investigation is a highly unusual criminal probe run by a special counsel selected by the trial judge in the Ted Stevens case. Fingerpointing among various prosecutors over the discovery and handling of allegations against Bill Allen involving sexual abuse of minors appears to have contributed to the delays in wrapping up the two probes, which have each gone on for more than two years.
A story that seemed to start out with white hats and black hats has picked up a lot of shades of gray. The arc of some Alaskans’ feelings went from the bumper stickers of “We don’t give a damn how they do it Outside” to “Thanks FBI for cleaning up Alaska”—now it’s more like “How could the feds foul this up?”
This is the first in a series of columns to examine the causes, effects, and significance of the federal investigation into Alaska public corruption. It will rely on my extensive experience in Alaska, which brings both knowledge of how the state works and a number of other associations that might be seen as conflicts of interest when writing about this subject. (The full list of disclosures can be found at my blog at http://alaskacorruption.blogspot.com/2011/05/even-more-updated-biography-with-still.html on the Internet.) There are some lessons here and some elemental human stories, and this series of columns will have some of both.
Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has worked as a prosecutor and represented some criminal defendants in his private practice. He maintains a blog on the federal investigation into Alaska public corruption at www.alaskacorruption.blogspot.com on the Internet. He is a lawyer and writer in Anchorage whose law practice focuses on the writing and revision of briefs and motions.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Even More Updated Biography, with Still More Disclosures
Anchorage--
In preparing for publication in another forum of some of my writings on public corruption, I have tweaked my bio and expanded my disclosures of various interests and relationships with various defendants, suspects, and lawyers involved in the investigations and trials covered by this blog.
Biography of Cliff Groh
Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has been a lawyer for more than 20 years. He is now a writer and attorney in Anchorage. Formerly a prosecutor, Groh has represented some criminal defendants in his private law practice. His law practice focuses on the writing of appeals and motions and the revision of legal documents.
Groh has been doing research for a book on the Alaska public corruption scandals uncovered by the current federal investigations and the resulting trials. To that end, he has observed most of the trials of former state legislators Pete Kott and Vic Kohring in Anchorage and all of the trial of then-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens in Washington, D.C. He has taught two classes on Alaska public corruption through the Opportunities for Lifelong Education (OLE) program. He maintains a blog on the Alaska public corruption scandals at www.alaskacorruption.blogspot.com on the Internet. He was interviewed for an hour about Alaska public corruption on C-SPAN by the network's founder Brian Lamb, and he has also given a Polaris lecture on the subject at the University of Alaska Anchorage for the Forty-Ninth State Fellows program.
Groh served as the Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Revenue from 1987 through 1990. In that capacity, he served essentially as the State of Alaska's tax lobbyist in the successful effort in 1989 to revise the state's oil taxes in a way that increased revenues from the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields. The legislation adopted in 1989 created a regime for oil taxes that lasted until the Alaska Legislature adopted the Petroleum Profits Tax in 2006.
Groh was also the principal legislative staff member working on Permanent Fund Dividend legislation in 1982. That legislation produced the per capita Permanent Fund Dividend Alaska has today. Groh has co-authored two chapters for an academic book on Permanent Fund Dividends to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Groh worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage and in rural Alaska communities such as St. Paul, Unalaska, and Sand Point. He has handled approximately 30 jury trials as a prosecutor. He has also served as in-house and outside counsel for municipal governments in Alaska. He served as a delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in 2004.
When Groh was first out of college in the late 1970s, he worked as a reporter with a statewide newspaper called the Alaska Advocate. He has also published historical articles on topics ranging from the Permanent Fund Dividend to the history of journalistic coverage of the capital move campaigns.
Groh is a graduate of Harvard College, where his senior honors thesis was on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). His law degree is from the University of California at Berkeley (then called Boalt Hall, now known as Berkeley Law).
Disclosures of Potentially Relevant Interests and Relationships
Groh’s work in government has included service in both partisan and non-partisan positions. Groh has worked for Democrats while serving in partisan positions in the Alaska State Legislature and the Alaska Department of Revenue. He is a registered Democrat who was a delegate to the 1988 Alaska Democratic Convention.
Groh socialized with Bruce Weyhrauch during periods in the 1980s and early 1990s when both lived in Juneau, and Groh had some social contacts with Weyhrauch afterwards. While serving as City and Borough Attorney for the City and Borough of Sitka, Groh arranged in 2002 or 2003 for Weyhrauch to act as counsel for the City and Borough in a case where Groh had a conflict of interest. Weyhrauch and Groh have never discussed the criminal case against Weyhrauch.
Groh knew Ted Stevens all of Groh's life, and Groh's father—who passed away in 1998—was a close friend and political ally of Ted Stevens. Groh lived in a dormitory in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1975 with interns of Stevens' Senate office while researching a college senior honors thesis on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, and Ted Stevens apparently made the arrangements for Groh to live in that dormitory. Groh sometimes used space in Ted Stevens' Senate office during the summer of 1975 while researching his thesis, and Groh both interviewed and had some social contacts with Stevens that summer.
Groh’s mother was a close friend of Ted Stevens’ first wife Ann Stevens, who died in an airplane crash in 1978. Ted Stevens and his Senate staff worked to arrange for additional medical care for both of Groh’s parents when they were stricken with cancer in the 1990s.
At various points over the years, Groh met and spoke with Jim Clark, Bill Weimar, and Pete Kott about various matters. Groh also exchanged e-mail messages with Vic Kohring about fiscal policy. Groh interviewed Don Young in the 1970s, and as a child he may have played with Ben Stevens.
In the 1980s, Groh’s father served as VECO’s lawyer in defending the corporation against an enforcement action brought by the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) regarding VECO’s campaign contributions. One or both of Groh’s parents also had some business dealings with Bill Allen in the 1980s. In an apparent attempt to interest Bill Allen in buying real estate, Groh’s father reportedly took Allen to a subdivision in rural Alaska owned by a corporation controlled by Groh’s father. Neither Allen nor VECO purchased any property at the subdivision. Given the limited number of sleeping spaces available in the area at the time, however, that visit by Bill Allen probably means that Groh has slept in a bed that Bill Allen once slept in.
Groh's law practice has included work for a law firm representing a municipal government in administrative proceedings and litigation over the property tax on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The opponents in those legal matters consist mostly of the major oil producers on Alaska's North Slope, who are the majority owners of TAPS.
Groh has also worked and/or socialized with a number of the Anchorage lawyers who have worked on matters associated with the federal government's “POLAR PEN” probe into public corruption in Alaska. Some of those attorneys are or have been prosecutors on those matters, and some of those attorneys have served as defense counsel on those matters.
In preparing for publication in another forum of some of my writings on public corruption, I have tweaked my bio and expanded my disclosures of various interests and relationships with various defendants, suspects, and lawyers involved in the investigations and trials covered by this blog.
Biography of Cliff Groh
Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has been a lawyer for more than 20 years. He is now a writer and attorney in Anchorage. Formerly a prosecutor, Groh has represented some criminal defendants in his private law practice. His law practice focuses on the writing of appeals and motions and the revision of legal documents.
Groh has been doing research for a book on the Alaska public corruption scandals uncovered by the current federal investigations and the resulting trials. To that end, he has observed most of the trials of former state legislators Pete Kott and Vic Kohring in Anchorage and all of the trial of then-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens in Washington, D.C. He has taught two classes on Alaska public corruption through the Opportunities for Lifelong Education (OLE) program. He maintains a blog on the Alaska public corruption scandals at www.alaskacorruption.blogspot.com on the Internet. He was interviewed for an hour about Alaska public corruption on C-SPAN by the network's founder Brian Lamb, and he has also given a Polaris lecture on the subject at the University of Alaska Anchorage for the Forty-Ninth State Fellows program.
Groh served as the Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Revenue from 1987 through 1990. In that capacity, he served essentially as the State of Alaska's tax lobbyist in the successful effort in 1989 to revise the state's oil taxes in a way that increased revenues from the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields. The legislation adopted in 1989 created a regime for oil taxes that lasted until the Alaska Legislature adopted the Petroleum Profits Tax in 2006.
