Monday, May 2, 2016

While de Blasio and the press focus on Putnam $$$ laundering the FBI looks at the Terminator: Citizens United

Why Citizen United Violations Will Force Mayor de Blasio to Resign


The Press Follows the Mayor's Spin like a Dog Follows a Bone
As usual, the weak press is taking its clues from the mayor's spin doctor lobbyists and ignoring the facts. The mayor has got his lawyers and media puppets and even Common Cause all singing that the governor is also laundering money though party committees to get around election law spending limits.

FBI in the No Spin Zone
Nobody but the Feds are looking at how team de Blasio violated Citizens United. Last year the feds not only warned campaign consultants not to coordinate campaigns with Super PACs they put a major campaign consultant in jail. Tyler Harber, who worked as an aide to former Knox County Tennessee Mayor Mike Ragsdalen, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady after Harber, 34, pleaded guilty to illegally coordinating campaign spending between a political-action committee he had helped create and a Virginia congressional campaign he was managing in 2012.  


The FBI Task of Connecting Campaign Consultants to Coordinating With Super PACs They Controlled Will Be Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel
All the FBI has to do is to chart the interlocking directorates of the following PACs: NYCLASS, Campaign for One New York and the UFT's United for the Future. True News has already reported that to better understand why and how the mayor's distraction spin operates a good place to start is Laurence Laufer’s law firm: Kantor Davidoff Wolfe.

Laufer is the election lawyer who wrote the counter attack against NYSBOE Chief Enforcement Office Risa Sugarman’s report, sent to the Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance for a criminal investigation, which found “willful and flagrant” violations of election law by a group of political operatives known as Team de Blasio. The NYSBOE’s report says that the fundraising effort was run out of Mr. de Blasio’s City Hall and involved Emma Wolfe, his top political aide on the city's payroll, Ross Offinger, a fundraiser and treasurer for both the mayor’s election campaign and Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit created by Mr. de Blasio to support his agenda.

The report also names several union officials and political consulting firms, including Berlin Rosen, which has longstanding ties to the mayor. Both Berlin Rosen and Red Horse, which work for the mayor's Campaign for One NY PAC that raised money laundered through a Putnam Democratic Party Committee, also work for Democratic Senate Campaign Committee on the same campaigns as consultants that the Campaigns for One NY PACs raised money for.

It is hard to understand why the Campaign Finance Board, Conflicts of Interest Board and the Attorney General did not prosecute the Advance Group, NYCLASS PAC and others for violating Citizens United by coordinating campaign spending they controlled with a PAC they also controlled. On June 1, 2013 NYCLASS received another large donation, this time for $175,000. It came from UNITE HERE!—a labor union headed by John Wilhelm, de Blasio’s cousin—and a prolific fund-raiser for him. Wilhelm raised $6,950 for de Blasio’s 2009 race for public advocate and $80,000 for de Blasio’s successful campaign for mayor. Two days after that contribution, on June 3, NYCLASS sent the same amount, $175,000, to the anti-Quinn campaign. 



NY's Prosecutors Ignored the Only Way to Control Citizens United: Stop the Coordinating Between the Campaign Consultant and the PACs  Why?
On October 8th, 2015, the Campaign Finance Board, Conflicts of Interest Board and AG Schneiderman fined the Advance Group for coordinating campaigns with NYCLASS, which they controlled with campaigns they ran. No mention in the report spoke to the violation of Citizen United. No mention in the report answered the question why the UFT paid Advance through a made up name "Strategic Consultants Inc." The FBI has subpoenaed those UFT records and personal records of the union’s president, Michael Mulgrew.  

Why was there a cover-up of the UFT's United for the Future and NYCLASS PACs' Citizens United violation? 1. The mayor and speaker control all the appointments to the Campaign Finance Board and Conflicts of Interest Board, which ignored the Advance Group violation of Citizens United. 2. A lawyer from Laurence Laufer’s (the guy who attacked the NYSBOE criminal referral on team de Blasio) law firm Kantor Davidoff Wolfe, Lawrence Mandelker, is de Blasio’s lawyer for his campaign committee and the Campaign for One NY PAC. Mandelker also was the lawyer for the Advance Group during the CFB, AG and Conflicts of Interest Board investigations. Mandelker is also the lawyer for the WFP in all the Data and Field investigations. 


