In January 1979, a US Senator Engaged In A Criminal Conspiracy. When Was He Indicted?

[Effete Snob]

There are people on DU who want you to believe that Watergate was the only historical example of a high-level prosecution of a complex criminal conspiracy.

These people are not being honest with you. Some of them, like me, are old enough to remember one of the most complex high-level politician corruption cases ever undertaken - ABSCAM.

ABSCAM involved a web of corruption among US representatives and senators, and it is worth considering the speed with which the process was undertaken.

Let's start with Senator Pete Williams. If time allows, I will do others. Senator Williams involvement in the conspiracy began in January 1979:



He was indicted in November 1980, and was the last of the bunch. Time magazine put it this way:

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,949028,00.html

Nation: Biggest Catch
Monday, Nov. 10, 1980

A Senator is indicted

Now comes the biggest, and for the Government, perhaps the most difficult Abscam case. After examining its evidence for nine months, the Justice Department last week obtained an indictment against Democratic Senator Harrison ("Pete" ) Williams, 60, of New Jersey for allegedly offering to use his political influence to help a phony Arab sheik make profitable investments in the U.S. In return, the bribery indictment charges, Williams accepted shares in a defunct titanium mine in Virginia in which the sheik, who was actually an undercover FBI agent,' said he intended to invest $100 million.

This investigation had a lot of suspects and a lot of moving parts. If you don't remember it, there is an extensive wikipedia article about it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam

The crimes were more complicated and the suspects more high-profile than Watergate.

The notion that Watergate is the only comparison for high-level conspiracy crimes involving politicians is a false framing.

And it was all done with IBM Selectric typewriters, carbon paper, and interoffice paper memos instead of email.

[MerryHolidays]

1. I am not sure anyone has said that Watergate is the only analogy

However, ABSCAM involved members of Congress, not the President or anyone in the Executive Branch. That's an important distinguishing feature.

[Effete Snob]

2. Remind me of Steve Bannon's executive branch position

I seem to have forgotten what position he held.

[MerryHolidays]

3. Before lashing out sarcastically, perhaps you can check your facts?

Upon his inauguration, Trump appointed Bannon to be his Chief Strategist, a newly created position. The title made him a counselor to the president, nearly equivalent in authority to the Chief of Staff. As a staff member in the Executive Office of the President, the position did not require Senate confirmation.

Steve Bannon - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Bannon

The issue is not necessarily just Steve Bannon, who was not in the Executive Branch at the time of the insurrection, but he most certainly was an Executive Branch employee. It includes Donald Trump of course.

[Effete Snob]

4. Wow, that's pretty amazing framing

You are conveniently leaving out the fact that Bannon had been fired from that position

https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/politics/steve-bannon-white-house/index.html


Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon fired

Updated 9:20 AM EDT, Sat August 19, 2017

So, let's take a complex White House conspiracy case, eh?

How does Iran Contra suit you? Lots of players, lots of moving parts, including the SITTING president:

On 19 December 1986, Lawrence Walsh was appointed special prosecutor.

On March 1988, 15 months later, Oliver North was indicted on 16 felony counts.

[MerryHolidays]

7. I have no idea where you are going with this.

Iran-Contra is a much better example than ABSCAM, that's for sure.

You do know there were MANY co-conspirators (indicted, convicted, or unindicted) in Watergate who were not in the Executive Branch or even employed by the government (e.g. Jeb Magruder who was in CREEP, Herbert Kalmbach, Nixon's personal lawyer, Donald Segretti, James McCord etc)? Bannon squarely fits that bill.

Like I said, Iran-Contra is a much better example than ABSCAM. The Executive Branch has huge powers of investigation and law enforcement, something an individual Senator or Representative does not have.

I'm glad you acknowledge that.

[secondwind]

5. PLEASE bear in mind that our DOJ is swamped with a lot of crap going on, including over 700 cases

regarding January 6th. We need to keep things in perspective.

[Effete Snob]

6. The DoJ has never had nothing else to do

Personally, what happens to some idiot walking around the Rotunda with a lectern is not the highest priority on my list.

[Chainfire]

8. In the history of our country, the DOJ has never had a more important mission than to bring

the individuals who did the actual break-in of our Capitol and the especially the people who planned and led them, to justice for trying to overthrow the government. It is not about stealing the lectern. It is about sedition. It is about a President who committed crimes.

[Effete Snob]

9. Never?

There were almost 1000 prosecutions of Confederates concerning an actual civil war which occurred in this country.

Perhaps you heard of it. Abraham Lincoln is finally getting some recognition for it, a lot of people are saying.