Groh was also the principal legislative staff member working on Permanent Fund Dividend legislation in 1982. That legislation produced the per capita Permanent Fund Dividend Alaska has today. Groh has co-authored two chapters for an academic book on Permanent Fund Dividends to be published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Groh worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage and in rural Alaska communities such as St. Paul, Unalaska, and Sand Point. He has handled approximately 30 jury trials as a prosecutor. He has also served as in-house and outside counsel for municipal governments in Alaska. He served as a delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in 2004.
When Groh was first out of college in the late 1970s, he worked as a reporter with a statewide newspaper called the Alaska Advocate. He has also published historical articles on topics ranging from the Permanent Fund Dividend to the history of journalistic coverage of the capital move campaigns.
Groh is a graduate of Harvard College, where his senior honors thesis was on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). His law degree is from the University of California at Berkeley (then called Boalt Hall, now known as Berkeley Law).
Disclosures of Potentially Relevant Interests and Relationships
Groh’s work in government has included service in both partisan and non-partisan positions. Groh has worked for Democrats while serving in partisan positions in the Alaska State Legislature and the Alaska Department of Revenue. He is a registered Democrat who was a delegate to the 1988 Alaska Democratic Convention.
Groh socialized with Bruce Weyhrauch during periods in the 1980s and early 1990s when both lived in Juneau, and Groh had some social contacts with Weyhrauch afterwards. While serving as City and Borough Attorney for the City and Borough of Sitka, Groh arranged in 2002 or 2003 for Weyhrauch to act as counsel for the City and Borough in a case where Groh had a conflict of interest. Weyhrauch and Groh have never discussed the criminal case against Weyhrauch.
Groh knew Ted Stevens all of Groh's life, and Groh's father—who passed away in 1998—was a close friend and political ally of Ted Stevens. Groh lived in a dormitory in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1975 with interns of Stevens' Senate office while researching a college senior honors thesis on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, and Ted Stevens apparently made the arrangements for Groh to live in that dormitory. Groh sometimes used space in Ted Stevens' Senate office during the summer of 1975 while researching his thesis, and Groh both interviewed and had some social contacts with Stevens that summer.
Groh’s mother was a close friend of Ted Stevens’ first wife Ann Stevens, who died in an airplane crash in 1978. Ted Stevens and his Senate staff worked to arrange for additional medical care for both of Groh’s parents when they were stricken with cancer in the 1990s.
At various points over the years, Groh met and spoke with Jim Clark, Bill Weimar, and Pete Kott about various matters. Groh also exchanged e-mail messages with Vic Kohring about fiscal policy. Groh interviewed Don Young in the 1970s, and as a child he may have played with Ben Stevens.
In the 1980s, Groh’s father served as VECO’s lawyer in defending the corporation against an enforcement action brought by the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) regarding VECO’s campaign contributions. One or both of Groh’s parents also had some business dealings with Bill Allen in the 1980s. In an apparent attempt to interest Bill Allen in buying real estate, Groh’s father reportedly took Allen to a subdivision in rural Alaska owned by a corporation controlled by Groh’s father. Neither Allen nor VECO purchased any property at the subdivision. Given the limited number of sleeping spaces available in the area at the time, however, that visit by Bill Allen probably means that Groh has slept in a bed that Bill Allen once slept in.
Groh's law practice has included work for a law firm representing a municipal government in administrative proceedings and litigation over the property tax on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). The opponents in those legal matters consist mostly of the major oil producers on Alaska's North Slope, who are the majority owners of TAPS.
Groh has also worked and/or socialized with a number of the Anchorage lawyers who have worked on matters associated with the federal government's “POLAR PEN” probe into public corruption in Alaska. Some of those attorneys are or have been prosecutors on those matters, and some of those attorneys have served as defense counsel on those matters.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Former Don Young Aide Frasier Verrusio Found Guilty in Public Corruption Case
Anchorage--
The Anchorage Daily News has Web-published an Associated Press story that a jury has returned guilty verdicts against Frasier Verrusio, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Don Young, R.-Alaska. The case centered on Verrusio's lobbyist-financed junket to a 2003 World Series game in New York City that included a stop at a strip joint. According to the AP, the jury has found Verrusio guilty of conspiracy, accepting an illegal gratuity, and making a false statement for failing to report the trip on his Congressional financial disclosure form. More to come.
The Anchorage Daily News has Web-published an Associated Press story that a jury has returned guilty verdicts against Frasier Verrusio, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Don Young, R.-Alaska. The case centered on Verrusio's lobbyist-financed junket to a 2003 World Series game in New York City that included a stop at a strip joint. According to the AP, the jury has found Verrusio guilty of conspiracy, accepting an illegal gratuity, and making a false statement for failing to report the trip on his Congressional financial disclosure form. More to come.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Watchdog Group Seeks Files on Probe into Don Young, and One of Young's Former Aides Goes on Trial in Corruption Case
Anchorage--
A Washington, D.C-based ethics watchdog organization has asked the Department of Justice to hand over its files in at least two closed federal investigations into corruption allegations against U.S. Rep. Don Young, R.-Alaska, reports the Anchorage Daily News.
Rich Mauer's article says that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has sent a letter asking the government to release the information under the Freedom of Information Act. His story notes that Young faced a probe regarding alleged illegal contributions and gifts from the former oil patch giant VECO and its long-time CEO (and current inmate) Bill Allen as well as an investigation into the Congressman for all Alaska's role in the "Coconut Road" earmark for a Florida interchange project benefiting a developer who had donated to his campaign.
After the federal government had investigated him for at least four years, Young announced in August that the Justice Department had advised his attorneys that it was ending the probes and that he would not be indicted.
CREW acknowledged that the Justice Department will likely claim that FOIA exempts the government's investigation files from disclosure, and the group that Mauer describes as "a liberal-leaning non-profit" has said it will sue if the feds don't let go of the files. In addition to Young's files, CREW is also asking for the release of investigative files regarding other probes into alleged corruption involving Congress.
In other news related to Don Young's service on Capitol Hill, a jury has heard opening statements in a corruption-related trial of a former aide to Alaska's sole Member of the House.
You can read the Associated Press story at the Website of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. (A shorter version is on the Website of the Anchorage Daily News.)
Get past the "high life" details about Fraser Verrusio's trip to a 2003 World Series game involving a chauffeured Cadillac, dinner at a steakhouse, and a strip joint called "Privilege." The best tidbits come at the end of the AP story, and they have to do with the federal investigation into Young himself.
Verrusio's defense attorney told the jury yesterday that the former policy director for Young at the House Transportation Committee thought FBI agents who came to his house two years ago regarding what he's now charged with were there for another purpose: Verrusio thought they wanted to talk to him about what Verrusio knew about Young's connections to Allen. The defense lawyer said that when the agents arrived in December of 2008, Verrusio had been "meeting with an agent for over a year to provide background information on his boss but rejected persistent requests to wear a wire and secretly record their conversations."
A Washington, D.C-based ethics watchdog organization has asked the Department of Justice to hand over its files in at least two closed federal investigations into corruption allegations against U.S. Rep. Don Young, R.-Alaska, reports the Anchorage Daily News.
Rich Mauer's article says that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has sent a letter asking the government to release the information under the Freedom of Information Act. His story notes that Young faced a probe regarding alleged illegal contributions and gifts from the former oil patch giant VECO and its long-time CEO (and current inmate) Bill Allen as well as an investigation into the Congressman for all Alaska's role in the "Coconut Road" earmark for a Florida interchange project benefiting a developer who had donated to his campaign.
After the federal government had investigated him for at least four years, Young announced in August that the Justice Department had advised his attorneys that it was ending the probes and that he would not be indicted.
CREW acknowledged that the Justice Department will likely claim that FOIA exempts the government's investigation files from disclosure, and the group that Mauer describes as "a liberal-leaning non-profit" has said it will sue if the feds don't let go of the files. In addition to Young's files, CREW is also asking for the release of investigative files regarding other probes into alleged corruption involving Congress.
In other news related to Don Young's service on Capitol Hill, a jury has heard opening statements in a corruption-related trial of a former aide to Alaska's sole Member of the House.
