Document details Volz’s (top aide of former Rep. Bob Ney) cooperation in Abramoff case

[sabra]

Source: The Hill

A new court document details the extent to which Neil Volz, who at one point was the top aide of former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) before going to work for lobbyist Jack Abramoff, assisted federal authorities in building a case against the lawmaker that resulted in a guilty plea on charges of bribery and public corruption last year.

...

Volz was one of the first people to begin to explore cooperating with federal prosecutors in its investigation of the wide-ranging corruption scheme Abramoff and others perpetrated. According to a “substantial assistance memorandum” filed in the D.C. district court Wednesday, his cooperation was both “timely and substantial.”

...

In the memo, prosecutors said Volz “has spent and continues to spend countless hours providing information about other matters under investigation by the Department of Justice, as well as insight into how staff members and lobbyists conduct business before Congress and the Executive Branch.”

They also said that Volz’s cooperation is ongoing, and could involve other separate DoJ investigations. His cooperation could help prosecutors snare other lawmakers under FBI investigation and those who prosecutors believe may be implicated in the Abramoff bribery scandal.
At one point, after the investigation became public, the memo says, Ney became suspicious that Volz was cooperating and left two “abusive” phone calls on his voicemail, which Volz turned over to prosecutors. The recordings would have been “powerful evidence of Ney’s consciousness of guilt had Ney elected to fight the charges against him and proceed to trial,” the document says.

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/document-details-volzs-cooperation-in-abramoff-case-2007-08-31.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. "other matters under investigation," "other separate DoJ investigations"--hm-m.

One thing I keep hoping to hear about, from the Ney-Abramoff probes, regards the "Help America Vote Act" ('02) which was passing over Bob Ney's desk at the same time as the Indian bribes. In fact, I read somewhere that one of the dirty deals toward the Indians was proposed as a rider on "HAVA," but Ney nixed it because "HAVA" was too important to put at risk. HAVA, you should know, is the bill that fast-tracked extremely insecure and insider hackable electronic voting systems, all over the country, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls, and no controls on testing (industry-run), nor on lavish lobbying, "revolving door" employment and other corruption. "Too important," indeed. How else to shove an unjust, heinous war down the throats of the American people--56% of whom opposed the war at the beginning (Feb. '03) and 70% of whom oppose it now (a staggering majority)? How else to convince the American people that they are more concerned about "gay marriage" than massive thievery of the federal treasury by war profiteers, the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, the deaths and injuries of thousands of U.S. soldiers, the torture of prisoners (63% opposed to it, "under any circumstances"--May '04), the attempted looting of Social Security, and El Stupido being president of the United States with his finger on the nuclear button?

Answer: "Trade secret" vote counting, in the control of, a) Wally O'Dell, CEO of Diebold, and the Bush-Cheney campaign chair who promised to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush/Cheney in 2004," and was a major Bush/Cheney fundraiser (--a Bush "Pioneer" right up there with Ken Lay); and, b) a Diebold spinoff corporation, ES&S, initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). HAVA's $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle worked wonders, and got these corps in control of 80% of the nation's votes by 2004. This is a much, much MUCH bigger scandal than mere bribery. It was a fascist coup, in truth. And I hope some honest types that have survived Bush purges in the FBI are looking at how HAVA got passed. But since it involved key Democrats (like Christopher Dodd) and the entire U.S. political establishment--all of whom connived to keep it under the radar of the American people--my hopes are not high. The "good guys" seem to be taking down some of the malefactors, but I don't know that they have the power or the mandate to reveal all that has occurred, and some "good guy" insiders may feel that the whole truth would so de-legitimatize the U.S. government, including Congress (almost none of whom can prove that they were really elected), that the stability of the country would be at risk. "Bad guy" motives for covering things up, of course, abound (not the least of which is continuing to keep the "military-industrial complex" stuffed like a pig on U.S. taxpayer money). But "good guy" motives may be the more important reason why we will never know for sure, and why the principles (Bush and Cheney) will never be held accountable. Two related items are these 5,000 RNC emails of Karl Rove's (that I think possibly contain the election fraud "smoking gun"), and that odd business about Ashcroft in the hospital bed and the spying program that was so bad and so illegal that even lawmen types like Comey and Mueller objected--and put themselves on the line to stop it. WHO were the Bushites spying on? Kerry? The DNC? Kevin Shelley (CA Sec of State who sued Diebold, decertified their touchscreens and demanded to see their source code just before the '04 election, and was soon 'swift-boated' out of office on entirely bogus corruption charges)? Their own corrupt, sex-maniac, bribe-taking Republican echelons (blackmail, control of votes)?

What we have here, potentially, is the MOTHER OF ALL SCANDALS. And if you add in suspicions about what they were using torture for, and about 9/11, the MOTHER, FATHER AND GRANDPARENTS OF ALL SCANDALS. Worst scandal in American history. Worst scandal in world history. A nation-destroying scandal. Or so some people might think. I'm for fresh air myself, and I have great faith in the American peoples' ability to clean house, restore order, learn the lessons, and move on.

[KoKo]

3. So big it would take the Govt. down...

and they never do that...with the foxes in charge of the hen house.

[bleever]

2. KRT.

Kick; rec.; thanks!

[suegeo]

4. Freedom Fries

I was hoping they'd lock Ney up for his Freedom Fries stunt. That was bad enough.