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PrintMarch 19, 2009
Obama's Chief Information Officer pick a thief?
More annals of the best and brightest. This is from MSNBC:
President Barack Obama's pick for Chief Information Officer may have pleaded guilty to a minor theft 12 years ago, another potential embarrassment for an administration that has been criticized for poor vetting.
Maryland court records show Vivek Kundra pleaded guilty to stealing less that $300 dollars in 1997, the business blog Valleywag reported.
Kundra was fined $500, of which $400 the court suspended, according to the court document. He received "supervised probation before judgment." That means that he can essentially say that he was not convicted of a crime, according to a Maryland legal blog.
Valleywag, part of the Gawker gossip site, matched Kundra's former address with the address on the court document that bore his name. Kundra's lawyer on that case did not respond to Gawker's request for comment. The White House has not commented on the accusation either.
Kundra, who would have been 23 at the time, is now on leave pending the outcome of a separate bribery investigation at his former job.
Well - at least he paid his taxes...probably. And to be sure, there is no confirmation yet that Mr. Kundra is the same guy who lifted less than $300 - which sounds like a shoplifting beef.
Still, if it is the same Obama appointee it could mean that the Obama vetting process is still broken and worse, the administration is having a hard time finding an honest Democrat to serve. I would imagine most of us reading this have managed to go through life paying all our taxes and not getting arrested for shoplifting or theft.
Why can't they find anyone similarly unburdened with a checkered past?
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
