Magazine: Bush Official, Friend Under Investigation

[sabra]

Source: ABC News Blotter

A Bush administration cabinet secretary is facing multiple federal investigations about whether he lied to Congress when he vowed he never intervened in contracting awards at his department, according to a new report.

The FBI and the Justice Department are working with the inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to probe whether HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson arranged for nearly half a million dollars worth of work to go to a golfing partner and friend, according to the National Journal magazine.

At a Senate hearing May 3, Jackson told lawmakers, "I don't touch contracts." Jackson, who was once a neighbor of President Bush's, was facing scrutiny for telling an audience in April 2006 that he once nixed a contract to a company because its top executive opposed President Bush.

At the time of Jackson's comment, White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that President Bush "still supports a man with whom he's had a long and close relationship."

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/10/magazine-bush-o.html

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NJ report here: http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/071004nj2.htm

[burythehatchet]

1. hmmm, does the scandal-du-jour come with a salad?

[tanyev]

2. How long and how close?

[Toots]

3. Lieing to Congress or a Grand Jury is no big deal any more

Just ask Scooter Libby..:shrug: he won't serve a day.....

[rodeodance]

4. sic'um!!

[Roy]

5. Damn!!! He was Bush's favorite head at head rubbung time.

[Supersedeas]

6. and don't you know we are going to discover so much more when the cronies have left office

[maddezmom]

7. HUD chief's role in HANO deal questioned

He denies influencing selection of friend as contractor in N.O. Friday, October 05, 2007By David Hammer
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said Thursday he will cooperate with investigators after questions arose about how one of his friends got nearly half a million dollars for work at the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which currently is under the oversight of the federal government.

Jackson, who testified before Congress this year that he doesn't intervene in awarding contracts, acknowledged he may be under investigation in a case that involves just that.

Others connected to the case say HUD's inspector general and the FBI have seized HANO equipment and have asked questions about Jackson's possible role in HANO's hiring of Jackson's friend, South Carolina construction contractor William Hairston. Hairston's construction company was hired by HANO in January 2006 and subsequently won a no-bid "emergency" contract awarded to Hairston's construction company in July 2006.

more:http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-2/119156554856940.xml&coll=1

[DavidDvorkin]

8. Time for Bush to invoke executive privilege

And order the investigation shut down.

Because otherwise the investigators will be helping America's enemies and those who wish us harm.