More DOJ Scandal: GOP/RNC Justice On Their Side, Unequal Justice for ALL

[MagickMuffin]

While reading this thread about

A Texas woman Debra Martinez Briseno, 51, a former civic leader and truancy officer for the Calhoun County school district, showed little or no emotion after agreeing to a five-year prison sentence Monday morning.

The plea agreement was made during the sentencing phase of the trial in which a Jackson County jury of seven women and five men found Briseno guilty on two counts of illegal voting while she was campaigning for Precinct 1 justice of the peace in Calhoun County during the 2006 Democratic primary.

As part of the plea bargain, Jackson County District Attorney Bobby Bell said he would not pursue perjury charges against Briseno and her husband; and Calhoun County District Attorney Dan Heard said misdemeanor charges alleging voter fraud would be dismissed in Calhoun County.
In addition, Briseno waived her rights to appeal the case.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=180&topic_id=44229&mesg_id=44229
Link to newspaper:http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/428/story/79246.html

That got me digging into the phone jammers of New Hampshire back in '02. Ended up doing some research on the subject (refresher course) found new details I hadn't been concerned about back when the story broke (i.e. DOJ's role)

I remember their sentences were extremely light. Some still have not served any time what so ever. In fact some have continued to fight the charges.

Which got me wondering about the US Attorney and how the scandals surrounding the DOJ played into this episode. And Lo and Behold here is some of the interesting details I have uncovered so far...

The head US Attorney for the District of NH is Thomas P. Colantuono, appointed to his post by George W. Bush in 2001.

In the 2004 Presidential campaign, Colantuono’s wife made election-law news:

In an e-mail to “pastors, church leaders and ministries,”Pam Colantuono, wife of Tom Colantuono (a Bush-appointed U.S. attorney for New Hampshire), asked clergy for help getting a pro-Bush flier to parishioners. Colantuono was clear about how priests could do this without breaking the law.

“Please place these in your parking lot, or when you have a church activity have someone hand them out outside the church. This is very important,” the e-mail read. It continued in bold letters: “Pastors, do not display within the church and make sure you are not handing these out personally within your church. Assign someone to do this for you. We want to protect you.”

Colantuono also asked clergy to keep this effort “underneath the radar as we do not want any negative press.”

The flier was paid for by the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. In her e-mail, Colantuono said God had told her in her prayers that it would win the election for Bush.

The flier is pretty standard fare. It compares Bush and Democrat Sen. John Kerry on several “family values,” namely partial-birth abortion, pro-life judges and parental notification.

David Lamarre-Vincent, executive director for the New Hampshire Council of Churches, hadn’t seen Colantuono’s e-mail but was concerned when he heard its contents.

“This is troubling because often religious leaders don’t know where the line is,” Lamarre-Vincent said. “And out of no mal-intent, they might say or do something that crosses the line.”

Jayne Millerick, chairwoman of the state committee, defended the flier and Colantuono’s efforts to circulate it to church-goers.

“It’s something we are pretty proud of,” she said. “It really points out in a clear way where the candidates stand on issues that are important to folks of faith.”

http://betsydevine.com/blog/2006/05/03

Phone Jamming Time-line:
This link provides valuable info, money trails Casino Jack Abramoff, Tom BugBoy DeLay, among others who donated to NH RNC, and money funneled back to DeLay in '04 as well as other GOP candidates. Where did he get ALL this money when the RNC had to pay his legal fees for doing their dirty work?
http://betsydevine.com/blog/?p=2700

Why is this important and SHOULD be an issue?!?!?

Because while the Texas woman has admitted guilt to rigging her own election, her sentencing seems to have different guidelines....
She will spend 5 years behind bars she is no longer entitled to an Appeal, while her GOP OPERATIVES walk, or get off SCOT FREE.

Another VERY Important Point:

The woman from Texas was working on her own behalf, while the Phone Jammers of NH were funded BY the GOP/RNC....

And once again Justice is Served harshly to Democrats while the Other Side skirts the LAWS. Once Again.

Isn't it nice to have Justice on your Side?!?!?

WHIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


on edit: changed the subject title

[MagickMuffin]

1. More on Pam Colantuono the US Attorney's wife

The RNC paid Pam Colantuono a $4,000 for “Political consulting” in 2004. She also addressed the NH Right to Life group on behalf of Bush-Cheney ‘04, but it’s not clear whether or not she worked with RNC executive James Tobin, who was New England chairman of Bush-Cheney ‘04 during that time.

Anyway, if you have been wondering…

why the US Attorney’s Office has moved so slowly in its investigation of the 2002 phone-jamming scandal…

why the US Attorney never indicted or even revealed the name of phone-jammer James Tobin until NH Democrats forced the issue…

why the US Attorney has actively interfered with the civil suit filed by NH Democrats …

why RNC defense attorney* * Robert Kelner seems to have an inside line on what the US Attorneys are doing…

…one possible explanation could be that the chief US Attorney in NH may have personal and/or political ties to many of the people his team is supposed to be investigating.

