Your morning jolt: New FBI unit takes aim at corrupt state judges, lawmakers in Georgia
A unique way to greet the return of the Legislature to the state Capitol this morning, from Greg Bluestein and the Associated Press:
The FBI has assembled a new squad to investigate corruption among judges and legislators in Georgia, though the top federal agent in the state is being tightlipped about what cases are developing.
Brian Lamkin, who heads the FBI office in Georgia, [said] he decided to form the team after months of reviews and a look at the bureau’s long-term priorities.
Georgia’s FBI office has long used a single squad that handled the brunt of corruption cases, from law enforcement officials to government officials. But Lamkin set up a special team to look into wrongdoing by police and other law enforcement officers and landed string of recent corruption charges. That team will still check out officers while the second new corruption squad will have a different goal, he said.
“It impacts the everyday system. It’s not just a dirty law enforcement officer that might be shaking you down,” he said.
“You’re talking about people that you elect to an office to represent you who try to line their pockets.”
Lamkin will personally sign off on the investigations before they go forward, and high-profile cases will be approved by FBI officials in Washington, he said.
“The reason is a corruption investigation can ruin reputations,” he said. “These are not quick hits. We will use sophisticated techniques and undercover operations to really go after these. That’s why the individuals that work these have to be patient.”
Lamkin wouldn’t say how large the team is, but he said he’s assigned about 40 percent of the staff in the bureau’s white-collar crimes unit to the mission.
The move was welcomed by government officials, who believed state and local funding cuts over the last few years have eroded other investigations.
“I just appreciate it. One of the frustrations you hear is that with the state budget cuts, you don’t have the resources to hire more investigators,” said state Rep. Joe Wilkinson, who chairs the House Ethics Committee. “This brings another much-needed level of scrutiny to the system.”
Fulton County Sheriff Ted Jackson, who has asked the FBI to investigate deputies at the Fulton County Jail for wrongdoing, applauded the new oversight. That probe led to charges in June against four guards accused of smuggling drugs and cell phones into the jail.
***
Jim Burriss and WABE (90.1 FM) report this morning that Delta is backing a compromise in that congressional fight that, only weeks ago, led to a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration:
Now, Delta says it will back a pro-union provision at the heart of the accusations, but with at least one condition. Voting out a union needs to be just as easy as voting one in, says Delta spokeswoman Gina Laughlin.
“We would be supportive of an equal decertification process that gives employees the right to change their minds and to decertify a union in the future,” she [said].
***
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson said he supports the Barack Obama administration’s decision to offer wholesale waivers to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and Georgia’s decision to pursue the same.
From Jon Gillooly and the Marietta Daily Journal:
While a member of the U.S. House, Isakson helped draft No Child Left Behind in 2001.
He believes Adequate Yearly Progress, which serves as a measure of year-to-year student achievement on statewide tests, has served its purpose.
“We put AYP in there, and we knew when we did it that the better schools did that the harder it would be the next year to meet AYP, and that was the intent of it,” Isakson said. “It has served a purpose, and it’s right to offer waivers on AYP.”
***
This weekend, the Fulton County Republican party’s executive committee unanimously adopted a resolution to include all of Buckhead and Sandy Springs into the 6th Congressional District now represented by U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Roswell.
***
Georgia Democrats have scheduled a 9 a.m. rally today at the state Capitol. Topics will include the HOPE scholarship, illegal immigration and redistricting.
***
Gov. Nathan Deal, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Revenue Commissioner Doug MacGinnitie are to announce the winning design for a new state license plate at the Capitol this afternoon. The contest ran up against a bit of controversy earlier this summer after confusion arose over whether the motto “In God We Trust” would be on the new car tag. A new round of voting was required.
***
A House panel studying whether Georgia should allow betting on horse racing is set to hold its first meeting today, with testimony from representatives of various racehorse breed groups.
***
The AJC’s Politifact Georgia today looks at whether – if passed next year by several regional groups – a sales tax for transit funding might be the largest tax increase in Georgia history.
- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider
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39 comments Add your comment
Tom
August 22nd, 2011
9:07 am
Are the Feds going to go after that nutcase drug court judge down in Glynn/Camden?
Centrist
August 22nd, 2011
9:19 am
“You’re talking about people that you elect to an office to represent you who try to line their pockets.”
Well, that quote covers about 90% of politicians.
Mr. KnowitAll
August 22nd, 2011
9:19 am
The simpletons at Fulton Co. GOP that voted that Buckhead be brought into the 6th District are NUTS! 1st, they are going directly against the wishes of the Governor. Tom Price would be NUTS to want to get tangled up into the City of Atlanta quagmire, all the racial divisiveness, and left-wing leaning Buckhead do-gooders that think more taxes are the answer.
