Breaking: Doolittle Paid Tom Delay’s Legal Fees out of State Acct,Roseville CM Implicated

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

(Of all the things I never expected to see today, this has me absolutely gobsmacked. If you are an Abramoff Scandal Junkie, Read On ! )

In case you haven’t been keeping up with the ex Rep. John Doolittle (CA-04) and his wife, Julie’s, fallout from his involvement with Jack Abramoff, Kevin RIng, a lobbyist associate at Greenberg Traurig with Jack Abramoff, has finally gone to Federal trial on conspiracy charges to bribe a public official this past September.  Ring was also a lobbyist for the local City of Lincoln in CA-04, in Placer County, Doolittle’s district.  Ring did not testify in his own defense, and several of the witnesses refused to also, pleading the 5th against self incrimination because the Feds wouldn’t grant them immunity.  The trial has gone to jury this week, and the jury has been deliberating for 3 days with no verdict yet.  

This, in local parlance, is waiting for the Other Shoe To Drop for our ex Republican Abramoff Scandal Encrusted Congressman, Doolittle, and his wife, Julie, who had been taking 15% of all of his campaign contributions as a “fundraiser’s fee.”   Julie had a one woman “business” she called “Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions,” which is where that 15% cut went into.

Tonight, while checking the local Sacramento Bee, I noticed this little story:

10/7/09 Roseville city manager placed on paid leave

Roseville City Manager W. Craig Robinson has been placed on paid leave Wednesday.  “We are not discussing any details of it. They met in closed session,” MacPherson said.

Robinson accepted the city manager’s job in February 2003. He’s been with the city since 1989.

Robinson will continue to receive his $273,000 annual salary.  http://www.sacbee.com/topstori…

Oh, local intrigue with another player in the Doolittle saga of shakedowns of local developers. Roseville is just to the south of Lincoln. Must check the donations.  Wait until you see this one.

 Before we start, Craig Robinson is not the same person as Richard “Chuck” Robinson, who used to be Rep. John Doolittle’s chief of staff.  Roseville, CA, has been one of the fastest growing cities in the entire nation in the past decade, where developers have turned a little northern CA burg into a major suburban sprawldivision of many McMansions and shopping malls, dominated by retirement subdivisions and now capped on each end by 2 new Indian Casinos.

Searching federal FEC records drew a blank for Craig Robinson, but city data showed he had one $500 to Doolittle, so it must be somewhere else-  so I tried the state records at cal access.  

____________

Contributor

W. Craig Robinson

City of Roseville Manager

Roseville CA 95747  

Recipient:  Superior California Leadership Fund, State, ID 1271312

$500.     on 10/5/2005     Monetary

_______________

That’s odd.  I was familiar with the Federal FEC Doolittle’s Leadership PAC, the Superior California Leadership Fund, but I didn’t know he had another one at the state level.   State accounts are usually full of hidden lobbying money.

Oh, you have to go look at this thing.  Look at the expenditures !  For the year that Craig Robinson donated to it !

http://Cal-Access.ss.ca.gov/Ca…

Sure enough, there’s multiple payments to Julie Doolittle’s “Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions” as “consulting fees.”

And they’re even bigger than the ones I’ve seen before on the FEC records.

Oct 11, 2005  $19,185

Oct 12, 2006  $15,675

April 14, 2005 $14,700

Jan 20, 2006    $7,200

May 23, 2005   $5,025

Oct 26, 2005    $5,022

Nov 28  2006    $4,050    that’s over $70,000 already

May 23  2005    $3,000

Nov 18, 2005    $2,137

Apr  19 2005     $1,875

Jun 29   2005     $1,875

May 4   2005      $1,725

Nov 10  2005     $1,275

Oct 17 2005       $  900

Dec 19 2005      $   900

Aug 10 2005      $   847

6 more payments of $745 each  to Sierra Dominion FS, 4 in 2005, 2 in 2006, 2 @ $450 and $412, and a few smaller ones.

This just doesn’t look good for Julie.

