Greenlee's Oral Flatulence

Last week, we reported how retiring and disgraced U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Mississippi Jim H. Greenlee retaliated against whistleblower FBI Agent Hal Neilson who was recently indicted for not disclosing a property partnership in which he was a principal.

We raised serious questions including the fact that Greenlee, member of the Rove Republican Racket, was indirectly involved and probably "set the b**ch up."

Following our post, Greenlee and friends began damage control. The Oxford Enterprise reported last Sunday:

Greenlee’s office was never directly involved with the investigation. According to two well-placed sources, Grenelee’s office learned of Neilson’s financial interest in the building and first thought of it as an ethical violation. They referred the case to the Department of Justice’s Inspector General’s office, which reviewed the case, decided it was a criminal matter and immediately assigned it to the Baton Rouge office.

This only leads to further questions.   

1. How did Greenlee's office learn of Neilson's financial interest in the building?
2. How did Neilson become a secret partner?
3. Did Greenlee and friends set Neilson up?
4. Speaking of ethical violations, why didn't  Greenlee's office submit a review of Tom Dawson's book writing deal to the IG's office?

We suspect they had something on one of the other partners involved in the property deal and struck a tit-for-tat deal.

Time that someone write to the IG's office about Dawson, Greenlee, and the secret six-month (book writing?) contract.

Nuclear Strike in the Silicon Valley

We have done extensive reporting on prosecutorial misconduct in Santa Clara County, California. Now the situation has taken a serious turn for the worst for embattled Rove Republican Racket member and Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr.

About three weeks ago, we reported about the stunning rebuke an Assistant DA received from Judge Andrea Y. Bryan who lashed out at the "numerous acts of misconduct" including the serious charge of providing "false testimony" during the trial.

Now in retaliation, Carr has pushed the nuclear trigger against Bryan and is boycotting any criminal cases before the judge. The San Jose Mercury News writes:

Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr on Tuesday offered her most vigorous defense to date of her office's boycott of Superior Court Judge Andrea Bryan, even as criticism mounted in the legal community of what some are likening to a retaliatory nuclear strike. In an e-mail to the newspaper, Carr called it "not unheard of" for prosecutors to disqualify a judge from all criminal cases, citing actions by prosecutors in San Diego, Ventura and Mendocino counties, as well as efforts by public defenders to boycott judges in Santa Clara, Napa and San Bernardino counties.

But experts in criminal law and ethics said the blanket boycott that Carr initiated last week is an abusive tactic that can damage the court system. "Most DAs realize it's like the atomic bomb," said Laurie L. Levenson, who teaches criminal law and ethics at Loyola Law School.  "Inappropriate" and "a threat to judicial independence" were the terms used by Gerald F. Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor and former dean.

Carr instructed her staff Friday to stop bringing all criminal cases before Bryan, who recently angered prosecutors by finding that a trial prosecutor in her office committed numerous acts of misconduct, including giving false testimony. Carr, who is running for re-election and facing stiff criticism for the boycott, insisted in an e-mail that her decision was based on a pattern of rulings by Bryan. She declined to elaborate further.

Bayou Blunder

Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan of the Western District of Louisiana, a member of the Rove Republican Racket, is full of embarrassment this week.

His son, Robert Flanagan, along with three other men, were arrested by federal authorities for attempting to tamper with U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu's telephone lines on Monday.

The Associated Press reports today:

[Robert] Flanagan recently criticized Landrieu for her vote on the Senate health care bill after securing a Medicaid provision estimated in value at up to $365 million for Louisiana. Conservatives accused her of selling her vote but she insisted no "special deals" were made.  "Do not be fooled into believing Landrieu is helping the state of Louisiana," Flanagan wrote in a Nov. 25 post on the Pelican Institute's Web site. "If the proposed healthcare legislation were to be signed into law, the $300 million allocated to Louisiana will pale in comparison to the long-term debt Louisiana citizens will ultimately shoulder."

His father, Bill, is the acting U.S. Attorney based in Shreveport. He was first assistant under Republican President George W. Bush appointee Donald Washington before Washington stepped down this month. President Barack Obama recently nominated Stephanie A. Finley for the post. Bill Flanagan's office declined to comment.

The other men include the now infamous James O'Keefe, the right-wing "journalist" who brought down ACORN, when he posed as a pimp trying to get job training for fictious sex slave business.