Centrist
August 22nd, 2011
9:24 am
“Fulton County Republican party’s executive committee unanimously adopted a resolution to include all of Buckhead and Sandy Springs into the 6th Congressional District now represented by U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Roswell.”
That sure blows away Galloway and AJC well thought out theory posted August 4th & 5th:
“We posited what we thought was a well-thought-out theory of why the Legislature, during the upcoming redistricting session, won’t make the Buckhead portion of Atlanta part of the 6th Congressional District of U.S. Rep. Tom Price, the Republican from Roswell”
Milton Co. NOW
August 22nd, 2011
9:25 am
The community of interests in N. Fulton has absolutely NOTHING to do with Buckhead. The city center of Alpharetta is a Publix, Drug store, Dairy Queen and Oil change place. Same with Roswell, Johns Creek and Milton. It has NOTHING in common wiht Buckhea–and issues of mass transit, congestion, high rise condos, skyscrapers, parking problems, and the Vaseline baby of the city of Atlanta–a complete mess.
What were you thinking!! Good grief!
Red
August 22nd, 2011
9:26 am
You’d think the federal agency that is the FBI would start with investigating those actually at the federal level first. I could think of many judges and elected officials at the federal level that could use this scrutiny. Actually they could start with the boss – Holder needs a little looking into. When the chief law enforcement officer is picking and choosing which laws to enforce, even rigidly, and which ones to just altogether ignore (not due to having the staff levels but just because you don’t think a law is Constitutional) you’d look at what his deal is.
Just Wait
August 22nd, 2011
9:31 am
I’ll bet those FBIes will be a very busy crew. Start with Nathan Deal and all his land deals, Chip Rogers and his hotel, Ralston and his overseas travel. And that’s just a start.
Jack
August 22nd, 2011
9:32 am
I hope this effort will not be limited to the atlanta area. there is a need in the whole state to mae thes people accountable…..
Dumb and Dumber
August 22nd, 2011
9:36 am
Has the statute of limitations on Sonny’s corrupt land deals expired?
JV
August 22nd, 2011
9:38 am
Red is right. One only has to look at the DOJ’s involvement with the ATF Fast and Furious operation. When you piece the puzzle together–the absence of genuine investigative strategies, the lack of goals, objectives and a credible endgame, the ‘secret’ nature of the operation hidden from Congress and the American public, the hidden funding, the warning to frontline ATF agents to stand down and shut up, DOJ’s refusal to submit requested documents to Congress even after the issuance of subpeonas, DOJ/ATF stonewalling, and the denials and coverup that continue even today–well, you get the picture.
mike 'hussein' smith
August 22nd, 2011
9:42 am
1-It always seems to take the FBI to bring down a felonious Georgia politician/judge. I’m glad this special section has been formed since the state government really doesn’t believe in policing the pols.
2-Delta is so used to a tilted playing field in union elections I can understand why, faced with rules giving unions equal rights with management, it wants to wave this silly caveat. As long as elections no longer count workers who do not vote, however, the ballgame is over.
3-Yet another reason to break the Johnny Isakson habit. He forced this AYP crap on American schools and caused Beverly Hall to have conniption fits.
R U Kidding Me?
August 22nd, 2011
9:48 am
The FBI could have a field day if they got serious about investigating corruption under the Gold Dome. Remember a couple of years ago, when supposedly the Feds had an indicted legislator wearing a wire and taping conversations with other legislators about corrupt activities? What ever happened to that? I realize the Fed’s don’t get in a hurry, but it’s been too quiet for to long.
Our former Governor is the most corrupt Governor in modern history. Road deals to increase his property values in Bonaire, contracts with the Ga. Ports Authority while he was a sitting Governor, are just the tip of the iceberg. And Governor Deal seems to be following in his footsteps. Actually I think it’s Deal’s Chief of Staff that is the real problem here. There’s way too much smoke in all of the financial dealings for there not to be any fire. And especially when the State Ethics Commission has a supeona for Deal’s financial records, a supeona approved by Attorney General Olens, and Deal has the Ethics Board dismiss the Executive Director and his only staff member. Come on folks!
The real question in all of this is Where is Sally Yates, the US Attorney in Atlanta? This much corruption going on right under your nose and not a peep out of you. And to top it off, Governor deal appoints Sally’s husband to a state board so that effectively eliminates Ms. yates doing anything because of the conflict of interest. It’s time for the Fed’s to move in and clean up this blatant corruption.
