Rapoport To Feds: Fess Up
by Christine Stuart | Aug 2, 2012 2:13pm
(10) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Congress, Courts, Election 2012, Legal
Former Secretary of the State Miles Rapoport wants to know why the U.S. Attorney’s haven’t given Connecticut residents any evidence of how its investigation involving Waterbury’s roll-your-own tobacco stores and Chris Donovan’s congressional campaign began.
It’s a question that’s been left hanging since the arrest of Chris Donovan’s former finance director at the end of May.
Donovan is one of three Democrats vying for the party’s nomination Aug. 14 in the 5th Congressional District, which covers the western portion of the state.
Rapoport, who has been watching the episode from New York where he heads Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization, is a Donovan supporter.
“It is astonishing to me that so little curiosity has been expressed in the press about where this investigation came from and how it unfolded,” Rapoport said in a statement Thursday. “That question is critically important in understanding what has happened, but has gotten almost no attention.”
Rapoport believes it would be “tragic if an excellent and unblemished 20 year political career were fatally damaged by a disgraceful dirty trick, only to find out when it is too late.”
As a political observer, Rapoport fears that will happen if the federal government doesn’t step forward to reveal what it knows about the case which started with a complaint against Robert Braddock Jr., Donovan’s former finance director.
That complaint detailed conversations between an undercover FBI agent posing as an investor in a roll-your-own tobacco shop.
That complaint and the superseding indictments offer up no indication about how the FBI was tipped off to the alleged scheme where smoke shop owners were using straw donors to funnel nearly $30,000 to Donovan’s congressional campaign in order to defeat legislation.
But there are still more questions than answer two months after the first arrest was made. In total eight people have been charged and all but one have pleaded not guilty.
“Where did this tempest come from?“ Rapoport wondered.
“Why did the US Attorney choose to undertake this investigation of roll your own tobacco shops in Waterbury, and why did the FBI take such an active role in posing as tobacco shop owners and offering money?,” he said. “Who benefits from this scandal? Is there any connection between the US Attorney’s office and any other candidates? Are there connections between any participants in the scheme and any other candidates? Shouldn’t we be troubled by the laser like precision and timing of the indictments and arrests?”
Thomas Carson, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office, declined comment.
While Rapoport sees an opportunity here for a broader discussion on campaign finance issues, he chose to focus on what he believes is a more urgent issue with the primary just 13 days away.
“But the narrower, yet urgent issue, so close to the election, is to understand this particular scandal more deeply,“ Rapoport said. “It behooves every reporter covering these issues to ask these questions—now, not later—and every voter in the Democratic primary to consider these questions as well.”
(10) Comments
posted by: Archie Bunker1 | August 3, 2012 8:38am
Oh Thank you Miles for your 2 cents. Laws have been broken and, as such, indictments have been handed down and you are screaming: “Hey…who ratted”??? Go back to sleep.
posted by: PsiCop | August 3, 2012 10:50am
When a driver is stopped for speeding, no doubt s/he wonders why the cop stopped him/her rather than any of the other speeding drivers on the road. That doesn’t mean s/he wasn’t speeding, though. It just means s/he’s upset over being stopped.
The cold fact is that CT is steeped in corruption. The feds wouldn’t have to go far within the state capitol to find someone on the take.
As for the “chilling effect” Rapoport alludes to ... I’m all for it! I want CT officials to have to wonder if the feds are watching them. I want them to be nervous. I want them to wonder if they’ll be the next targets. The more fearful they are of being caught, the stronger the incentive for them to not be crooked.
Rapoport may not like that, but as a CT government “insider,” he’s part of the problem, and his crybaby whining really doesn’t concern me one iota.
posted by: DrHunterSThompson | August 3, 2012 11:19am
“unblemished 20 year political career”? Who’s he talking about?
HST
posted by: Archie Bunker1 | August 3, 2012 12:01pm
Miles Rapoport is a nickel that thinks he’s a quarter.
posted by: JAM | August 3, 2012 12:44pm
This sounds like a paranoid imagination run wild.
Last I checked the US Attorney is appointed by the US AG who is part of the Obama DEMOCRATIC Administration.
Is he suggesting that the Obama Administration set up Donovan?
Why? They don’t like Labor backed candidates? They want to throw a heavily favored Democratic win up for grabs?
There are some fairly serious allegations in this case that reach right into the LOB, and this guy worries about dirty tricks.
My suggestion is that Miles needs to get more rest.
posted by: Matt Zagaja | August 3, 2012 1:28pm
I think Rappaport asks the right questions. However it’s hard to believe that there was any sort of trick going on here. Regardless of the source or motive of the people that bribed the Donovan campaign, the campaign should have declined their money.
posted by: iamjh | August 3, 2012 1:36pm
The question of how this all got started is crucial, because it raises the issue of targeting Donovan for political reasons. It must have been a breeze for the FBI to entrap dim-witted Ray Soucy—who then ensnared Donovan campaign operatives with an idea that seems to have started with the FBI. If staffers engaged in the conspiracy, they deserve punishment. But it’s unsettling (and maybe illegal) if the idea for the crime was initiated by the FBI. Why Donovan?
posted by: Archie Bunker1 | August 3, 2012 3:12pm
iamjh… Your comment suggests that this may be entrapment if Donovan was the target of a political probe. Although I disagree, lets suppose that that is exactly what started this chain of events. Lets assume that, for whatever reasons, Donovan is the ultimate target… and????? Laws have been broken…from the dim wit to the Waterbury pals…to the campaign. To date, eight people appear culpable in various campaign finance law violations. The FBI appears to have found out about it and approached the weakest link… I call it good law enforcement. But even if it is a political witchhunt…..it appears that Donovans people have given them fodder. Shame on them…not shame on the ones that caught them.
posted by: iamjh | August 4, 2012 10:47am
Archie—I would say shame on them all. Of course, most of the eight indicted were not employees of Donovan’s campaign. They were roll-your-own shop owners or employees, and maybe a Waterbury cop(?). Two union guys too.
But do you want law enforcement agencies setting out to test you or other citizens on whether you’ll agree to participate in a crime that law enforcement agents initiated themselves for the test? People worried about intrusive government ought to consider the implications.