Kansas Khaos

Last June, we took an inside look at the embarrassing Kansas scandal of Rove Republican Racket member and former Attorney General of Kansas, Phill Kline (pictured), who used his position to criminally target an abortion doctor and was influenced to do so by the mistress of his arch-enemy.

George Tiller, the abortion dctor, had been shot and killed the weekend before our post last June.

Now comes news that Kline used the state's highest law enforcement office to engage in a witchhunt of women who had abortions. Kline and some of his former Deputy Attorney Generals are facing state disiplinary hearings this spring for misconduct.

Why? In brief, using the issue of illegal abortions of underage girls as a front, Kline and company obtained medical records of adult women trying to obtain an abortion.

Kline's former Deputy Attorney General Eric Rucker made headlines late last night after responding to the detailed accusations which are eye-popping. The Topeka Capital-Journal writes:

The state's disciplinary board pointed to complaints Rucker was involved in obtaining state medical files under false pretenses, misleading court officials to retain possession of records, dispatching staff to record license plates of women entering the Wichita office of physician George Tiller and securing records from a motel where some of Tiller's patients stayed. Specifically, Rucker is accused of misleading the Kansas Supreme Court when he said the state attorney general's office wasn't pursuing the identity of any adult women who had obtained medical services at Tiller's clinic. The ethics board indicated there was evidence of an effort to obtain names of adult clients.

Death of a Retiree in Ohio

Embattled Acting U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Indiana, Timothy M. Morrison, should now be held responsible for the death of Willie Pearl Russell.

Morrison has refused to prosecute members of the Rove Republican Racket who allegedly were involved in a Ponzi scheme that swindled millions of dollars from retirees and others in Ohio. Timothy S. Durham, the alleged mastermind of this Ponzi scheme, is one of the highest donors to the Republican Party in Indiana, and Morrison let Durham keep his cash and assets.

A week ago Friday, Morrison let another alleged co-conspirator proceed with an estate sale and keep the proceeds.

Willie Pearl Russell (pictured), a Ohio retiree who invested $125,000 in Fair Finance Co., the alleged Ponzi scheme company operated by Durham, suffered congestive heart failure just days after the raid in November.

The (Wooster, Ohio) Daily Record reported this heart-breaking story yesterday:

Willie Pearl quilted on Mondays for missionaries and loved her flowers. She worked at Yoder Brother Flowers in Barberton for 20 years and was the mother of five children, and grandmother to 11 grandchildren. "She was salt of the earth, is what she was," Don Russell [her son] said. "A fine neighbor, a fine friend."

She was admitted to the hospital two days after Fair Finance's Akron headquarters was raided by the FBI. Doctors said it might be congestive heart failure, Don Russell said. When they asked if she knew why she was in the hospital, Don Russell said his mother told them her money was due. She was due a $100,000 interest payment Dec. 6. She died Dec. 23.

Now, Don Russell, along with his wife, Lori, want answers. They're frustrated with what has happened and the lack of information about the investigation of Fair Finance. Now they've made it their mission to figure out what's going on. "I don't think about anything other than this, 24 hours a day," he said.

Morrison owes Russell's family and the thousands of other investors answers. Morrison dismissed a civil lawsuit in November that let Durham keep his cash and assets.

"I can't believe they are letting them do that," Don Russell said of the dismissal. "That is such a slap in the face."

The slap in the face is also at the legal process for Morrison has a history of protecting Republicans in trouble.

Politics should not let swindlers off the hook no matter how much money they have given to a political party or state governor.

In the name of Mrs. Russell and other retirees who poured their life savings in this scam, our blog will continue reporting and investigating Morrison and his corrupt political friends.

Greenlee's Retaliation

Retiring and disgraced U.S. Attorney Jim H. Greenlee of the Northern District of Mississippi looks like he retaliated against a whistleblower who broke the code of silence on breaches of ethics and acts of professional misconduct by members of the Rove Republican Racket.

Last week, FBI Agent Hal Nielson of Oxford, Mississippi was indicted for failing to disclose a secret partnership with owners of a property rented by the FBI.

