http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/20000515_xex_kennedy_targ.shtml
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Kennedy targets DeLay
with gangster law
Lawsuit charges majority whip
with extortion, racketeering
Editor's note: In collaboration with the hard-hitting
Washington, D.C., newsweekly Human Events,
WorldNetDaily brings you this special report every
Monday. Readers can subscribe to Human Events
through WND's on-line store.
By Joseph A. D'Agostino
© 2000, Human Events
Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., son of Sen. Edward
Kennedy, D-Mass., has filed suit against House Majority
Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and a group of DeLay's
conservative allies, alleging that their fundraising activities
violate the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act (RICO), a law designed to help
federal lawmakers prosecute mobsters.
Republicans around Washington believe Kennedy's suit is
a transparently political and frivolous act designed to
retaliate against DeLay for his successful effort in leading
the Republican-controlled House to impeach President
Clinton.
Just in case they missed any potential defendant,
Kennedy and the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee named 20 "John Does" as possible
anonymous co-conspirators with DeLay.
The official complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia, has been assigned to Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson -- the same judge overseeing
the Microsoft case.
The suit alleges that "DeLay, his agents and/or others
acting at DeLay's direction and on his behalf, including
the Doe defendants, have engaged in a scheme to extort
political contributions from individuals and entities with
interests before Congress and to avoid otherwise
applicable reporting requirements relating to donors and
political contributions and expenditures."
"This is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate us,"
said Tony Rudy, DeLay's deputy chief of staff. "Why are
they targeting conservative donors? And how does the
DCCC have any standing? The people they claim were
being extorted aren't suing."
Not all Democrats think this suit is a good idea.
Pennsylvania Representatives John Murtha and Paul
Kanjorski told the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call that
they oppose it.
Former Clinton aide Paul Begala wrote in the New York
Times, slipping in a defense of his impeached former
boss, "The congressional Democrats' racketeering lawsuit
against Tom DeLay, the House majority whip, is wrong,
ethically, legally and politically. The suit, which charges
Mr. DeLay with extortion, racketeering and money
laundering in his aggressive fund-raising for Republicans,
represents everything I hated about the politics of
personal destruction as it was waged against President
Clinton."
The suit claims that DeLay had three illegal goals:
Make PACs and "other entities with interests
before Congress" sever their ties to the
Democratic Party and Democratic candidates.
"ncrease the financial support of Republican
candidates and party organizations by those PACs
and other entities."
"[F]acilitate the receipt of funds through the
scheme, and in part to remove the sources and
destinations of those funds from public view."
The complaint claims that DeLay and his agents
advanced these goals by threatening "the PACs and other
entities that if they did not contribute to Republican
candidates and party organizations and sever or curtail
their support of Democratic candidates and party
organizations, they would not receive favorable treatment
by the Republican majority in Congress."
The DCCC also charged that three tax-exempt groups
are used by DeLay's friends in order to evade the laws
regulating political action committees. Kennedy and
company claim that these groups are, in fact, PACs.
The three groups are the U.S. Family Network,
Americans for Economic Growth -- both of which are
501(c)(4) advocacy groups -- and the Republican
Majority Issues Committee, organized under the law 26
USC 527, which allows the organization to support
political issues, but not political candidates.
At a May 3 press conference, Robert Bauer, lead
counsel for the DCCC, admitted he had no evidence,
other than press reports, to support the allegation that
DeLay or his associates threatened adverse
congressional treatment for groups that did not
contribute. And a DCCC press release all but admitted
the suit was a fishing expedition: "DCCC plans to mount
an aggressive discovery effort to expand upon the facts in
the complaint about DeLay's illegal conduct and to lay
bare before the court the activities of the enterprise."
Bauer and Kennedy also conceded that, despite their
requests, the House Ethics Committee, the Federal
Election Commission, and even the Clinton Justice
Department have refused to take any substantive action
against DeLay or the three groups.
Karl Gallant, who runs the Republican Majority Issues
Committee, said, "This is a high-risk suit. Patrick
Kennedy equates political speech with crime. If this
lawsuit succeeds, there will be a multitude of copycat
lawsuits against liberal groups."
