Malcolm Smith for Mayor and How New York Voters Have Been Robbed

     These days it seems the truth really is stranger than fiction. I mean you have the surreal events in Texas recently where two prosecutors have recently been murdered and now another one is stepping down from a case that involved white supremacists-specifically the Aryan Brotherhood. His reason: security concerns.

     "Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman, who has withdrawn from a large federal racketeering case against alleged members of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas prison gang, cited "security reasons" in an email he sent Monday to defense attorneys involved in the case, according to one lawyer who received the email."

    "He sent the email to every lawyer representing a defendant in the Aryan Brotherhood federal case, and he said -- very short email -- that he was withdrawing for security reasons," Houston attorney Katherine Scardino told TPM on Tuesday."

    "After the recent killings of two prosecutors in Kaufman County, Texas, media reports have made note of the county district attorney's office's role in the investigation of the prison gang. But no material evidence has been found linking the prison gang to the murdered prosecutors. Nevertheless, Scardino said she understood Hileman's decision."

     "I did email him back and told him that I was sorry he was getting off the case, but I certainly understood," Scardino said.

      Scardino client, Terry Sillers, was a "general" in the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Sillers has agreed to cooperate with the government and pleaded guilty in the case. According to Scardino, Sillers will not be sentenced until after he testifies in the other cases as needed. Sillers is currently under protective custody, and not even his lawyer knows where he is being held."

     "I don't know where Mr. Sillers is, he's under protective custody," Scardino said. "And I don't really want to know."

   

     "The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas refused to confirm or deny Hileman's withdrawal in response to a query from TPM."

     http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/prosecutor-cited-security-as-reason-for-withdrawing-from?ref=fpa

     Is there anyone willing to prosecute this case?

     Here in New York we have our own stranger than fiction news. Turns out State Senator Malcolm Smith really wanted to be Governor. So much so he was willing to do just about anything-like paying lots of bribes to get NY Republicans to put him on the Mayoral ticket as a Republican though he is a Democrat.

     Presumably he noted that this is what Mayor Bloomberg did-he ran as a Republican then dropped the party and registered as an Independent afterwards. The Republican politicians who got in on his scam wanted money and positions too. They never considered that they were hitching their wagons to a long shot anyway. This is not the first time the Senator has been in legal trouble for ethics violations.

     A Democrat throughout his political career in southeast Queens, Mr. Smith explored the possibility of running for mayor this year on the Republican line. To be eligible for the nomination without party membership, he needed a special waiver from leaders of three of the city's five county-level Republican organizations.

    "Such waivers aren't uncommon in New York City politics. Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped his Republican affiliation in 2007, and then secured permission from party leaders to run on the GOP line for his 2009 re-election."

   "In his attempt to secure the waiver, Mr. Smith enlisted the help of two men he believed to be wealthy developers, the complaint alleged. In fact, one was a developer cooperating with the FBI and the other was an undercover FBI agent."

    "Prosecutors allege that those men paid Mr. Halloran, 42, more than $20,000 in cash to act as an intermediary with the two GOP officials, and $40,000 in total to Messrs. Tabone and Savino, 45, to support a waiver. If Mr. Smith had been elected mayor, the complaint alleged that Mr. Halloran expected to be appointed as a deputy police commissioner or a deputy mayor."

    "In one recorded conversation described in the complaint, Mr. Smith allegedly said that access to the Republican ballot was well worth the tens of thousands of dollars it would cost in bribes."

    "Look, talk to me before you close it," Mr. Smith is quoted as telling an unnamed witness who cooperated with the FBI probe. "But it's worth it," Mr. Smith allegedly said of the bribes. "Because you know how big a deal it is."

     "The complaint also quotes Mr. Smith allegedly instructing an undercover agent on what would need to happen before one Republican leader would receive "even a nickel more."

      This whole thing on one level is just ridiculous. You can't help but laugh at this inept scheme where both his 'wealthy developers" were actually with the FBI. At one point Queens Republican chairman Tabone even searched the FBI agent but was unable to find the wire. 

       "In February, an undercover FBI agent asked Mr. Tabone whether he could deliver the waiver for Mr. Smith to run in the primary. "I run the Queens County Republican Party. Nobody else runs the party," Mr. Tabone told the agent, according to the complaint.

        During that conversation, the complaint describes Mr. Tabone frisking the undercover agent in an apparent search for a recording device. Later that evening, Mr. Tabone allegedly received $25,000 from the agent.

         http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424127887323296504578399043371508184.html?mod=WSJ_NY_MIDDLELEADNewsCollection

          On another level though, it's quite shocking. Not just this case but that Senator Smith and a few other rogue Democrats is the reason we don't have a Democratic Senate here in NY right now. The Democrats won 33 seats with the GOP only winning 30 last November. Yet the GOP still runs the Senate-as it has done with only a couple of exceptions since 1948. 

   

        We know that Democrats won over 50% of the vote for the U.S. House and yet the GOP has a solid House majority thanks to gerrymandering. Here in NY we clearly have our own equivalent of gerrymandering on many different levels. One of those levels of course is literal gerrymandering which is why certain parts of NY City like the Bronx has been added to the Voting Rights Act list of states and locales that have to clear any voting procedural changes with the federal government.