PrintAugust 28, 2009
Was the Richardson probe killed by DOJ political appointees?
Politicizing the Justice Department? Say it ain't so, Barry!
From the same crew that doesn't care if the New Black Panther Party can intimidate voters at the polls with nightsticks, comes news that the federal prosecutor in New Mexico looking into Governor Bill Richardson's "pay for play" hijinks has decided not to prosecute Richardson or his aides.
But was pressure put on by top level Obama DOJ officials? Fox News reports:
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won't be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor's large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified because federal officials had not disclosed results of the probe.
"It's over. There's nothing. It was killed in Washington," the person told The Associated Press.
A federal grand jury began an investigation in 2008 into a possible pay-to-play scheme in which lucrative work on state bond deals went to a Richardson donor. The federal probe derailed Richardson's appointment as commerce secretary in President Barack Obama's administration.
Richardson withdrew his nomination in January, saying the investigation would have delayed his confirmation although he said expected to be cleared.
OF COURSE HE "EXPECTED TO BE CLEARED." There's a Democrat in the White House and New Mexico has become an important swing state. Add two and two together and you get massively inappropriate interference by Obama's people in the Justice Department.
I bet former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich wishes his case had come up just a few months later, instead of before Obama was inaugurated. He also was caught in a pay to play scandal and it is just his misfortune he didn't have any high ranking friends in the Justice Department at the time.
Otherwise, Blago would probably be planning for his next term in office.