Ghost Rider
August 22nd, 2011
9:50 am
Red:
You are correct. Maybe they should begin with the AG and the head of the ATF who authorized the illegal sale of thousands of weapons to Mexican drug gangs. One of those weapons was used to shoot and kill an American law enforcement officer, and many more of those weapons have shown up at violent crime scenes in the U.S.
Road Scholar
August 22nd, 2011
9:54 am
The state of Ga has an ethics office? What have they done?
Louella
August 22nd, 2011
9:56 am
So apparently cutting the funding to the the State Ethics Commission and getting rid of their two top people drew some attention. Who knew?
Centrist
August 22nd, 2011
10:13 am
The FBI is a good solution because most ethics investigations are politically motivated (like the Executive Secretary who wouldn’t let go of Deal).
Our “Justice” Department is one of the worst when it comes to politicization. I don’t think it has infected the FBI, but I could be wrong in that impression.
honested
August 22nd, 2011
10:40 am
Louella
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a huge push among the majority in the legislature to carefully purge every reference to ‘ethics’ from all laws and regulations.
How else can ‘the great leap backwards’ be accomplished.
Good luck FBI!
eatmotacos
August 22nd, 2011
10:55 am
@centrist
“Our “Justice” Department is one of the worst when it comes to politicization……”
I bet the “Justice” Department was one of the best when “W” was pres…..
CobbGOPer
August 22nd, 2011
10:57 am
I’m ok with this (the new FBI unit), the problem is they will take so long to investigate that nothing useful will happen until Nathan Deal is quietly retired on some Hall County farm, too senile to face prosecution. And Sonny will be playing harps in the sky before they get around to investigating his doings, if at all.
n
August 22nd, 2011
11:01 am
For decades Georgia has operated on the principle of freewheeling greed. Republicans and Democrats sought elected office only to find new and more efficient methods to bilk the taxpayers and line their pockets. Cronyism and self-dealing were standard operating procedure, and elected officials who didn’t play the game were considered hopelessly naive and stupid.
The Democrats were awful, the Republicans are equally awful, but so new to power and so heady with their own omnipotence and importance that they don’t even bother to cover their tracks.
If we operate like a banana republic, where insiders profiteer and neglect all other aspects of rational governing and the public’s business in favor of their own enrichment, we will slide into economic oblivion. It has already happened.
We need several high profile prosecutions to convince folks that running for office means something other than working day in and day out to line your pockets and those of your cronies.
fred
August 22nd, 2011
11:19 am
well the better hide the president so the FBI doesn’t find him…
RD
August 22nd, 2011
11:30 am
What? There’s corruption in the State of GA?
The Ethics Commission is toothless and a waste of taxpayers money. If you want to do it right, rid it of the pols and let the citizens and law enforcement types run this organization. If GA did this, we could clean up the mess at the Capital.
Just wondering
August 22nd, 2011
11:37 am
Glad to see it, but are they going to run rampant like they did in the Alapaha Circuit where a lot of people where accussed wrongfully. Such as filing bogus indictments and such! My question, who watched the corrupt FBI agents?
Disgusted Voter
August 22nd, 2011
11:42 am
FBI after corrupt politicians in Georgia? Goody! They are going to have their hands full. Hopefully, the Federal Pens too! Sic ‘Em!
jeff
August 22nd, 2011
12:03 pm
Mr. KnowitAll, clearly you know nothing. There are tons of hardcore Repubs in Buckhead. You need to get out more.
The Talker
August 22nd, 2011
12:13 pm
Great news! Where do they start? Howabout the airport, and its concession contracts? Wasn’t Shirley Franklin’s hubby in charge of that?
The Talker
August 22nd, 2011
12:18 pm
It’s gonna be a long and winding road. Let the politicians enjoy the real prison life. Yeah! Finally, they will work “For the people” (though for maybe only 25C per hour). But only if their ties are weaker than the FBI…We’ll see…
sliderule
August 22nd, 2011
12:52 pm
Maybe if they find any honest politicians they will let us know.
Jackie
August 22nd, 2011
1:15 pm
Yes, the judges in Fulton County need to be investigated. I went before a worker’s comp. judge and even those I had all the paperwork to back what I said. She agreed with my supervisor that he didn’t know I had surgery. But this man sign my leave form the whole while I was out of work. Then he replaced me on the job with his friend. So in other words I was fired and the EEOC and the Labor Board told me it was nothing I could do. I got hurt on the job and is not able to work and have had two surgeries on my hand and shoulder. I was told by the Appeal Courts that they couldn’t overturn the judge decision. But I know that was not true. It was because I worked for Fulton County. So we need the FBI to look into this and do something about it. Out of work with no income and about to lose everything I have.