You can read the Associated Press story at the Website of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. (A shorter version is on the Website of the Anchorage Daily News.)
Get past the "high life" details about Fraser Verrusio's trip to a 2003 World Series game involving a chauffeured Cadillac, dinner at a steakhouse, and a strip joint called "Privilege." The best tidbits come at the end of the AP story, and they have to do with the federal investigation into Young himself.
Verrusio's defense attorney told the jury yesterday that the former policy director for Young at the House Transportation Committee thought FBI agents who came to his house two years ago regarding what he's now charged with were there for another purpose: Verrusio thought they wanted to talk to him about what Verrusio knew about Young's connections to Allen. The defense lawyer said that when the agents arrived in December of 2008, Verrusio had been "meeting with an agent for over a year to provide background information on his boss but rejected persistent requests to wear a wire and secretly record their conversations."
Monday, December 20, 2010
Bungling the Ted Stevens Case Didn't Make the Feds Gun-Shy, Justice Department Says
Ontario, Calif.--
Critics are complaining that the melt-down of the prosecution of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens has led the Justice Department to be "gun-shy" in going after Members of Congress, resulting in a number of federal legislators--including U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska)--getting off the hook. The Department of Justice has denied that federal prosecutors have lost any of their nerve in bringing charges against Members of Congress. You can read all about it here in the article by Charlie Savage in the New York Times.
Critics are complaining that the melt-down of the prosecution of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens has led the Justice Department to be "gun-shy" in going after Members of Congress, resulting in a number of federal legislators--including U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska)--getting off the hook. The Department of Justice has denied that federal prosecutors have lost any of their nerve in bringing charges against Members of Congress. You can read all about it here in the article by Charlie Savage in the New York Times.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Don Young and Charlie Rangel
Anchorage--
U.S. Rep. Don Young was one of only two Republicans who voted against the censure of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D.-N.Y.), which passed 333-79. The other Republican was Peter King, like Rangel a veteran member of the House delegation from New York City’s metropolitan area.
You could think of three reasons for Young to vote “No” on the censure of Rangel, who faced allegations involving failures to report income and improper charitable fund-raising.
The first would be the one offered by Young himself: He has never voted to censure a fellow Member of the House, preferring to let the voters decide on the consequences of a Member’s ethical violations.
A second factor would be fellow feeling arising from all their years of service together. You might think that it would hard to find two guys more dissimilar than the moose-hunting former riverboat captain and the long-time clubhouse pol from Harlem, but the two have had decades to build bonds. Both Young and Rangel have been in the U.S. House more than 35 years, and Rangel is one of only eight Members of Congress who have served on Capitol Hill longer than Young.
A third reason would be a different kind of solidarity between the pair, one that Erika Bolstad highlighted in the Anchorage Daily News: Young knows what it’s like to be under ethical scrutiny. “The Congressman for all Alaska” was under federal criminal investigation for a number of years on multiple fronts, including his receipt of gifts and campaign contributions from VECO executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith--now in federal prison. The House and Senate also voted in 2008 to ask the Department of Justice to investigate how the language in the "Coconut Road" earmark changed after the legislation passed both houses. This earmark for a Florida interchange project appeared in a transportation bill championed by Young shortly after a real estate developer who would benefit from the earmark raised $40,000 in campaign contributions for the Congressman.
Young announced less than four months ago that the Department of Justice had told him that the federal government had ended the federal criminal probe of him. Young, like Rangel, was re-elected to another term in the House last month.
U.S. Rep. Don Young was one of only two Republicans who voted against the censure of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D.-N.Y.), which passed 333-79. The other Republican was Peter King, like Rangel a veteran member of the House delegation from New York City’s metropolitan area.
You could think of three reasons for Young to vote “No” on the censure of Rangel, who faced allegations involving failures to report income and improper charitable fund-raising.
The first would be the one offered by Young himself: He has never voted to censure a fellow Member of the House, preferring to let the voters decide on the consequences of a Member’s ethical violations.
A second factor would be fellow feeling arising from all their years of service together. You might think that it would hard to find two guys more dissimilar than the moose-hunting former riverboat captain and the long-time clubhouse pol from Harlem, but the two have had decades to build bonds. Both Young and Rangel have been in the U.S. House more than 35 years, and Rangel is one of only eight Members of Congress who have served on Capitol Hill longer than Young.
A third reason would be a different kind of solidarity between the pair, one that Erika Bolstad highlighted in the Anchorage Daily News: Young knows what it’s like to be under ethical scrutiny. “The Congressman for all Alaska” was under federal criminal investigation for a number of years on multiple fronts, including his receipt of gifts and campaign contributions from VECO executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith--now in federal prison. The House and Senate also voted in 2008 to ask the Department of Justice to investigate how the language in the "Coconut Road" earmark changed after the legislation passed both houses. This earmark for a Florida interchange project appeared in a transportation bill championed by Young shortly after a real estate developer who would benefit from the earmark raised $40,000 in campaign contributions for the Congressman.
Young announced less than four months ago that the Department of Justice had told him that the federal government had ended the federal criminal probe of him. Young, like Rangel, was re-elected to another term in the House last month.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Former Don Young Aide Gets 12 Weekends in Prison for Role in Corruption
Anchorage--
Former aide to U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) Mark Zachares was sentenced to 12 weekends in prison for giving tips and potential lobbying clients to disgraced uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's operation while receiving cash, gifts, and the promise of a job.
Zachares got this sentence today after providing "substantial" and "complete" assistance to federal investigators probing two Members of the Congress the government did not name. The Washington Post reported that those two Members of Congress are "believed to be Young and then-Rep. Tom Feeney (R.-Fla.)." The prosecution told the court that Zachares was not to blame for the government's failure to charge either Member of Congress, as legal and other evidentiary issues allowed both of those lawmakers to get off the hook.
As the Anchorage Daily News pointed out, the sentence also requires Zachares to perform 200 hours of community service, pay a $4,000 fine, and serve four years on probation.
Clarification: When the title of my last post spoke of "the big screen," I didn't mean that I appeared in a movie shown in a theatre. It's just that TVs have gotten so large now that they dwarf my little computer....
Former aide to U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) Mark Zachares was sentenced to 12 weekends in prison for giving tips and potential lobbying clients to disgraced uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's operation while receiving cash, gifts, and the promise of a job.
Zachares got this sentence today after providing "substantial" and "complete" assistance to federal investigators probing two Members of the Congress the government did not name. The Washington Post reported that those two Members of Congress are "believed to be Young and then-Rep. Tom Feeney (R.-Fla.)." The prosecution told the court that Zachares was not to blame for the government's failure to charge either Member of Congress, as legal and other evidentiary issues allowed both of those lawmakers to get off the hook.
As the Anchorage Daily News pointed out, the sentence also requires Zachares to perform 200 hours of community service, pay a $4,000 fine, and serve four years on probation.
Clarification: When the title of my last post spoke of "the big screen," I didn't mean that I appeared in a movie shown in a theatre. It's just that TVs have gotten so large now that they dwarf my little computer....
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Second Leak of Probes of Prosecutors Points Finger at Two Alaska-Based Lawyers and an FBI Agent
Anchorage—
The Associated Press has reported that “a lawyer familiar with the matter” has said that a draft U.S. Department of Justice report finds that two prosecutors from the Anchorage U.S. Attorney’s Office and an FBI agent committed professional misconduct regarding the 2008 trial of then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.
The AP report says that the source identified Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Bottini and James Goeke as well as FBI agent Mary Beth Kepner as three officials being accused of having engaged in misconduct.
“Other Justice Department prosecutors involved in the case, including William Welch, who led the office that prosecuted Stevens, were not found to have engaged in misconduct,” says the AP report.
The AP report generally tracks the National Public Radio report published Monday regarding a report of the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog unit that focuses on investigating alleged violations of ethical standards.
The AP report differs from the NPR report, however, in that the AP states that its source says that the court-appointed special counsel conducting a separate probe of the prosecutors in the Ted Stevens case for potential criminal violations “has not yet made a decision whether to recommend charging anyone in the probe and has not made a decision on whether to issue a report on his findings.”