[Quantess]

2. Good to expose this.

[MagickMuffin]

3. Agreed and when it comes to justice it only applies to the RNC/GOP

Maybe everyone should just switch already.:sarcasm: At least then we would be treated fairly.:evilgrin:

[MagickMuffin]

4. More on James Tobin the Operative who help set up the Phone Jams

James Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, President George W. Bush's New England campaign chairman, was convicted December 15, 2005, on telephone harassment charges "for his part in a plot to jam the Democrats' phones on Election Day 2002."
Tobin was acquitted by the federal jury on "the most serious charge against him, of conspiring to violate voters' rights."

Tobin was sentenced May 17, 2006, "to 10 months in prison (minimum security recommended); 2 years probation, and a $10,000 fine. Bail pending appeal was denied and Tobin is scheduled to report on June 23, 2006."http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Tobin

Did he report to prison?

[MagickMuffin]

7. Appeals Court Reverses Conviction for GOP Official in NH Phone-Jammer

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

By BEVERLEY WANG
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

CONCORD, N.H. -- A federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed the conviction and sentence of a former Republican National Committee official accused in a phone-jamming plot on Election Day 2002.

James Tobin, the former regional chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign, was convicted in 2005 of helping to arrange more than 800 hang-up calls that jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters' union for about an hour. Republican John Sununu defeated then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen for the Senate that day.

Tobin was sentenced to 10 months in prison on charges of telephone harassment.

But the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the statute under which Tobin was convicted "is not a close fit" for what Tobin did and questioned whether the government showed that Tobin intended to harass. A Justice Department spokesman said prosecutors were reviewing the decision, and did not say if they planned to appeal.

"Oh my God, wow, you know sometimes there is no justice," said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan.

Messages seeking comment were left with Tobin and his attorneys.

"We are pleased for Jim and his family," said Dan Ronayne, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, which paid for Tobin's defense. He declined to comment further.

At the time of the alleged phone jamming, Tobin was a regional official with the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, overseeing Senate campaigns in several states, including New Hampshire and Maine. He went on to serve as President Bush's New England re-election campaign chairman in 2004, but resigned after the phone-jamming allegations surfaced.

The jamming has led to four criminal prosecutions, a lawsuit and a recent flurry of political attacks.

Tobin was convicted of putting the executive director of the state's Republican Party in touch with the head of a Virginia-based telemarketing firm, who hired another telemarketing firm to place the hundreds of hang-up calls. A co-owner of that firm at the time, Shaun Hansen, of Spokane, Wash., pleaded guilty in November to a conspiracy charge and to making the calls and awaits sentencing.

Phone records introduced at Tobin's trial show he made two dozen calls to the White House political office within three days around Election Day 2002, as the phone-jamming operation was finalized, carried out and abruptly shut down.

http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/3700

Well there you have it. If you cheat for the GOP you are automatically cleansed of your guilt...

[MagickMuffin]

5. NH Dems still jamming on the phone jamming

From an article in March '07

NH DEMOCRATS CALL FOR INVESTIGATION OF POLITICAL INTERFERENCE BY DoJ IN PHONE JAMMING SCANDAL

Letter to Sen. Leahy, Rep. Hodes asks for Congressional Inquiry into Political Interference from the Department of Justice

Concord, NH - Yesterday, New Hampshire Democrats sent a letter to Representative Paul Hodes of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee and Senator Patrick Leahy of the Senate Judiciary Committee requesting a Congressional investigation into possible political interference of the federal investigation and prosecution of the "phone-jamming" crimes during the 2002 Senate race in New Hampshire.

The letter details how in the four years following the 2002 phone-jamming crimes, disturbing evidence points to a pattern of political interference in the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation and prosecution of the case. Both the investigation and prosecution were subjected to repeated, unusual delays; there were conflicts of interest and signs of interference; investigators and prosecutors were starved of resources; and obvious leads were ignored or shut-down entirely.

"The revelations over the course of the last two weeks regarding the firing of U.S. Attorneys for political reasons have added weight to our fears of political interference from the Department of Justice," said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Kathy Sullivan. "Without a full investigation, it is impossible to known whether justice has really been served in this case."

According to Attorney John Durkin, counsel for one of the Republican criminal defendants Allen Raymond, Department of Justice prosecutors were required to run all decisions in this case by the United States Attorney General John Ashcroft himself for his approval.

"Mr. Durkin has maintained that every decision the DoJ prosecutors made was subject to the approval of the Attorney General Ashcroft himself," said Sullivan. "If that is the case, was it the decision of the Attorney General not to indict Tobin, a senior Republican strategist, until after the 2004 election and what were his reasons for this decision? These questions must be answered to be sure that justice has been fully served and a congressional investigation may be the only way to answer these questions."

