Thursday, December 12, 2013

John Doe's Southern Cousin

It seems that Scott Walker is no longer the only Republican governor with members of the Doe family on his trail.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal looks like he's got problems with John Doe's south cousin:
The subpoenas show federal authorities want any documents related to an investigation by the
ethics commission of Deal’s campaign finances and disclosures during his 2010 run for governor, but they reveal nothing about the scope of the inquiry. Deal, a Republican, was cleared of major charges in the state ethics commission probe. He agreed in a July 2012 settlement to pay $3,350 in administrative fees to resolve violations of campaign finance and disclosure laws.

The commission’s handling of the Deal investigation has been at the center of two lawsuits by former employees. Former commission executive secretary Stacey Kalberman and her deputy Sherry Streicker claim the ethics commission cut Kalberman’s salary by about 30 percent and eliminated Streicker’s position as they were seeking to gain approval from commissioners to issue subpoenas in the Deal case.
Sworn statements in those lawsuits have included allegations the governor’s office helped recruit LaBerge, a former lobbyist for the Georgia Public Defender’s Standards Council, and that she later claimed the governor “owes her” for taking care of the complaints.

Deal has said previously he doesn’t know LaBerge and doesn’t owe her anything.

LaBerge said in a court deposition that she was initially contacted by the governor’s office to see if she was interested in the position. Deal has said it’s common for his office to recommend potential candidates for state positions.

Murray-Obertein has provided sworn statements in the two civil cases and her attorney previously confirmed that Murray-Obertein had been contacted several times by the FBI. In a September interview, Murray-Obertein said she initially recommended up to $70,000 in fines against Deal to resolve the ethics complaints and thought a few of the cases needed further investigation.

Murray-Obertein claimed LaBerge has, on more than one occasion, said the governor “owes her” for taking care of his ethics complaints and met frequently with the governor’s chief of staff and office legal counsel to discuss the ethics complaints. Deal has said those meetings were to discuss efforts by state lawmakers to implement ethics reform.

Former ethics commission employee John Hair, who has said he was forced out of his job, previously told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV that he was instructed to remove some documents from the Deal case file. Hair has not responded to phone calls seeking comment.
Hmmm. Campaign finance irregularities, cronyism gone bad, ethical violations and cover ups. Now why does all that sound familiar?

It should be noted that this issue is already being handled by the feds, while the ongoing investigations into Walker and his allies are still being handled on a county level.

 At least that we know of.

H/T to Anomaly at Freak Out Nation

1 comment:

  1. Birds of a feather flock together.......... Looks like the GOP is nothing but a Pig pen and smells like one!!!

    ReplyDelete