Ashcroft Funds Under Scrutiny (Pincus, WP)

[Newsjock]

Sunday's Washington Post. No link yet.

Ashcroft Funds Under Scrutiny
By Walter Pincus
(c) 2004, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft's 1998 leadership PAC, Spirit of America, and his Senate re-election campaign committee, Ashcroft 2000, raised more than $100,000 last year in order to pay a fine and legal costs for violating campaign finance laws, according to Federal Election Commission records and Garrett Lott, treasurer of both committees.

The funds raised last year included individual contributions and income the leadership PAC derived from renting out a political mailing list, according to Lott and FEC records.

The use of the mailing list rental income in the 2000 re-election campaign first got Ashcroft and his committees in trouble with the FEC three years ago. Last December, the two Ashcroft committees agreed to pay a $37,000 fine levied by the FEC, based on at least four violations of federal campaign laws.

... Ashcroft's role and the ongoing operation of his two committees continue to be the focus of legal concern. Late last week, the Massachusetts-based National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI), which filed the original FEC complaint against Ashcroft and his committees, urged Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine to investigate ``potential civil and criminal violations of federal law'' by the two committees and Ashcroft while he has been attorney general.

more to come

[concord]

1. Interesting timing ... n/t

[revcarol]

2. "while he has been Attorney General"

sweet words in my ear

[whistle]

3. Yep, it's stuff like that....

...that can bring on an attack of gallstones..:hurts:

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Oh, boy -- the whole cabal is under investigation....

[alittlelark]

5. Maybe the stress of the story breaking in the near future

brought on the attack. But are we really certain he is terribly ill?:tinfoilhat:

Just Wonderin'

[david_vincent]

11. At the height of the Watergate

shit hitting the fan, Nixon got pneumonia and went to the hospital.

[murielm99]

16. Phlebitis

I thought that was what Nixon had.

[TacticalPeek]

19. Deep vein thrombosis and embolism, hospitalization prevented testimony.

Then later, shingles, IIRC.

[dae]

6. How could they print this while he's so sick? The Gall.

:eyes:

[UpInArms]

8. did you mean

"gall-stone"?

:evilgrin:

[leesa]

15. And while we're at war against bongs and private medical records!

The shame!

[dae]

18. Yeah, all that too, such meanies!

[TacticalPeek]

7. An obvious defence: "Ashcroft Underfunds Scrutiny".

Drapery Department of Justice; may I help you?

,,,


Yes, we do. About what size?

...

About the size of Inspector General Glenn Fine? Well, that's ok, we can get the information from DHS, no problem. You can pick them up tomorrow.

...

You are most welcome. Keep us in mind for your cover needs. Goodby.

[salin]

9. So the Hatch Act doesnt apply to the head of the DOJ?

Doesnt the Hatch act preclude govt workers from political activity - esp of any activity when one represents oneself as a govt employee and/or uses any govt resources (eg time, copying paper, etc.) to do political work (e.g., campaigning or even informal 'lobbying' (ala writing your congressman.)

[Hekate]

21. No, silly, it only applies to Al Gore making phone calls...

...from his office, or whatever it was. Evil Clintonians. Republicans are pure, Republicans are right with God, whatever Republicans do with their time and talents is A-OK by definition.

There, all cleared up? <sarcasm off>

Hekate

~~Life just gets better & better once your brain
is washed clean. Hekate~~

[peacetalksforall]

10. So what is he doing as AG if he doesn't know the law or doesn't abide

by it?

What an absolutely perfect example of a jerk as a leader and a citizen.

[acmavm]

12. I really don't think that any of the Bush cabal know much about any

of the jobs they have. Name one intelligent Bush* appointee that can truly be said to know exactly what their position is supposed to entail. These guys are just winging it.

[alittlelark]

14. He's doin' the job that the 'Lord' is telling him to do

Whether it be the Lord of Darkness, or the Lord of Light......I know not.

[leesa]

13. Well, no wonder the slime has taken ill.

[TacticalPeek]

17. Fresh meat.

There's now a link at WaPo.

Ashcroft Funds Under Scrutiny
Money Raised for Fine, Legal Costs Related to Senate Campaign

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 7, 2004; Page A04

snip

NVRI, in its letter to the Justice inspector general, asserted that Ashcroft violated the law by failing to disclose the mailing list as an asset in his public financial disclosure statements as attorney general in 2001 and 2002. Or, if he did not own the list, he and his lawyers had conspired to defraud the FEC by making the claim that he owned it, the NVRI said.

Bonifaz was joined in his letter to the Justice Department inspector general by four other nonprofit groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Public Campaign Action Fund, Public Citizen and the Fannie Lou Hamer Project. They decided to write Fine having failed to get a response from a Jan. 15 letter sent to Deputy Attorney General James Comey asking for appointment of an outside special counsel "to investigate potential criminal actions involving" Ashcroft and his committees.

More:
Walter Pincus

[whistle]

20. Let me see now...

...Patriot Acts I & II allow total invasion of the privacy of every man, woman and child in the United States by the Office of the Attorney General, at all levels, phone taps, surveillance, opening their mail, monitoring Internet activities, accessing library records, etc., etc., etc. That would give the Attorney General a complete monopoly on the largest targeted data base anywhere in the country, 300 million files with almost unlimited profile informantion on everybody. Damn, at todays rates for marketing to such specialized lists the Attorney General could very well become wealthier than Bill Gates in less than four years. You had better get well fast John.:puffpiece:

[TacticalPeek]

22. Kick his Ashcroft.! n/t