By contrast, the NPR report stated that Henry Schuelke, the court-appointed special counsel, had decided not to recommend any criminal prosecution of any of the prosecutors and had also prepared a written report.
The Associated Press report is by Pete Yost, and is available at http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iop4haHB4AVecASqtsuPaylNXPAw?docId=fdc970f1a21e4397bf89adfe22053364 on the Internet.
Separately, Rich Mauer of the Anchorage Daily News has a nice story on the pre-sentencing pleadings filed by Mark Zachares, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Don Young, R.-Alaska. You can find that article at http://www.adn.com/2010/11/17/1559581/ex-young-aide-tipped-fbi-in-investigation.html on the Internet.
The Associated Press has reported that “a lawyer familiar with the matter” has said that a draft U.S. Department of Justice report finds that two prosecutors from the Anchorage U.S. Attorney’s Office and an FBI agent committed professional misconduct regarding the 2008 trial of then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.
The AP report says that the source identified Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Bottini and James Goeke as well as FBI agent Mary Beth Kepner as three officials being accused of having engaged in misconduct.
“Other Justice Department prosecutors involved in the case, including William Welch, who led the office that prosecuted Stevens, were not found to have engaged in misconduct,” says the AP report.
The AP report generally tracks the National Public Radio report published Monday regarding a report of the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog unit that focuses on investigating alleged violations of ethical standards.
The AP report differs from the NPR report, however, in that the AP states that its source says that the court-appointed special counsel conducting a separate probe of the prosecutors in the Ted Stevens case for potential criminal violations “has not yet made a decision whether to recommend charging anyone in the probe and has not made a decision on whether to issue a report on his findings.”
By contrast, the NPR report stated that Henry Schuelke, the court-appointed special counsel, had decided not to recommend any criminal prosecution of any of the prosecutors and had also prepared a written report.
The Associated Press report is by Pete Yost, and is available at http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iop4haHB4AVecASqtsuPaylNXPAw?docId=fdc970f1a21e4397bf89adfe22053364 on the Internet.
Separately, Rich Mauer of the Anchorage Daily News has a nice story on the pre-sentencing pleadings filed by Mark Zachares, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Don Young, R.-Alaska. You can find that article at http://www.adn.com/2010/11/17/1559581/ex-young-aide-tipped-fbi-in-investigation.html on the Internet.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Traffic Cop in the New Snow: Anchorage Daily News Has News on Don Young's Former Aide Requesting Probation
Anchorage--
I invite your attention to Rich Mauer's article in the Anchorage Daily News detailing the efforts of former high-level U.S. House Transportation Committee aide Mark Zachares to ask for probation following his guilty plea. Zachares was a key assistant to U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska), and Young gave him the job after then-uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff helped Zachares. Abramoff is now a convicted felon and federal prisoner. As Mauer's story lays out, Zachares gave Abramoff's operation inside information on Congressional work, and "Team Abramoff" gave Zachares "$30,000 in tickets to sporting events, a luxury golf trip to Scotland and $10,000 in cash." You can find the article at http://www.adn.com/2010/11/08/1543750/former-young-aide-seeks-probation.html on the Internet.
I invite your attention to Rich Mauer's article in the Anchorage Daily News detailing the efforts of former high-level U.S. House Transportation Committee aide Mark Zachares to ask for probation following his guilty plea. Zachares was a key assistant to U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska), and Young gave him the job after then-uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff helped Zachares. Abramoff is now a convicted felon and federal prisoner. As Mauer's story lays out, Zachares gave Abramoff's operation inside information on Congressional work, and "Team Abramoff" gave Zachares "$30,000 in tickets to sporting events, a luxury golf trip to Scotland and $10,000 in cash." You can find the article at http://www.adn.com/2010/11/08/1543750/former-young-aide-seeks-probation.html on the Internet.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Judge Announces that Ruling on Vic Kohring's Motion Will Come "Soon"
Anchorage—
U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick stated at a hearing yesterday that he would rule “as soon as I can” on a motion by former State Rep. Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla) to have the ex-lawmaker’s corruption convictions thrown out. The comment came at the oral argument on the motion, and you can read the story in the Anchorage Daily News at http://www.adn.com/2010/08/05/1397941/kohring-ruling-coming-soon.html on the Internet.
And a correction: The federal criminal investigation of U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) apparently included a probe of an allegation of Young’s involvement in changing the language of an earmark to benefit the “Coconut Road” project in Florida. My post regarding Young’s announcement that the feds had ended its investigation of him mistakenly referenced "Coconut Grove," which is the name of a Miami neighborhood and (in slightly different spelling) a Boston nightclub that was the site of a terrible fire in 1942.
U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick stated at a hearing yesterday that he would rule “as soon as I can” on a motion by former State Rep. Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla) to have the ex-lawmaker’s corruption convictions thrown out. The comment came at the oral argument on the motion, and you can read the story in the Anchorage Daily News at http://www.adn.com/2010/08/05/1397941/kohring-ruling-coming-soon.html on the Internet.
And a correction: The federal criminal investigation of U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) apparently included a probe of an allegation of Young’s involvement in changing the language of an earmark to benefit the “Coconut Road” project in Florida. My post regarding Young’s announcement that the feds had ended its investigation of him mistakenly referenced "Coconut Grove," which is the name of a Miami neighborhood and (in slightly different spelling) a Boston nightclub that was the site of a terrible fire in 1942.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Neither Pig Roast Dirty Dollars Nor Golf Clubs Nor the Coconut Grove Earmark Shall Bring Him to Prison: Don Young Says the Feds Won't Prosecute
Anchorage--
The office of U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) has just issued a press release that is worth quoting in full:
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE
A Statement From The Office Of Congressman Young
Congressman Young's legal team has been notified that after full cooperation from the Congressman, the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice has concluded their investigation and declined prosecution of Congressman Young.
Rich Mauer has more at http://www.adn.com/2010/08/04/1395830/rep-young-wont-face-federal-charges.html at the Website of the Anchorage Daily News.
The office of U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) has just issued a press release that is worth quoting in full:
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE
A Statement From The Office Of Congressman Young
Congressman Young's legal team has been notified that after full cooperation from the Congressman, the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice has concluded their investigation and declined prosecution of Congressman Young.
Rich Mauer has more at http://www.adn.com/2010/08/04/1395830/rep-young-wont-face-federal-charges.html at the Website of the Anchorage Daily News.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Investigation of Brenda Morris in the Ted Stevens Case Comes Up in Her New Probe in Alabama, and Don Young Throttles Down on the Legal Fees
Anchorage—
Brenda Morris was the lead prosecutor against then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in the 2008 trial that brought jury verdicts of guilty before being thrown out the next year in the wake of disclosures of prosecutorial misconduct. Two investigations are ongoing into the prosecutorial failures in that case, and she moved from Washington, D.C. to Georgia while remaining a federal prosecutor working on public corruption cases.
Various media outlets, including www.talkingpointsmemo.com, have reported that Morris is now working on a controversial probe into alleged corruption in connection with the Alabama Legislature’s consideration of a bill that would move toward legalizing electronic bingo. Other prosecutors working on that bingo investigation include some who helped prosecute former Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman in a case that also has been dogged by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. (Unlike Ted Stevens, however, Don Siegelman is a convicted felon as his case has not been dismissed and his convictions not reversed.) You can learn more about the questions concerning Morris and the Alabama bingo investigation at http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/are_siegelman_and_stevens_prosecutors_teaming_up_o.php and http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/90094737.html on the Internet. (Hat tip: Mark Regan.)
Another person who 18 months ago looked like he would be soon sitting across the courtroom from Brenda Morris apparently continues to breathe easy. According to the Anchorage Daily News, the re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) has reported no new spending on legal fees for the second quarter in a row. Between early 2007 and late 2008, the man who has served as the 49th State’s sole Congressman since 1973 reported spending $1.2 million from his campaign fund on legal fees. The money for attorneys went to help fend off prosecution in connection with the long-running federal probe into Alaska public corruption as well as Young’s role in the “Coconut Grove” earmark that aided a campaign contributor in Florida.
The Daily News story is at http://community.adn.com/adn/node/151203 on the Internet.
