The NH phone jamming case: players, history.

[Zan_of_Texas]

This case has dribbled out since it happened in 2002. It's easy to lose track of who did what.

Here are the basics. Compiled by me, starting with the first trial, from mainstream sources, and places like Talking Points Memo and SenateMajority.com.

At least four people have been charged in a Republican dirty tricks effort to jam the phones of Democrats in NH in the 2002 election. The top of the ticket had a very tight Senate race, which Sununu won even though his opponent, Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, was leading by a few percentage points going in. The difference was 19,751 votes.

Several have pled guilty in federal court, and are cooperating. The legal actions have been going drip drip drip for several years. At the outset, the case drew little attention outside New England.

THE PLAYERS
(info from a variety of New England papers, Josh Marshall, and SenateMajority.com)

CHUCK McGEE
The former executive director of the NH Republican Party Chuck McGee -- pled guilty, and was sentenced to 7 months in prison for jamming Democratic telephone lines during the 2002 general election. He also was fined $2,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service. The Boston Globe says that according to court records, the phone jamming idea originated with McGee.

Chuck McGee resigned as executive director of the NH party the day after The Union Leader first reported in February 2003 that Manchester police had alerted the U.S. Justice Department to the phone-jamming operation. But, Josh Marshall (7/1/04) says that McGee resurfaced to become state head of Citizens for a Sound Economy, C. Boyden Gray's anti-tax outfit. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_06_27.php#003113

ALLEN RAYMOND
McGee hired a Virginia telemarketing company to do the jamming. Allen Raymond, who was president of the Alexandria, Va.-based GOP Marketplace LLC at the time, pleaded guilty to hiring a firm from Idaho to make the calls. He was sentenced in 2005 to five months in prison.

ALLEN RAYMOND UPDATE: A June 10, 2006 Boston Globe story says that Raymond has just finished serving his three months in prison for the phone jamming. GOP Marketplace ... served as a middleman for telemarketing services sought by Republican campaigns. The firm was funded with a $246,000 loan from a group of elite Republicans. One of the investors was Raymond's former boss, Barbour, who said at the time he was "convinced that GOP Marketplace will not only be a profitable business, but will also give Republicans an edge in the 2000 election." Another investor was lobbyist Ed Rogers, who had served as executive assistant to former White House chief of staff John H. Sununu during the administration of George H.W. Bush. After running a successful US House campaign in 1994, Raymond was picked by then-GOP chairman Haley Barbour to become one of the party's eight regional political directors, overseeing the mid-Atlantic states. He was then hired as chief of staff to a subsequent cochairman of the Republican National Committee, Patricia Harrison.

Raymond was also the Executive Director of the Republican Leadership Council -- an outfit run by a long list of Republican worthies -- and his company had done phone banking for them on election day too.

Marshall says: "...Raymond is the Executive Director of the Republican Leadership Council (RLC) and that organization has, on its Board, eight United States senators: Senator Robert Bennett, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Senator Susan Collins, Senator Pete V. Domenici, Senator Jon L. Kyl, Senator Frank H. Murkowski, Senator Olympia Snowe, and Senator Arlen Specter. ... According to politicalmoneyline.com , the RLC "indicated in its Section 527 IRS report (signed by Raymond) it paid GOP Marketplace (Raymond’s firm) $28,983.62 on 11/4/02 for 'Phone bank.'"

And Steve Kornacki of PoliticsNJ.com found out that Raymond also seemed to be behind another phone banking scandal in New Jersey. Source: Talking Points Memo

SHAUN HANSEN - MYLO ENTERPRISES
Manchester police have said Raymond’s firm hired Sandpoint, Idaho-based Mylo Enterprises (this is spelled "Milo" in some reports) to make the calls. Shaun Hansen, of Spokane, Wash., headed the former telemarketing company that placed hundreds of hang-up calls to five phone lines run by Democrats and one run by the Manchester firefighters union. Hansen was indicted April 2005, and was scheduled to make his plea (innocent or guilty) in court on May 9, 2005. Hansen has closed his business. He says he thought the job was odd, but GOP Marketplace lawyers assured him it was legal. The hang-up calls were placed, about 800 in an hour and a half on election day, but were stopped.

SHAUN HANSEN UPDATE - July 2006
Unlike major player James Tobin, Hansen is being represented by a public defender. Senate Majority.com says: "According to a recent court filing, indicted phone jammer Shaun Hansen may offer an affirmative defense at his upcoming fall <2006> trial, arguing that the phone jamming scheme which his company carried out had the seal of approval of both the Republican National Committee and the White House."

SHAUN HANSEN UPDATE - Pleads guilty - November 2006
Hansen has agreed to plead guilty in the NH Republican phone-jamming plot. Hansen faces two federal counts of conspiracy to commit interstate telephone harassment in a deal with prosecutors. No sentencing date was posted. The plea comes 17 months after indictment.

JAMES TOBIN
Note: Do not confuse him with James Tobin, the economist.
James Tobin, the former Northeast political director of the national party committee working to elect Republican senators, also is charged in the case. Prosecutors say he orchestrated the jamming. He is pleading innocent. Trial was first scheduled for June 2005, but the legal wrangling seems to be continuing, with no start of the trial. Tobin's attorneys were planning to attempt to remove any Democrats from the jury, and ask what blogs prospective jurors read. They also argued the charges should be dismissed because the grand jury that indicted him included Democrats.

Josh Marshall says the phone jamming went on while Tobin was working for Frist.

TOBIN UPDATE, April 2006: Tobin had the benefit of high priced attorneys paid for by the national Republican party (estimates have been $2.5 million, $2.8 million, and "nearly $3 million" ). He was found guilty in late 2005, but is appealing.

TOBIN UPDATE, April 2006: A post at the Senate Majority website says that for the Tobin defense, the Republican National Committee and the New Hampshire Republican State Committee have spent nearly $6 million on the firms involved in the case.

DEM MONETARY RECOVERY, December 2006: "GOP pays $135K in N.H. call jamming suit," AP, 12/02/06: "State and national Republicans will pay $135,000 to settle a {separate} suit involving a scheme to jam Democratic get-out-the-vote calls on Election Day 2002, officials said Saturday."

[philb]

1. There were more dirty tricks like these in many counties of many states in 2006

Are the illegal dirty tricks committed by known entities going to be pursued in 2006??

www.flcv.com/eirsdt6.html