It has been a backburner story among the other more publicized firings, but it appears that is about to change. An article from BradBlog connects the dots with well-sourced accusations that Blunt apparently misspent $20,000 in campaign funds to cover personal legal fees, that Congressman Sam Graves and his brother, former U. S. Attorney Todd Graves are connected to the license fee scandal, and of the involvement of powerful law firm Lathrop & Gage. The post concludes by noting:
We hope the folks in both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees might find these pointers useful, even as we hope to offer more in the near future on all of this. "No Underlying Crime"? Only if someone slipped another new provision into the PATRIOT Act making it legal to politically interfere with ongoing criminal investigations.
Ironically, Cummins investigation was wrapped up in October of 2006, with no charges being brought. But we'd suggest there are more than enough grounds for a fresh investigation into the attempts to scuttle the original one in the first place, and the plan that led to Cummins having his legs cut out from under him mid-course.
2 comments:
Your comment "in the middle of an investigation" then from your own source...
"Cummins investigation was wrapped up in October of 2006, with no charges being brought." See the problem here?
From www.firedupmissouri.com dated 1/17/07:
"Whatever the stated intentions of the White House, the facts of the matter are as follows: a spokeswoman for Cummins office inadvertently confirmed the investigation of Blunt's fee offices in a story published May 1, 2006; the conclusion of the investigation was announced by Cummins on October 4, 2006. There is no question, then, that when high-level officials in the Bush Justice Department asked for Cummins resignation in June, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, the investigation of Blunt was still ongoing."
This account would seem to suggest that Cummins was fired in June 06 after the investigation of Gov. Blunt was publicized in the SBJ in May 06. Cummins concluded the investigation in Oct 06 before his replacement came on board, but this leaves the impression that the pressure from Washington had some bearing on his failure to find impropriety in his investigation of the fee office scandal.
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