Brenda Morris was the lead prosecutor against then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens in the 2008 trial that brought jury verdicts of guilty before being thrown out the next year in the wake of disclosures of prosecutorial misconduct. Two investigations are ongoing into the prosecutorial failures in that case, and she moved from Washington, D.C. to Georgia while remaining a federal prosecutor working on public corruption cases.
Various media outlets, including www.talkingpointsmemo.com, have reported that Morris is now working on a controversial probe into alleged corruption in connection with the Alabama Legislature’s consideration of a bill that would move toward legalizing electronic bingo. Other prosecutors working on that bingo investigation include some who helped prosecute former Alabama Democratic Governor Don Siegelman in a case that also has been dogged by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. (Unlike Ted Stevens, however, Don Siegelman is a convicted felon as his case has not been dismissed and his convictions not reversed.) You can learn more about the questions concerning Morris and the Alabama bingo investigation at http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/are_siegelman_and_stevens_prosecutors_teaming_up_o.php and http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/90094737.html on the Internet. (Hat tip: Mark Regan.)
Another person who 18 months ago looked like he would be soon sitting across the courtroom from Brenda Morris apparently continues to breathe easy. According to the Anchorage Daily News, the re-election campaign of U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) has reported no new spending on legal fees for the second quarter in a row. Between early 2007 and late 2008, the man who has served as the 49th State’s sole Congressman since 1973 reported spending $1.2 million from his campaign fund on legal fees. The money for attorneys went to help fend off prosecution in connection with the long-running federal probe into Alaska public corruption as well as Young’s role in the “Coconut Grove” earmark that aided a campaign contributor in Florida.
The Daily News story is at http://community.adn.com/adn/node/151203 on the Internet.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Updated Biography, Plus Even More Disclosures
Anchorage--
In preparing for my Polaris Lecture at the University of Alaska Anchorage tonight, I have tweaked my bio and expanded my disclosures of various interests and relationships with various defendants, suspects, and lawyers involved in the investigations and trials covered by this blog. You can read all that below, and you can come see me talk tonight at 7:30 p.m. at UAA’s nifty new ConocoPhillips Integrated Sciences Building (the one with the planetarium) in Room 120.
Biography of Cliff Groh
Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has been a lawyer for more than 20 years. He is now a writer and attorney in Anchorage. Formerly a prosecutor, Groh has represented some criminal defendants in his private law practice.
Groh has been doing research for a book on the Alaska public corruption scandals uncovered by the current federal investigations and the resulting trials. To that end, he has observed most of the trials of former state legislators Pete Kott and Vic Kohring in Anchorage and all of the trial of then-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens in Washington, D.C. He has taught two classes on Alaska public corruption through the Opportunities for Lifelong Education (OLE) program. He maintains a blog on the Alaska public corruption scandals at www.alaskacorruption.blogspot.com on the Internet.
Groh served as the Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Revenue from 1987 through 1990. In that capacity, he served essentially as the State of Alaska's tax lobbyist in the successful effort in 1989 to revise the state's oil taxes in a way that increased revenues from the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields. The legislation adopted in 1989 created a regime for oil taxes that lasted until the Alaska Legislature adopted the Petroleum Profits Tax in 2006.
Groh was also the principal legislative staff member working on Permanent Fund Dividend legislation in 1982. That legislation produced the per capita Permanent Fund Dividend Alaska has today.
Groh worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage and in rural Alaska communities such as St. Paul, Unalaska, and Sand Point. He has handled approximately 30 jury trials as a prosecutor. He has also served as in-house and outside counsel for municipal governments in Alaska. He served as a delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in 2004.
When Groh was first out of college in the late 1970s, he worked as a reporter with a statewide newspaper called the Alaska Advocate. He has also published historical articles on topics ranging from the Permanent Fund Dividend to the history of journalistic coverage of the capital move campaigns.
Groh is a graduate of Harvard College, where his senior honors thesis was on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). His law degree is from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall).
Disclosures of Potentially Relevant
Interests and Relationships
Groh’s work in government has included service in both partisan and non-partisan positions. Groh has worked for Democrats while serving in partisan positions in the Alaska State Legislature and the Alaska Department of Revenue. He is a registered Democrat who was a delegate to the 1988 Alaska Democratic Convention.
Groh socialized with Bruce Weyhrauch during periods in the 1980s and early 1990s when both lived in Juneau, and Groh had some social contacts with Weyhrauch afterwards. While serving as City and Borough Attorney for the City and Borough of Sitka, Groh arranged in 2002 or 2003 for Weyhrauch to act as counsel for the City and Borough in a case where Groh had a conflict of interest.
Groh has known Ted Stevens all of Groh's life, and Groh's father—who passed away in 1998—was a close friend and political ally of Ted Stevens. Groh lived in a dormitory in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1975 with interns of Stevens' Senate office while researching a college senior honors thesis on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, and Ted Stevens apparently made the arrangements for Groh to live in that dormitory. Groh sometimes used space in Ted Stevens' Senate office during the summer of 1975 while researching his thesis, and Groh both interviewed and had some social contacts with Stevens that summer.
Groh’s mother was a close friend of Ted Stevens’ first wife Ann Stevens, who died in an airplane crash in 1978. Ted Stevens and his Senate staff worked to arrange for additional medical care for both of Groh’s parents when they were stricken with cancer in the 1990s.
At various points over the years, Groh met and spoke with Jim Clark, Bill Weimar, and Pete Kott about various matters. Groh also exchanged e-mail messages with Vic Kohring about fiscal policy. Groh has interviewed Don Young in the 1970s, and as a child he may have played with Ben Stevens.
In the 1980s, Groh’s father served as VECO’s lawyer in defending the corporation against an enforcement action brought by the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) regarding VECO’s campaign contributions. One or both of Groh’s parents also had some business dealings with Bill Allen in the 1980s. In an apparent attempt to interest Bill Allen in buying real estate, Groh’s father reportedly took Allen to a subdivision in rural Alaska owned by a corporation controlled by Groh’s father. Neither Allen nor VECO purchased any property at the subdivision. Given the limited number of sleeping spaces available in the area at the time, however, that visit by Bill Allen probably means that Groh has slept in a bed that Bill Allen once slept in.
In preparing for my Polaris Lecture at the University of Alaska Anchorage tonight, I have tweaked my bio and expanded my disclosures of various interests and relationships with various defendants, suspects, and lawyers involved in the investigations and trials covered by this blog. You can read all that below, and you can come see me talk tonight at 7:30 p.m. at UAA’s nifty new ConocoPhillips Integrated Sciences Building (the one with the planetarium) in Room 120.
Biography of Cliff Groh
Cliff Groh is a lifelong Alaskan who has been a lawyer for more than 20 years. He is now a writer and attorney in Anchorage. Formerly a prosecutor, Groh has represented some criminal defendants in his private law practice.
Groh has been doing research for a book on the Alaska public corruption scandals uncovered by the current federal investigations and the resulting trials. To that end, he has observed most of the trials of former state legislators Pete Kott and Vic Kohring in Anchorage and all of the trial of then-U.S. Senator Ted Stevens in Washington, D.C. He has taught two classes on Alaska public corruption through the Opportunities for Lifelong Education (OLE) program. He maintains a blog on the Alaska public corruption scandals at www.alaskacorruption.blogspot.com on the Internet.
Groh served as the Special Assistant to the Commissioner of Revenue from 1987 through 1990. In that capacity, he served essentially as the State of Alaska's tax lobbyist in the successful effort in 1989 to revise the state's oil taxes in a way that increased revenues from the giant Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk fields. The legislation adopted in 1989 created a regime for oil taxes that lasted until the Alaska Legislature adopted the Petroleum Profits Tax in 2006.
Groh was also the principal legislative staff member working on Permanent Fund Dividend legislation in 1982. That legislation produced the per capita Permanent Fund Dividend Alaska has today.
Groh worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Anchorage and in rural Alaska communities such as St. Paul, Unalaska, and Sand Point. He has handled approximately 30 jury trials as a prosecutor. He has also served as in-house and outside counsel for municipal governments in Alaska. He served as a delegate to the Conference of Alaskans in 2004.