Because there are also lots of payments, 14, around a $1000 each, starting way back in June 2005, to Wiley Rein & Fielding, the fancy Washington DC legal Defense Firm which also sent one of its principals to be George W Bush’s White House Lawyer, Fred Fielding.   Doolittle spent a lot of time in the early campaign of 2006 denying he was under DOJ investigation until a SacBee reporter went into the FEC records and called him out on the legal payments.

But, as far as I know, I don’t think anyone has ever mentioned there were more out of the state ones.

Whoa.  I  don’t know, having spent all this time researching, how I missed this.  There’s the stuff in the post FBI raid amended Federal records, showing the amount of legal debt they accrued, and there’s this, a whole ‘nuther layer of it at the state level.

But, there’s MORE.  Because there’s always been curiosity about why Tom Delay, Texan Republican ex Majority Leader of the House,   and his wife Christine, who also worked with Julie Doolittle at one of these Abramoff “non profits” for a “salary” of $5000 a month, yet has never been charged, either.  And yet, Tom Delay, who has recently been seen doing the Cha Cha Cha to “Wild Thing” on Dancing with the Stars, seems like such a happy fellow.  Tell me, does he look worried ?

JOHN DOOLITTLE, recently named a co- conspirator in the Abramoff scandal, along with his wife, Julie, in the Kevin Ring trial by the Federal prosecutors, made payments to Tom Delay’s Legal Expense Trust back in 2005  out of this state Superior Leadership PAC account !

11/2/2005  Tom Delay Legal Expense Trust  $5000

1/30/2006  Tom Delay Legal Expense Trust  $5000

and to Delay’s regular campaign, also, he tossed in another $5000 on Feb 14, 2006.

Not only that, but he also donated $5000 to convicted felon, ex Congressperson Randall “Duke” Cunningham, on 11/2/05 who is remembered at his corruption trial for trying to unsuccessfully implicate Doolittle during his time on the witness stand.

And there’s a $5000 contribution to ex convicted Congressman Bob Ney on 11/2/2005.

__

Now, if you want to see something interesting, besides the hapless City Manager of Roseville’s little $500 contribution to the biggest lobbying scandal of the last century (way to go, Craig Robinson !)  have a look at who else donated to this slush fund for the Family Doolittle, during this filing cycle, besides the usual real estate developers and pharmaceutical companies.

I’ve pulled it up sorted by largest amounts of donations, first.  You may have heard of some of these people:

http://Cal-Access.ss.ca.gov/Ca…

Tony Rudy, $5000 lobbyist for Alexander Strategy, pled guilty, convicted in the Abramoff scandal

Brent Wilkes, $5000 ex Federal Contractor, convicted of bribery, who Carol Lam, the fired US Attorney, indicted on her last day in office.  Doolittle earmarked for Brent Wilkes.

and Brent Wilkes’ company, ADCS ind PAC, of San Diego, added another $5000

Wendy Buckham $5000   this would be the wife of Ed Buckham of Alexander Strategy, who also gave Julie a “job” doing “fundraising.” Ed Buckham was the former Chief of Staff of Tom Delay.  The Buckhams are involved but have not been charged yet in the Abramoff scandal

there are several other lobbyist payments from the Alexander Strategy firm  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A…

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians $3000, + $2000   one of the tribes Doolittle was supposed to intercede for as they were clients of Abramoff

Susan Hirschmann of Williams and Jenson lobbyists, Alexandria VA.   Hirschmann went on the famous “educational” St Andrew’s golfing trip to Scotland with Abramoff, Delay, and Tony Rudy in May of 2000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M…

Abe Alizadeh, Kobra Properties, Roseville, $500.  You haven’t heard of this real estate developer and restaurant guy, but you will, as he’s just made one of the biggest local bankruptcy filings EVER.   Abe also contributed big bucks to a past effort to kill health insurance reform in California, which I may write about soon.  Lie down with Abramoff, get fleas, Abe.

And there’s a Place County Supervisor, the one who made the deal with the Auburn Tribe to put the Casino in Lincoln. Boy, isn’t he lucky to be on that list.

Well, if you’ve been wondering, like I and some other people have, just why it is that there aren’t too many people willing to say anything bad yet about John and Julie Doolittle on the witness stand, or in other public venues, we may have part of the answer displayed right here on this cal access account.