Cobbian
August 22nd, 2011
1:41 pm
“…that Delta is backing a compromise in that congressional fight that, only weeks ago, led to a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration.”
Well, okay. I will again consider Delta is making flight plans. And, that was a good compromise – whatever procedures let the union get in also gets the union out. Recent round trip to New York – I would not even look at Delta prices. Small stuff, I know. But, other than writing my congressmen, that was all I could do.
ZooMan
August 22nd, 2011
2:50 pm
I would think the FBI could make a case for arresting nearly all judges, prosecutors, as well as our governor and governor junior (cagle) for lies and corruption.
Ma Desauliers
August 22nd, 2011
3:39 pm
One has only to read the book by attorney Alec Charns called CLOAK and GAVEL to look at how
FBI agents worked behind the scenes to fix cases at the Supreme Court level.
FBI agents also worked hard to make sure they got their man appointed to the Supreme Court.
They wanted to make sure whoever got the appointment reflected the views and needs of American corporations.
Ms Freeh
August 22nd, 2011
3:44 pm
Vol. 2 No. 11 (November, 1992) pp. 187-188
CLOAK AND GAVEL: FBI WIRETAPS, BUGS, INFORMERS, AND THE SUPREME COURT by Alexander Charns. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois, 1992. 206 pp. Cloth $24.95.
Reviewed by David M. O’Brien, Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia.
This engaging and often disturbing book sheds new light on the illegal and unethical activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), along with some Supreme Court justices’ highly questionable associations and unethical collaboration with the bureau. Based primarily on FBI files, Alexander Charns, a practicing attorney, begins by recounting his eight year-long litigation battle to force the bureau to release under the Freedom of Information Act its files on the Supreme Court and individual justices. In addition, Charns draws on several of the justices’ papers at the Library of Congress and, notably, obtained access to Justice Abe Fortas’s papers, which are located at Yale University and closed to the public until the year 2000.
The obsession of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover with combating Communism and Left-wing “subversives” through infiltration, wiretapping, and bugging has been well documented elsewhere. But, the extent to which Hoover directed his campaign at the Court has not received much attention. That, of course, has been largely because the FBI’s files have remained secret. And that is where Charns’s persistence and research makes a genuine contribution. His story of the FBI and federal judges’ collaboration remains far from complete, to be sure, due to the bureau’s secret filing systems, destruction of records, and censorship of materials that have been made available. Yet, Charns reveals that Hoover made it a practice to try to curry favor with some justices, to promote or cut short the careers of others, and to otherwise influence the federal judiciary. Moreover, between 1945 and 1974 at least twelve justices were overheard in more than 100 wiretapped conversations and Charns establishes some highly inappropriate connections between Hoover and members of the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.
Not surprisingly, as with much of the Washington community Hoover sought covert access to and influence in the Court. And as the Warren Court moved in more liberal directions when dealing with alleged Communists in the 1950s and then the rights of the accused in the 1960s, Hoover became increasingly concerned. Hoover persuaded Court employees to inform FBI agents about the Court’s deliberations, for example, in the case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Later, he directed an investigation of Earl Warren and maintained files on Justice William 0. Douglas, among other justices, that included material obtained through unauthorized wiretaps. On the basis the latter material, according to Charns, Hoover may have dissuaded President Harry Truman from elevating Justice Douglas to chief justice in 1946. But, on this score Charns’s evidence appears weak and circumstantial. And the competing influences and pressures on Truman when naming his friend Fred Vinson to the Court’s center chair are greater and more complex that Charns concedes. In illuminating detail, however, Charns recounts how almost two decades later Hoover armed Representative Gerald R. Ford with his file on Douglas prior to Ford’s bungled attempt to impeach the justice in the House of Representatives.
More revealing and disturbing is Charns’s reconstruction of events in 1966 when Hoover managed to persuade Justice Abe Fortas, whom he once considered a “sniveling liberal,” to keep FBI agents abreast of the Court’s deliberations in a pending case. The case involved the bureau’s unauthorized bugging of the hotel room of Washington lobbyist Fred Black, a close friend of Bobby Baker, who — like Justice Fortas — was one of President Lyndon Johnson’s intimate associates. Although Justice Fortas recused himself from the case, this story of judicial impropriety comprises the heart of Charns’s book and adds another chapter to the volumes already written about Justice Fortas’s indiscretions and improper activities on and off the bench.