[/quote]
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Kennedy targets DeLay
with gangster law
Lawsuit charges majority whip
with extortion, racketeering
Editor's note: In collaboration with the hard-hitting
Washington, D.C., newsweekly Human Events,
WorldNetDaily brings you this special report every
Monday. Readers can subscribe to Human Events
through WND's on-line store.
By Joseph A. D'Agostino
© 2000, Human Events
Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., son of Sen. Edward
Kennedy, D-Mass., has filed suit against House Majority
Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and a group of DeLay's
conservative allies, alleging that their fundraising activities
violate the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act (RICO), a law designed to help
federal lawmakers prosecute mobsters.
Republicans around Washington believe Kennedy's suit is
a transparently political and frivolous act designed to
retaliate against DeLay for his successful effort in leading
the Republican-controlled House to impeach President
Clinton.
Just in case they missed any potential defendant,
Kennedy and the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee named 20 "John Does" as possible
anonymous co-conspirators with DeLay.
The official complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia, has been assigned to Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson -- the same judge overseeing
the Microsoft case.
The suit alleges that "DeLay, his agents and/or others
acting at DeLay's direction and on his behalf, including
the Doe defendants, have engaged in a scheme to extort
political contributions from individuals and entities with
interests before Congress and to avoid otherwise
applicable reporting requirements relating to donors and
political contributions and expenditures."
"This is nothing more than an attempt to intimidate us,"
said Tony Rudy, DeLay's deputy chief of staff. "Why are
they targeting conservative donors? And how does the
DCCC have any standing? The people they claim were
being extorted aren't suing."
Not all Democrats think this suit is a good idea.
Pennsylvania Representatives John Murtha and Paul
Kanjorski told the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call that
they oppose it.
Former Clinton aide Paul Begala wrote in the New York
Times, slipping in a defense of his impeached former
boss, "The congressional Democrats' racketeering lawsuit
against Tom DeLay, the House majority whip, is wrong,
ethically, legally and politically. The suit, which charges
Mr. DeLay with extortion, racketeering and money
laundering in his aggressive fund-raising for Republicans,
represents everything I hated about the politics of
personal destruction as it was waged against President
Clinton."
The suit claims that DeLay had three illegal goals:
Make PACs and "other entities with interests
before Congress" sever their ties to the
Democratic Party and Democratic candidates.
"ncrease the financial support of Republican
candidates and party organizations by those PACs
and other entities."
"[F]acilitate the receipt of funds through the
scheme, and in part to remove the sources and
destinations of those funds from public view."
The complaint claims that DeLay and his agents
advanced these goals by threatening "the PACs and other
entities that if they did not contribute to Republican
candidates and party organizations and sever or curtail
their support of Democratic candidates and party
organizations, they would not receive favorable treatment
by the Republican majority in Congress."
The DCCC also charged that three tax-exempt groups
are used by DeLay's friends in order to evade the laws
regulating political action committees. Kennedy and
company claim that these groups are, in fact, PACs.
The three groups are the U.S. Family Network,
Americans for Economic Growth -- both of which are
501(c)(4) advocacy groups -- and the Republican
Majority Issues Committee, organized under the law 26
USC 527, which allows the organization to support
political issues, but not political candidates.
At a May 3 press conference, Robert Bauer, lead
counsel for the DCCC, admitted he had no evidence,
other than press reports, to support the allegation that
DeLay or his associates threatened adverse
congressional treatment for groups that did not
contribute. And a DCCC press release all but admitted
the suit was a fishing expedition: "DCCC plans to mount
an aggressive discovery effort to expand upon the facts in
the complaint about DeLay's illegal conduct and to lay
bare before the court the activities of the enterprise."
Bauer and Kennedy also conceded that, despite their
requests, the House Ethics Committee, the Federal
Election Commission, and even the Clinton Justice
Department have refused to take any substantive action
against DeLay or the three groups.
Karl Gallant, who runs the Republican Majority Issues
Committee, said, "This is a high-risk suit. Patrick
Kennedy equates political speech with crime. If this
lawsuit succeeds, there will be a multitude of copycat
lawsuits against liberal groups."
[/quote]
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