When Groh was first out of college in the late 1970s, he worked as a reporter with a statewide newspaper called the Alaska Advocate. He has also published historical articles on topics ranging from the Permanent Fund Dividend to the history of journalistic coverage of the capital move campaigns.
Groh is a graduate of Harvard College, where his senior honors thesis was on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). His law degree is from the University of California at Berkeley (Boalt Hall).
Disclosures of Potentially Relevant
Interests and Relationships
Groh’s work in government has included service in both partisan and non-partisan positions. Groh has worked for Democrats while serving in partisan positions in the Alaska State Legislature and the Alaska Department of Revenue. He is a registered Democrat who was a delegate to the 1988 Alaska Democratic Convention.
Groh socialized with Bruce Weyhrauch during periods in the 1980s and early 1990s when both lived in Juneau, and Groh had some social contacts with Weyhrauch afterwards. While serving as City and Borough Attorney for the City and Borough of Sitka, Groh arranged in 2002 or 2003 for Weyhrauch to act as counsel for the City and Borough in a case where Groh had a conflict of interest.
Groh has known Ted Stevens all of Groh's life, and Groh's father—who passed away in 1998—was a close friend and political ally of Ted Stevens. Groh lived in a dormitory in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1975 with interns of Stevens' Senate office while researching a college senior honors thesis on the history of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, and Ted Stevens apparently made the arrangements for Groh to live in that dormitory. Groh sometimes used space in Ted Stevens' Senate office during the summer of 1975 while researching his thesis, and Groh both interviewed and had some social contacts with Stevens that summer.
Groh’s mother was a close friend of Ted Stevens’ first wife Ann Stevens, who died in an airplane crash in 1978. Ted Stevens and his Senate staff worked to arrange for additional medical care for both of Groh’s parents when they were stricken with cancer in the 1990s.
At various points over the years, Groh met and spoke with Jim Clark, Bill Weimar, and Pete Kott about various matters. Groh also exchanged e-mail messages with Vic Kohring about fiscal policy. Groh has interviewed Don Young in the 1970s, and as a child he may have played with Ben Stevens.
In the 1980s, Groh’s father served as VECO’s lawyer in defending the corporation against an enforcement action brought by the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) regarding VECO’s campaign contributions. One or both of Groh’s parents also had some business dealings with Bill Allen in the 1980s. In an apparent attempt to interest Bill Allen in buying real estate, Groh’s father reportedly took Allen to a subdivision in rural Alaska owned by a corporation controlled by Groh’s father. Neither Allen nor VECO purchased any property at the subdivision. Given the limited number of sleeping spaces available in the area at the time, however, that visit by Bill Allen probably means that Groh has slept in a bed that Bill Allen once slept in.
Groh has also worked and/or socialized with a number of the Anchorage lawyers who have worked on matters associated with the “POLAR PEN” probe into public corruption in Alaska. Some of those attorneys are or have been prosecutors on those matters, and some of those attorneys have served as defense counsel on those matters.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Why Haven't Ben Stevens and Don Young Been Prosecuted?--UPDATED
Anchorage—
Back in the fall of 2008, it looked like former Alaska State Senate President Ben Stevens (R.-Anchorage) and U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) would be charged soon in the federal investigation into Alaska public corruption.
Federal prosecutors had induced former VECO executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith to plead guilty to bribing Ben Stevens over the ex-lawmaker’s role in oil-tax legislation, and news reports disclosed that investigators were looking closely at Ben Stevens’ income from consulting contracts with fisheries entities with interests in legislation supported by his father, then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska).
As for Young, the press had reported that the Congressman for all Alaska faced a federal probe on multiple fronts. Particularly problematic for Young, it appeared, were the roles of Allen and Smith in Young’s campaign fundraising.
More generally, back in late October of 2008 the prosecutors appeared to be on a roll. Every defendant who had been charged in the federal probe into Last Frontier public corruption—codenamed “POLAR PEN”—had either pleaded guilty or had the jury return guilty verdicts at trial, and a prominent Alaska journalist had reported that multiple sources had told him that a total of 26 people would be indicted.
Sixteen months later, however, neither Ben Stevens nor Don Young has been charged with any crime. The total number of people charged in the federal probe is stuck at 12, with only one of those—ex-State Rep. Beverly Masek (R.-Willow)—being charged in the last year and a half. The judge who has overseen most of the cases brought in the federal probe into Alaska public corruption announced in October that the likelihood of charges against any more people amounted to “sheer speculation.” And Ben Stevens and Don Young—and their lawyers—would also like you to know that each of them vigorously denies wrongdoing.
Why haven’t federal prosecutors charged either man?
I don’t know for sure, and I haven’t spoken about this with anybody with inside information on the decision-making. With those caveats, here’s my speculation, which puts the factors pointing towards non-prosecution into three categories:
1. The Department of Justice appears to feel both singed and relatively short-staffed after the Ted Stevens case blew up and former legislators Pete Kott and Vic Kohring got out of prison.
A lot has gone wrong for the federal government on its probe in the last 16 months, and the investigation started going downhill very soon after the jury returned its guilty verdicts on October 27, 2008 against then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. The case completely collapsed last April, when in the wake of admitted failures by the prosecution before the trial to over to the defense evidence (“discovery” in legal lingo) the trial judge set aside the jury verdicts and dismissed the case.
The lawyers who served as the prosecutors against Ted Stevens are now the subjects of two investigations themselves. One probe is an internal investigation run by the Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), and the other is a highly unusual probe instigated by the trial judge and run by a special counsel that is looking at the possibility of charging those lawyers with criminal contempt of court.
Then in June, the new prosecution teams assigned to the Alaska public corruption investigation announced that they had discovered additional evidence that should have turned over before the trials of former State Reps. Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River) and Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla). In another highly unusual development, the government agreed that Kott and Kohring could leave prison pending the resolution of the questions raised by these discovery failures—and both ex-lawmakers are still free.
The meltdown of the Ted Stevens prosecution and the continuing revelations of the prosecution’s failures have put a cloud over the lawyers best-informed about the Alaska public corruption investigation and dirtied up the government’s primary cooperating witnesses.
The Department of Justice appears to face problems both perceptual and practical in pushing ahead with complicated new cases in “POLAR PEN,” the long-running federal probe of Alaska public corruption.
The perceptual problem is that the collapse of the Ted Stevens prosecution and the post-trial litigation in the cases of Kott and Kohring have made the feds look inept, malicious, or both. The prosecutors’ handling of the Ted Stevens case, in particular, stands as a black mark on the Department of Justice. Attorney General Eric Holder might think that the benefit from teaching government lawyers a lesson by pulling the plug on the Alaska public corruption investigation was worth the price in any corrupt public officials who thereby escaped punishment.
And then there’s the practical problem—the people who spent the most time on your dime learning the most about public corruption in Alaska are now on the griddle themselves for their alleged misconduct in the Ted Stevens trial. The lead FBI agent on the “POLAR PEN” investigation may also be facing an internal investigation over various allegations made by Chad Joy, a colleague who worked closely with her.
The federal government’s reputation for unlimited resources notwithstanding, there are only about 30 lawyers in the Public Integrity Section, the Department of Justice’s specialized unit dedicated to fighting public corruption. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage could help directly now that it is no longer recused from working on the “POLAR PEN” cases. Particularly given the Attorney General’s possible desire to take advantage of a teachable moment for prosecutors, however, the Department may decide (or have already decided) that it wants to move on to other matters in this investigation that has already run on almost seven years.
Even if the Department decides it’s willing to throw in the staff needed to prosecute Ben Stevens and Don Young, the new team(s) of federal prosecutors would be stuck with dealing with key witnesses who look significantly worse than they did 16 months ago.
It's not just the fact that former VECO executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith are now in prison that they may be less attractive witnesses for federal prosecutors than they were before--the government has bigger problems than that. The increased questions about Bill Allen’s memory and credibility that have arisen in the post-trial litigation in the Ted Stevens and Kott cases are bad enough.