Page 188 follows:
Admittedly, as a relentless foe of the FBI and advocate-turned-author, Charns occasionally gets carried away. The significance of the FBI’s assisting various justices in making travel arrangements, running background checks on potential law clerks and judicial fellows, or helping Chief Justice Warren Burger bring Oriental rugs back to the United States from England in 1985, for instance, appears highly debatable.
Still, Charns makes a strong case for his claim that “An FBI report on a nominee’s background should be viewed with as much skepticism as reports submitted by other interest groups.” (p. 130) He does so by revealing Hoover’s directives in the 1950s to FBI field offices to identify potential judicial nominees who appear friendly to the bureau, and which turned up the likes of Potter Stewart and Warren E. Burger. Charns also highlights the importance of the FBI’s uneven reports on judicial nominees and their selective use by the bureau, as well as the FBI’s occasional memos to Department of Justice attorneys suggesting that they forum shop in order to have cases heard by judges known to be sympathetic to the bureau.
Finally, and even more disturbing than Justice Fortas’s indiscretions and some other revelations, is the evidence Charns unearths concerning Chief Justice Burger’s links with the FBI and federal Judge Edward Tamm (a former FBI assistant director) and their efforts to recruit former FBI agents as court administrators. Alas, Charns does not fully explore these connections or what he terms Chief Justice Burger’s “hidden political agenda” (p. 124) in pushing reforms in the area of judicial administration. But, his book is the place for others to begin. And his documentation of the unethical and at times illegal activities of those within the FBI and the federal judiciary underscores his concluding recommendations that the working papers of both the bureau and the justices ought to be made public after a reasonable period of time. Unfortunately, Charns’s book may well contribute to precisely the opposite result: former justices destroying or censoring papers before making their collections available as public records, just as has been the FBI’s practice.
VoiceOfReason
August 22nd, 2011
6:34 pm
I so hope they nail Cobb county judge Flournoy. He is Roy Barnes finger puppet and a disgrace to the judicial system!
Ms Freeh
August 22nd, 2011
7:56 pm
FBI Agent Accused Of Masturbating In Public
May 25, 2007 09:02 PM
FBI Agent Accused Of Masturbating In Public
Posted by, Marissa Pasquet KOLD News 13 News Editor
FBI Special Agent Ryan Seese, 34, is facing sex offense charges after a cleaning woman said she found him masturbating in a women’s lavatory on campus, according to a University of Arizona police spokesman.
Big Hat
August 22nd, 2011
9:27 pm
Good ol’ we’re-just-family Delta; after Flight 191 bought the farm in Dallas, Delta’s lawyers tried to weasel out of damages by saying that any male over 30 who wasn’t married was “probably a homosexual and was going to die of AIDS soon anyway” so no need to award their families any money. Southern (fried) family values at their finest.
trying to run our state
August 22nd, 2011
10:00 pm
Looks like they are going to try and run our state. Hope the legislature passes laws making it illegal for any agency fed,state or local to interfer with our affairs. Like it is to interfer in an investigaion. Where were they when Purdue tried to cut his back door deals.
Ms Freeh
August 22nd, 2011
11:16 pm
FBI Agent Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse
Tuesday February 17, 2004 11:46 PM
By JOHN SOLOMON
WASHINGTON (AP) – The former chief internal watchdog at the FBI has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl and has admitted he had a history of molesting other children before he joined the bureau for what became a two-decade career.
John H. Conditt Jr., 53, who retired in 2001, was sentenced last week to 12 years in prison in Tarrant County court in Fort Worth, Texas, after he admitted he molested the daughter of two FBI agents after he retired. He acknowledged molesting at least two other girls before he began his law enforcement career, his lawyer said.
February 22, 2007
SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. A F.B.I. analyst has been sentenced to seven years in prison for having sex with a young girl in Spotsylvania County.
Forty-four-year-old Anthony John Lesko entered an Alford plea yesterday in Spotsylvania County Circuit Court to nine counts of felony indecent liberties upon a child. An Alford plea means Lesko doesn’t admit guilt but believes there is enough evidence for a conviction.
Authorities say Lesko engaged in a sex act with her nine times, beginning when she was nine years old.
According to the plea, Lesko said he was a victim in the case. He said the girl initiated the contact.
victim of the mountain circuit
August 23rd, 2011
9:51 pm
The FBI needs to start with corrupt judges. I know where, the Mountain Circuit along with the Piedmont & Northeastern Circuits. My civil case was rampant with corruption that ran from Toccoa to Gainesville to Winder. It isn’t just the judges and senior judges, it the attorneys too. Open a can of worms and everyone in the judicial system will make it their life’s journey to try to ruin you. Call me FBI, I could write a book!!!
about the good ol’ boys in NE GA!