Furthermore, the two Attorneys General who served over the course of the investigation and prosecution, John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzalez, refused to recuse themselves from the case. Mr. Ashcroft was a member of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, an organization that Mr. James Tobin worked for. Mr. Gonzalez was, at the time of the crime, legal counsel to the White House where, during the course of the conspiracy, Tobin made literally hundreds of calls. Requests by the plaintiffs for documents concerning theses contacts were denied by White House Counsel Gonzalez, who claimed executive privilege.

http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/3682

So, both US Attorney General's interfered with this investigation...HMMMMMMMMMM Obstruction of Justice

Isn't that special?!?

[annabanana]

6. This points up the depth and breadth of the corruption and rot

that has been growning like a virulent mold on the Justice Department pretty muchs since Day 1 of the Theft of the Republic.

[MagickMuffin]

8. Sen. McCain Hires Phone-Jammer as Adviser

McCain's new adviser, Terry Nelson, was the National Political Director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002, where he directly supervised New England Political Director James Tobin. This past December, Tobin was convicted of multiple felonies related to his involvement in the phone-jamming crime.

Not only did Nelson supervise Tobin at the time of the crime, but he then hired him again to work on the Bush-Cheney campaign - even after the RNC was told that Tobin was involved in the criminal phone jamming investigation. In fact, Tobin worked for Nelson again on the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, from which Tobin was eventually forced to resign because of his mounting legal problems. (Union Leader, 3/23/06)

To make matters worse, Nelson is also deeply involved in the pending indictment against scandal-plagued former Republican leader Tom Delay. That indictment fingers Nelson as the person who received money that was laundered through the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC to the Republican National Committee.

Immediately after hiring Nelson, McCain was asked by a caller on a Seattle talk radio station why he would hire someone who was involved in the Delay scandals and who "was also the supervisor of James Tobin, who was the guy convicted last year for helping jam the Democratic get-out-the-vote lines in New England a couple years ago." McCain initially declared "None of those charges are true," but was persuaded by the host to add that "I will go and look and see if any of them are true, but I've never heard of them before." (http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000159.php)
http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/2260

This may have been exposed before but never hurts to give it more attention. Also checked McCain's current info to
see if Nelson is still on board and apparently he is...:eyes:

[MagickMuffin]

9. The NH research has shows that:

If you are a democrat and rigging an election for your personal gain, you go to jail for 5 years and subject to court costs.

If you are a GOP operative and are involved in voter suppression, you get off without jail time.
You have two US Attorney General's OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE on your behalf, and making sure Justice is only for their party.

SWEET....

[myrna minx]

10. kick. n/t

[originalpckelly]

11. That's exactly the same type of relationship that Alabama's US Attorney has!

Only, the wife of a politico involved in corrupt dealings is a US Attorney, not the husband!

This is all starting to come together, isn't it?

It's like there was a larger scheme, and we've hit upon their methods. They place people in positions of power to nullify charges or reduce them when a Republican's in trouble and they go after them when a Democrat is in trouble.

This is the kind of scary shit that goes on in banana republics, of course it makes sense since we have a chimp for President.

Let's not forget the hundreds of thousands of dollars the RNC paid to defend James Tobin. More about that in these wikl articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tobin_%28political_operative%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_New_Hampshire_Senate_election_phone_jamming_scandal

[MagickMuffin]

12. Speaking of Banana Republics, let's not forget Rove's speech before the RNC Lawyers club

"I want to thank you for your work on clean elections," Rove said. "I know a lot of you spent time in the 2004 election, the 2002, election, the 2000 election in your communities or in strange counties in Florida, helping make it certain that we had the fair and legitimate outcome of the election."

Rove then suggested that some elections in America were similiar to third world dictatorships.

"We have, as you know, an enormous and growing problem with elections in certain parts of America today," Rove said. "We are, in some parts of the country, I'm afraid to say, beginning to look like we have elections like those run in countries where they guys in charge are, you know, colonels in mirrored sunglasses. I mean, it's a real problem, and I appreciate that all that you're doing in those hot spots around the country to ensure that the ballot -- the integrity of the ballot is protected, because it's important to our democracy."

Also in attendance on Friday was Mark "Thor" Hearne, the National General Counsel for Bush/Cheney '04 Inc. and also the Executive Director of the non-partisan American Center for Voting Rights, which Brad Blog described as "a Republican front group created by high-level GOP operatives expressly for the purpose of spreading disinformation to sidetrack the Election Reform movement in this country."

"I ran into Thor Hearne as I was coming in," Rove said. "He was leaving; he was smart, and he was leaving to go out and enjoy the day."

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Rove_thanks_Republican_lawyers_for_their_0410.html

[MagickMuffin]

13. More exposure please...

:kick:ing