Even worse, though, are the details of Allen’s alleged sexual abuse of minors. Prosecutors would have to be worried about the risks that evidence of Allen’s alleged sexual offenses would somehow get in front of a jury in a trial and create such anger that jurors would go for jury nullification and acquit Ben Stevens or Young out of outrage that Allen has so far escaped prosecution for what some jurors might see as crimes worse than public corruption. Publicity regarding Allen’s sordid past has been so extensive in Alaska—which is the only logical place that Ben Stevens could be tried, at least for crimes involving oil-tax legislation—that prosecutors would also have to be concerned about the jury being tainted even without the introduction of evidence about the alleged sex crimes of the former VECO CEO.
Back in the fall of 2008, it looked like former Alaska State Senate President Ben Stevens (R.-Anchorage) and U.S. Rep. Don Young (R.-Alaska) would be charged soon in the federal investigation into Alaska public corruption.
Federal prosecutors had induced former VECO executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith to plead guilty to bribing Ben Stevens over the ex-lawmaker’s role in oil-tax legislation, and news reports disclosed that investigators were looking closely at Ben Stevens’ income from consulting contracts with fisheries entities with interests in legislation supported by his father, then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska).
As for Young, the press had reported that the Congressman for all Alaska faced a federal probe on multiple fronts. Particularly problematic for Young, it appeared, were the roles of Allen and Smith in Young’s campaign fundraising.
More generally, back in late October of 2008 the prosecutors appeared to be on a roll. Every defendant who had been charged in the federal probe into Last Frontier public corruption—codenamed “POLAR PEN”—had either pleaded guilty or had the jury return guilty verdicts at trial, and a prominent Alaska journalist had reported that multiple sources had told him that a total of 26 people would be indicted.
Sixteen months later, however, neither Ben Stevens nor Don Young has been charged with any crime. The total number of people charged in the federal probe is stuck at 12, with only one of those—ex-State Rep. Beverly Masek (R.-Willow)—being charged in the last year and a half. The judge who has overseen most of the cases brought in the federal probe into Alaska public corruption announced in October that the likelihood of charges against any more people amounted to “sheer speculation.” And Ben Stevens and Don Young—and their lawyers—would also like you to know that each of them vigorously denies wrongdoing.
Why haven’t federal prosecutors charged either man?
I don’t know for sure, and I haven’t spoken about this with anybody with inside information on the decision-making. With those caveats, here’s my speculation, which puts the factors pointing towards non-prosecution into three categories:
1. The Department of Justice appears to feel both singed and relatively short-staffed after the Ted Stevens case blew up and former legislators Pete Kott and Vic Kohring got out of prison.
A lot has gone wrong for the federal government on its probe in the last 16 months, and the investigation started going downhill very soon after the jury returned its guilty verdicts on October 27, 2008 against then-U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. The case completely collapsed last April, when in the wake of admitted failures by the prosecution before the trial to over to the defense evidence (“discovery” in legal lingo) the trial judge set aside the jury verdicts and dismissed the case.
The lawyers who served as the prosecutors against Ted Stevens are now the subjects of two investigations themselves. One probe is an internal investigation run by the Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), and the other is a highly unusual probe instigated by the trial judge and run by a special counsel that is looking at the possibility of charging those lawyers with criminal contempt of court.
Then in June, the new prosecution teams assigned to the Alaska public corruption investigation announced that they had discovered additional evidence that should have turned over before the trials of former State Reps. Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River) and Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla). In another highly unusual development, the government agreed that Kott and Kohring could leave prison pending the resolution of the questions raised by these discovery failures—and both ex-lawmakers are still free.
The meltdown of the Ted Stevens prosecution and the continuing revelations of the prosecution’s failures have put a cloud over the lawyers best-informed about the Alaska public corruption investigation and dirtied up the government’s primary cooperating witnesses.
The Department of Justice appears to face problems both perceptual and practical in pushing ahead with complicated new cases in “POLAR PEN,” the long-running federal probe of Alaska public corruption.
The perceptual problem is that the collapse of the Ted Stevens prosecution and the post-trial litigation in the cases of Kott and Kohring have made the feds look inept, malicious, or both. The prosecutors’ handling of the Ted Stevens case, in particular, stands as a black mark on the Department of Justice. Attorney General Eric Holder might think that the benefit from teaching government lawyers a lesson by pulling the plug on the Alaska public corruption investigation was worth the price in any corrupt public officials who thereby escaped punishment.
And then there’s the practical problem—the people who spent the most time on your dime learning the most about public corruption in Alaska are now on the griddle themselves for their alleged misconduct in the Ted Stevens trial. The lead FBI agent on the “POLAR PEN” investigation may also be facing an internal investigation over various allegations made by Chad Joy, a colleague who worked closely with her.
The federal government’s reputation for unlimited resources notwithstanding, there are only about 30 lawyers in the Public Integrity Section, the Department of Justice’s specialized unit dedicated to fighting public corruption. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage could help directly now that it is no longer recused from working on the “POLAR PEN” cases. Particularly given the Attorney General’s possible desire to take advantage of a teachable moment for prosecutors, however, the Department may decide (or have already decided) that it wants to move on to other matters in this investigation that has already run on almost seven years.
Even if the Department decides it’s willing to throw in the staff needed to prosecute Ben Stevens and Don Young, the new team(s) of federal prosecutors would be stuck with dealing with key witnesses who look significantly worse than they did 16 months ago.
It's not just the fact that former VECO executives Bill Allen and Rick Smith are now in prison that they may be less attractive witnesses for federal prosecutors than they were before--the government has bigger problems than that. The increased questions about Bill Allen’s memory and credibility that have arisen in the post-trial litigation in the Ted Stevens and Kott cases are bad enough.
Even worse, though, are the details of Allen’s alleged sexual abuse of minors. Prosecutors would have to be worried about the risks that evidence of Allen’s alleged sexual offenses would somehow get in front of a jury in a trial and create such anger that jurors would go for jury nullification and acquit Ben Stevens or Young out of outrage that Allen has so far escaped prosecution for what some jurors might see as crimes worse than public corruption. Publicity regarding Allen’s sordid past has been so extensive in Alaska—which is the only logical place that Ben Stevens could be tried, at least for crimes involving oil-tax legislation—that prosecutors would also have to be concerned about the jury being tainted even without the introduction of evidence about the alleged sex crimes of the former VECO CEO.
UPDATE (March 7): Bill Allen is less likely to be cooperative as a federal witness against Ben Stevens or Don Young if Allen comes to believe that the Anchorage police--or especially the federal government--is investigating him for allegedly committing sex crimes.
To a much lesser degree, Allen’s former political lieutenant Smith also looks worse than he did before because of recent revelations about his alleged psychological instability since he pleaded guilty. This could be particularly importantly important in a prosecution of Young, as Smith would apparently be a key witness against the Congressman in any prosecution involving the alleged illegal receipt of gratuities.
2. A controversy over the constitutionality over one of the feds’ primary weapons against public corruption has appeared to make them wary about bringing more complicated cases in this area.
One of the favorite arrows in the quiver of federal prosecutors in white-collar crime cases is “the honest services fraud statute.” The feds have for years used this law in the public corruption realm and against alleged corporate malefactors as well. Half of the 12 people who have been charged in the “POLAR PEN” probe, for example, have faced charging documents that have included at least one count of honest services fraud.
The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has given a number of hints in the past few months that it might rule this law unconstitutional soon. The Supreme Court just heard its third case during its current term on the honest services fraud statute—one of them being the case of former State Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch (R.-Juneau). All indications are that this controversial law is going to get pruned substantially or even ruled unconstitutional. This uncertainty over a preferred tool seems to be causing federal prosecutors all over the country to be hold back, and Ben Stevens and Don Young may be benefitting from the resulting legal limbo.
3. The combination of his extensive financial disclosures and—perhaps—his relative invisibility on incriminating tapes may help prevent the prosecution of Ben Stevens, and Don Young’s apparent receipt of things of relatively little value may be aiding Alaska’s only Congressman avoid charges.
Ben Stevens got almost a quarter of a million dollars in fees from VECO while he was in the State Senate and also took positions as a legislator on oil taxes that VECO wanted him to take, but the combination of those two facts do not by themselves constitute a crime. What was going on in Ben Stevens’ mind is where the action is in prosecuting him, as it often is in public corruption cases. (That’s also true in the broader category of white-collar crime cases, like that of his father.)
