Dem. Rep. Jane Harman's former office manager pleads guilty to fraud

[Ichingcarpenter]

A former office manager for Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.) and two other House Democrats pleaded guilty yesterday to fraud for taking $200,000 in public money by submitting phony expense reports, according to Justice Department and House documents.

Laura I. Flores, 47, of Arlington pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in federal court in Alexandria and is scheduled to be sentenced May 2, officials said. She faces as much as 20 years in prison.

Court documents filed yesterday did not identify the lawmakers for whom she worked from January 2005 to December 2006, when the thefts occurred.

But House records show that Flores worked as an office manager during that time for Harman, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii) and Rep. Jim Costa (Calif.). She left that joint position early last year, according to records and officials.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/25/AR2008012503243.html
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This representative is a really bad apple in our party.

Did Harman Approve of the Illegal Domestic Wiretap Program?

by emptywheel

Well, that was quick work. Yesterday I suggested that the Gang of Eight who purportedly attended the March 10, 2004 meeting at which Alberto Gonzales claims to have developed consensus that they should ignore James Comey's concerns and continue to tap American citizens anyway might have some enlightenment to offer about what went on at the meeting. So far, Nancy Pelosi, Jay Rockefeller, and Tom Daschle argue that Gonzales is full of shit. Jane Harman, however, engages in a little shiny-objecting.

Representative Jane Harman of California, who in 2004 was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, insisted that there was only one N.S.A. program, making Mr. Gonzales’s assertions inaccurate.

“The program had different parts, but there was only one program,” Ms. Harman said, adding that Mr. Gonzales was “selectively declassifying information to defend his own conduct,” which she called improper.

http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2007/07/did-harman-appr.htmlhttp://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004852.php

[stillcool]

1. More of that 'trickle' down effect? n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. This will not play well in her re-election campaign

There is a democratic progressive running against her.