March 2, 2007

 

From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:

 

 

Judicial Watch Holds Illegal Immigration Educational Panel at the National Press Club

 

Yesterday morning, Judicial Watch hosted an exciting panel on illegal immigration at the National Press Club entitled, “Local Governments and Illegal Immigration.”  Joining me on the panel was Mayor Louis Barletta of Hazelton, Pennsylvania, Starletta Hairston, former Beaufort County, South Carolina, Council Member and Virginia Delegate Jackson H. Miller, who each shared personal accounts of the effect illegal immigration has had on them and on their communities, as well as the importance of local government in the fight against illegal immigration. 

 

The discussion focused on the need for local governments to step up to the plate and take on the escalating problem of illegal immigration, then addressed the issue of whether federal government programs will make a difference in the struggles of local community leaders against illegal immigration.

 

I cannot do justice to this enormously successful panel in the space of this update, so check the “Watch and Listen” page of Judicial Watch’s Internet site soon as the panel will be available for viewing in the coming week.  In the meantime, please take a few minutes to read the opening statement I prepared for the panel discussion.  And spread the word, as more Americans would benefit from learning more about this cutting-edge topic.  If you’d like to read more about Judicial Watch’s fight against illegal immigration, please click here to visit our Internet site.

 

 

Hillary Clinton’s Brother in Court Again

 

Hillary Clinton’s ethical misdeeds have, yet again, come back to haunt her as she gears up her presidential campaign.  (The Boston Globe ran an important story earlier this week on Pardongate, which was widely picked up by other media outlets.)  The New York Senator’s brother, Tony Rodham, is back in court after being ordered to repay more than $100,000 that he received as payment for a pardon from then-President Clinton.  Rodham was ordered by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Marian Harrison of Nashville to respond to the allegations that he never repaid the “loan.”

 

Update readers will remember the March 2000 pardon by former President Clinton of Vonna Jo Gregory, and her husband, Edgar Gregory, Jr., for a 1982 band fraud conviction. (Mr. Gregory passed away in 2004.)  After the pardon was issued, Hillary Clinton's brother, Anthony Rodham, who helped broker the pardon deal, received $107,000 in "loans" from United Shows International, the Gregory's company.  Judicial Watch filed a complaint with the Department of Justice over the issue, but received a letter back saying the Department of Justice would not be bothered to investigate the Clinton pardons again. 

 

(Hillary’s other brother, Hugh Rodham, allegedly received $400,000 in payments from two convicted felons for securing pardons from former President Clinton, but Hillary said that she and the former president had no idea that Hugh had received the money.)

 

Last week, a Hollywood liberal activist caused the media to raise questions surrounding the last-minute pardons and commuted sentences given in exchange for large campaign donations.  The issue, which also caused a stir at the beginning of Hillary’s 2001 Senate campaign, seems highly unlikely to die down anytime soon.

 

Hillary is, of course, free to run for president, but she is not free from the legal and ethical rules under which all elected officials must operate.  In addition to Pardongate, we have many other questions regarding the other Clinton scandals.  You can bet we’ll be pushing for answers. 

 

 

Dollar Bill Jefferson Back in the Spotlight

 

William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson, the Democratic Louisiana Congressman allegedly found with $90,000 in bribery money stuffed in his freezer, has not only thus far escaped significant punishment… he is set to serve a key House committee position. 

 

House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reportedly are planning to appoint Jefferson to a seat on the Homeland Security Committee.  “This is a terrible mistake by the Democratic leadership, to take someone with serious ethical allegations against him and put him on one of the most sensitive and important committees in Congress," said Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.) in a Washington Post article.

 

Obviously, Speaker Pelosi has a concern or two about Jefferson’s unethical past as she removed him from the House Ways and Means Committee in June after the bribery money was discovered by FBI agents in his home.  (Jefferson allegedly was given the money after brokering a corrupt deal with a Nigerian communications company.)  After losing his seat on the Committee, however, Jefferson faced no further consequences or charges.

 

The Speaker of the House, after a lot of talk about cleaning up a corrupt Capitol Hill, is failing to live up to her word.  She vowed to clean up corruption, but supported scandal-ridden John Murtha as House Majority Leader and even considered placing the impeached and indebted Alcee Hastings as the Chairmanship of the House Select Committee (she backed away from Hastings after intense Judicial Watch and other public pressure).  She also promised to end abuses of power by the majority party in the House, but demanded a taxpayer funded military luxury jet to shuttle her between D.C. and her San Francisco district.  All this smacks a bit of hypocrisy, don’t you think?

 

 

Until next week…

 

 

 

Tom Fitton
President

 

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