Prosecutors have found that the best way to show that a defendant in a public corruption case has criminal intent is by playing tapes that show him saying and/or doing things that make him look guilty. This focus on tapes to prove intent has been true since before the famous ABSCAM cases in the 1970s, but the emphasis on such tangible and simple-seeming evidence has only increased with the popularity of such television programs as “CSI,” where technicians each week come up with scientific proof that a suspect committed a crime.
All the defendants that juries have returned guilty verdicts against in the Alaska public corruption cases have had damaging tapes of them played in front of the jury. Tapes are powerful evidence, and tapes tend to trump other evidence.
An obstacle in prosecuting Ben Stevens is that there may be no evidence of him looking bad on tape. Absence from incriminating videotapes or audiotapes might occur through avoiding hanging out in the infamous VECO-rented Suite 604 or by not talking much on the telephone with Bill Allen or Rick Smith. If Ben Stevens has been able to stay out of the FBI’s greatest hits, he may be as smart—or at least as shrewd and cunning—as some of his former legislative colleagues say he is. (It’s also possible--as he and his attorneys would certainly assert—that Ben Stevens might never have been caught saying or doing anything incriminating on tape because he didn’t say or do anything incriminating.)
Aside from whatever the more than 17,000 conversations the feds intercepted in this investigation may show about Ben Stevens, there is another problem the feds have in prosecuting him on offenses involving either VECO or fisheries. That problem is the fact that the former State Senator apparently disclosed all the income he got for consulting and/or lobbying that he was legally required to disclose. You might think his conduct was unseemly and unsavory, but it’s likely that Ben Stevens would say that he is just a hard-working businessman who laid bare his income as the law required, both when he served as a federal lobbyist and when he served as a state legislator.
As to all that money from VECO that came in while his legislator when his work product may look tiny or even non-existent, Ben Stevens might well say that he thought he was on retainer—a retainer that allowed Bill Allen to call Ben Stevens about work for VECO anytime 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Ben Stevens might add that it was not his problem that Bill Allen seemed to call him so infrequently to work on matters such as advice on salvaging vessels.
Don Young may face even less problems that Ben Stevens, in part because the sheer volume of money going to Young as income—as opposed to campaign contributions—may not seem that impressive. As Mark Regan has pointed out in a guest post on this blog, documents made public in Allen’s sentencing suggested that the feds were investigating Young for matters that involved less than $200,000 in VECO expenses on campaign fundraisers over about 14 years and perhaps $1,000 in a set of golf clubs allegedly bought by Smith for Young with Allen’s credit card.
Numerous Alaskans would be surprised if Ben Stevens and Don Young escaped prosecution after being under investigation for years, but many people are probed a long time without being charged. Not prosecuting Ben Stevens after getting Allen and Smith to plead guilty to bribing him might pose a particular public relations problem for the Department of Justice, but such a result would be neither illegal nor unprecedented. The criminal justice system has produced some odd outcomes in the public corruption sphere as well as in some less famous cases. One well-known irony that involved verdicts by juries rather than the exercise of prosecutorial discretion comes from the notorious Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s. Albert Fall was convicted for taking a bribe from oilman Edward Doheny while serving as Secretary of Interior, but oilman Edward Doheny was acquitted of the charge of bribing Fall.
Additional caveats and acknowledgments: Recall again that Ben Stevens and Don Young would say that the reason that they have not been charged with crimes is that they are not guilty. Nothing in this analysis should be taken as expressing any view that any particular person is guilty of any crime. My background in both prosecution and criminal defense sharpened my thinking in writing this analysis of the factors involved in evaluating potential criminal charges. So did numerous conversations with other attorneys and journalists, including lawyers Mark Regan of Fairbanks and George Freeman of Anchorage. Those who have spoken with me are responsible for none of what might be bad about what I write and much of what is good.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Feds Used "Honest Services Fraud" Statute in Half of the "POLAR PEN" Cases
Washington—
Readers have asked what effect an elimination or trimming back of the “honest services fraud” statute at issue in Bruce Weyhrauch’s appeal on which the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument last week would have on the prosecutions in the Alaska investigation into public corruption.
Twelve people have been charged criminally in this investigation. Of those 12, six have been charged under the statute being challenged. In addition to former State Rep. Weyhrauch (R.-Juneau), those six are: former State Rep. Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River), who was acquitted of that charge at trial; Jim Clark, former Chief of Staff to Gov. Frank Murkowski; Bill Weimar, former private prisons magnate; former VECO CEO Bill Allen; and former VECO Vice President Rick Smith. By the same token, former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, former State Rep. Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla), former State Rep. Beverly Masek (R.-Willow), former State Sen. John Cowdery (R.-Anchorage), former State Rep. Tom Anderson (R.-Anchorage), and former lobbyist Bill Bobrick never faced an honest services fraud charge.
Of those six, only Weyhrauch has neither pleaded guilty or been tried already. The jury convicted Kott of other crimes while acquitting him of the charge of honest services fraud; whatever else happens while U.S. District Judge John Sedwick sorts out the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the trial, the acquittal means that Kott can’t be retried on that count. Allen and Smith pleaded guilty to multiple counts along with a single count each of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud as well as other crimes, and for a variety of reasons are unlikely to appeal based on a favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Weimar has served the prison portion of his sentence, and also seems an unlikely candidate to try to rely on such a ruling. Clark has pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and depending on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the statute he might have a defense.
The uncertainty over the legal standing of the honest services fraud statute might also be affecting the Alaska corruption investigation by causing the Department of Justice to hold off on adding to the number of defendants. A reader has pointed out that this uncertainty may have helped block the prosecution against former State Sen. Jerry Ward (R.-Anchorage), whose unsuccessful 2004 legislative campaign has been identified in media accounts as the recipient of illegal campaign contributions from Weimar. The questions hanging over the future of the honest services fraud statute may also contribute to the reluctance of the feds to prosecute former State Senate President Ben Stevens (R.-Anchorage) and U.S. Rep. Don Young.
Readers have asked what effect an elimination or trimming back of the “honest services fraud” statute at issue in Bruce Weyhrauch’s appeal on which the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument last week would have on the prosecutions in the Alaska investigation into public corruption.
Twelve people have been charged criminally in this investigation. Of those 12, six have been charged under the statute being challenged. In addition to former State Rep. Weyhrauch (R.-Juneau), those six are: former State Rep. Pete Kott (R.-Eagle River), who was acquitted of that charge at trial; Jim Clark, former Chief of Staff to Gov. Frank Murkowski; Bill Weimar, former private prisons magnate; former VECO CEO Bill Allen; and former VECO Vice President Rick Smith. By the same token, former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, former State Rep. Vic Kohring (R.-Wasilla), former State Rep. Beverly Masek (R.-Willow), former State Sen. John Cowdery (R.-Anchorage), former State Rep. Tom Anderson (R.-Anchorage), and former lobbyist Bill Bobrick never faced an honest services fraud charge.
Of those six, only Weyhrauch has neither pleaded guilty or been tried already. The jury convicted Kott of other crimes while acquitting him of the charge of honest services fraud; whatever else happens while U.S. District Judge John Sedwick sorts out the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the trial, the acquittal means that Kott can’t be retried on that count. Allen and Smith pleaded guilty to multiple counts along with a single count each of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud as well as other crimes, and for a variety of reasons are unlikely to appeal based on a favorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Weimar has served the prison portion of his sentence, and also seems an unlikely candidate to try to rely on such a ruling. Clark has pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and depending on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the statute he might have a defense.
The uncertainty over the legal standing of the honest services fraud statute might also be affecting the Alaska corruption investigation by causing the Department of Justice to hold off on adding to the number of defendants. A reader has pointed out that this uncertainty may have helped block the prosecution against former State Sen. Jerry Ward (R.-Anchorage), whose unsuccessful 2004 legislative campaign has been identified in media accounts as the recipient of illegal campaign contributions from Weimar. The questions hanging over the future of the honest services fraud statute may also contribute to the reluctance of the feds to prosecute former State Senate President Ben Stevens (R.-Anchorage) and U.S. Rep. Don Young.
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