North Mississippi Commentor writes:

According to the indictment, Neilson was involved in both the site selection, the lease, and an increase in the lease spaces. The building was constructed by C&G Partnership which later incorporated as C&G Properties, LLC; while its principals are not identified in the indictment other than by initials (JC, DG, and their lawyer BW), a quick look at the Secretary of State’s web page discloses that C&G Properties was incorporated by member managers John Covington and Dino Grisanti, along with their lawyer Brad Walsh. ....There is no suggestion in the indictment that any of the three did anything wrong, and paragraph 21 alleges “NEILSON falsely assured JC, DG, and BW that he had checked with an FBI agent and had received approval to own an interest in the Oxford FBI building.” There is a puzzling lack of allegations about what Neilson actually did to get an interest in the building.

But why was Neilson REALLY indicted? According to Mississippi journalist Patsy Brumfield:

Neilson reportedly sought whistleblower protection from DOJ a few years ago when he questioned the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee for allegedly seeking information on Muslims throughout the region after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and accused the agency of falsifying evidence in some cases and in entrapment and coercion of witnesses.

Neilson also reportedly raised ethics questions about former assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Dawson’s participation in a book about the office’s investigation and prosecution of then-Oxford attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who was sentenced to prison on two guilty pleas related to judicial bribery indictments. Before the book was released several weeks ago, a DOJ spokesman said Dawson had retired before he worked on it. Tension between Neilson and the U.S. Attorney’s Office first became public when it was mentioned in the book, although reasons for the problems were not given.

We note again that the other partners were not indicted in this property scheme and their names were hidden with initials on the indictment. Although Greenlee was not directly involved in the indictment (he recused himself and had it transferred to Louisiana), we smell his involvement indirectly which eventually led to the indictment.

Serious questions:

• Did Greenlee violate the Civil Rights of Muslims in his district and walk away from the scene of the crime?
• Did Greenlee help cut JC, DG and  BW a "sweet deal" like he did the Pied Piper Ed Peters so he could retaliate against Nielson and "set the b***h up?"
• Was Greenlee, like his embattled Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Dawson, trying to hide the secret six-month (book writing?) contract he dished out to Dawson days after Dawson's retirement last January?
• Did Greenlee try to silence the fact that he may have knowingly allowed his staff to help Dawson write a book while on the federal payroll clock?

 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder needs to probe these issues and hold Greenlee and his subordinates accountable.

And if Washington is too timid, then Nielson needs to talk directly to the media.

Envy of the Successful

Many U.S. Attorneys of the Rove-Cheney-Bush-era cannot handle people (particularly Democrats) who just happen to be smarter, more successful, or wealthier than them.

Some of the most high profile criminal prosecutions during the Rove years were against successful individuals ranging from technology gurus to fundraising mavericks to internationally recognized trial attorneys.

But the Rove Republican Racket lost a big fish, a California billionaire who they smeared with false drug accusations.

Forbes Magazine's Global Wealth Editor, Matthew Miller, writes:

Vindication has come for Henry Nicholas. After more than a year of nasty accusations, the Broadcom co-founder is a free man. And he doesn't have to go to trial to clear his name.  This is a shocking turn of events for Nicholas, considering the traction two indictments levied against him in federal court in 2008 got with the media. The indictments, which made him out to be a hooker-loving, drugged-up billionaire who dabbled in securities fraud, essentially cemented his image as a dirty guy--or at least someone who couldn't handle success.

But [two weeks ago] federal prosecutors asked judge Cormac J. Carney to dismiss a 4-count indictment that charges Nicholas with drug conspiracy. This request for dismissal came a few weeks after judge Carney threw out charges on 21 counts of options backdating and securities fraud against Nicholas and former Broadcom chief financial officer William Ruehle.

The drug charges were the centerpiece of a well-orchestrated plan to smear Nicholas. As his lawyer's told Miller last fall:

Nicholas and his lawyers were emphatic that the drug indictment, which suggested Nicholas enjoyed plying Broadcom customers with drinks spiked with Ecstasy and built a series of secret rooms underneath his Laguna Hills mansion to party in, was filed only to stir up attention on a weaker options indictment. "The prosecutors have borrowed a page from the plaintiff's attorneys' playbook and have peppered the indictment with inflammatory, untrue and irrelevant allegations," John Potter, Nicholas' lead attorney on the drug case told us in September.

Prosecutorial misconduct and the shenanigans of manipulating the jury pool are not new. And as this blog has noted, from Maine to Alaska, the vindictive nature of many Rove Republican Racket prosecutors has no basis in law, but is based on partisan politics or simple envy.