Coingate Scandal Grows - Democratic Underground

paineinthearse

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Mon Aug-01-05 10:25 AM
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Coingate Scandal Grows

Edited on Mon Aug-01-05 10:34 AM by paineinthearse

http://www.conyersblog.us/

Coingate Scandal Grows
Is any state government more corrupt than the Ohio GOP?

Regular readers of this blog know that earlier this month - http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000163.htm , http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4033032&mesg_id=4033032 -
I wrote to the U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Ohio, asking him to explain how it was possible that he learned about a massive scandal involving the Ohio and national GOP before last November's election, yet managed to delay active pursuit until well after the election. This is the one where the Ohio Republicans invested tens of milliions of dollars in state pension money in rare coins sold by an Ohio GOP fundraiser, Tom Noe, who also is implicated in fundraising problems with just about every statewide Republican as well as the Bush campaign. Of course, the many of the coins were lost. No response yet from Mr. White.

Today I learned that the same Gregory White may well owe his plumb job as U.S. Attorney to the same Governor Taft whose office is up to its eyeballs in the scandal and is now under investigation by, you guessed it, Gregory White. The Toledo Blade broke this story today and has been on top of it from the beginning. And it wouldn't be a scandal if our friend Karl Rove wasn't involved. It appears that the attempted fix for White's job led through the very busy Rove.

I'm sure more will be coming on this scandal.

Blogged by JC on 07.29.05 @ 09:40 PM ET

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050729/NEWS24/50729003

White touted Bush ties to help get federal post
Now he investigates GOP, Noe
Gregory White sought Bob Taft's help in 2002.

By MIKE WILKINSON and STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITERS

COLUMBUS — U.S. Attorney Gregory White, a leader in a multiagency task force investigating powerful Republicans in Ohio, asked for help from Gov. Bob Taft’s office to get the federal post he now holds, records released by Mr. Taft’s office yesterday show. Mr. White asked the governor to call President Bush on his behalf in August, 2002. A week later, top Bush aide Karl Rove was given the phone numbers of Brian Hicks, the governor’s former chief of staff. In February, 2003, after Mr. White was named interim U.S. attorney, Mr. Hicks sent a congratulatory e-mail to Mr. White. “Great to hear! The Gov. just asked me this morning if I had heard anything about your status. He was pleased to learn of the news,” Mr. Hicks wrote on Feb. 2.

The e-mails show a relationship between one of the lead attorneys in Ohio’s biggest corruption scandal in decades and the governor whose administration is under intense scrutiny. Mr. White could not be reached for comment last night. Both the Justice Department and the White House could not say what role, if any, Mr. Taft played in the appointment. On Aug. 21, 2002, Mr. White requested, through Mr. Hicks, that the governor call President Bush and touted his help as a local leader in the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign. In the e-mail, Mr. White expressed frustration with an interview for the post that had gone poorly. “I wonder what it is that went so badly. This is very frustrating to me,” Mr. White wrote. “I believe that my record speaks for itself, and I doubt there are too many county chairs for the Bush Campaign that worked harder.”

Josh Earnest, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, questioned whether the news affects Mr. White’s ability to continue with the investigation. “To restore faith in the probe, an impartial investigator should be appointed to find out whether tainted funds were funneled to the President’s re-election campaign,” he said last night. However, Julia Bates, the Democratic prosecutor of Lucas County and also a member of the task force, defended Mr. White, saying he is a man of integrity. “Greg is a prosecutor doing his job,” she said. “We still answer to our oath as lawyers and our oath as prosecutors before we answer to our political affiliations.”

Mr. White’s office has been investigating former Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe for more than six months. Federal prosecutors are trying to determine whether Mr. Noe skirted federal campaign finance limits by giving money to others so they could contribute to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2003. The investigation has morphed into a larger look into Mr. Noe and his role with the now-shuttered $50 million rare-coin funds that he ran for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. As part of that investigation, prosecutors — including Mr. White — are looking into other state and local officials, including Mr. Hicks, who was charged yesterday with a misdemeanor ethics violation.

more.....