The Interlocking Directorates of Campaign PACs, City Hall PACs and Team de Blasio



The campaign consultant PAC coordination was not limited to NYCLASS and Campaign for One NY. The biggest consultant PAC coordination helped elect 37 of the 51 members of the Council, including the Speaker. The Advance Group was fined by the CFB for their campaign consultant Super PACs, NYCLASS and the UFT coordination in Councilmember Cumbo and Levine’s campaigns. The CFB ignored the fact that Berlin Rosen worked as a lobbyist for the UFT, as well as on both the Cumbo and Levine campaigns that Advance worked on. Berlin Rosen worked on 10 Council campaigns while their employer, UFT, funded those 10 candidates with their PAC United for the Future. Red Horse, a campaign consulting firm that worked for the mayor's Campaign for One NY PAC (as did Berlin Rosen), also worked for the UFT's PAC United for the Future and ran 7 Council campaigns that were also funded by UFT PAC. 


Who Is Watching the Lobbyists? The City’s Top Law Enforcement Officials Must Recuse Themselves
It is now clear that the DAs count on the same campaign consultant lobbyists for re-election. Red Horse consultants worked in 4 or the 5 New York City DA campaigns. Berlin Rosen started out working for Eric Schneiderman when he 















Why Mayor de Blasio Will Have to Resign
Why the council was illegally elected
Law Frim  that makes millions in lobbying was involved in a cover up with the CFB Bd of Ethics and Advance Group
Bate and Switch 

Campaign Coordination: Warning to Political Candidates and Related Super PACs
https://www.lexisnexis.com/legalnewsroom/public-policy/b/public-policy-law-blog/archive/2015/07/29/campaign-coordination-warning-to-political-candidates-and-related-super-pacs.aspx?Redirected=true#sthash.TnPWQRVZ.dpuf

Tyler Harber’s prosecution, and the two year federal prison sentence he recently received, are clearly warning shots across the bow of federal political campaigns around the country. And the blatant and unsympathetic nature of Mr. Harber’s crime should give no comfort to those watching and advising political candidates and campaigns.  The United States Department of Justice means to pursue the illegal coordination between official campaigns and Super PACs, and Mr. Harber’s is the first of many investigations into the world of big money politics coming to an election cycle near you.  Now, Mr. Harber is not a guy who engenders much sympathy.  During a three month period in 2012 he was Campaign Manager and general consultant for a Congressional Candidate in Virginia.  While leading that campaign he directly coordinated and participated in the purchase of $325,000 in advertising by a political action committee (PAC) that opposed his candidate’s opponent, and thus benefitted his candidate.  He was paid more than $9,000 as a “commission” for his work.











Judge sentences former Ragsdale aide Tyler Harber to 2 years in federal prison (Knocville New Sentinel)
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/crime-courts/judge-sentences-former-ragsdale-aide-tyler-harber-to-2-years-in-federal-prison-ep-1133694700-362197231.html

A nationally prominent political operative whose abrasive, anything-to-win style frequently landed him in trouble in Knoxville a decade ago is going to prison for two years for breaking federal campaign laws.

Tyler Harber, who worked as an aide to former Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale but now lives in northern Virginia, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady in Alexandria, Va. Harber said he also was motivated in part because he had seen other political operatives commit the same offenses without being caught and prosecuted.  Harber, 34, pleaded guilty in February to illegally coordinating campaign spending between a political-action committee he had helped create and a Virginia congressional campaign he was managing in 2012. He also pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents investigating his activities. “The defendant’s criminal conduct was not borne of ignorance, naiveté or mistake,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark D. Lytle wrote in a pre-sentencing memo filed with the court. “Rather, the conduct engaged in here was undertaken by an intelligent and careful man with significant experience in politics and campaign finance. He knew exactly what he was doing and exactly the best way to conceal it from his party and from law enforcement.” “He is, in short,” Lytle said, “the most dangerous sort of political operative by virtue of his knowledge and experience.” Lytle had recommended that O’Grady sentence Harber to 46 months in prison.


Republican operative sentenced to 2 years in landmark election case (Wash Post)

Crossing The Line: Political Operative Gets 2 Years In Prison (NPR)

Why Mayor de Blasio Will Have to Resign
Why the council was illegally elected








2 comments:

  1. Tyler Harber’s prosecution, and the two year federal prison sentence he recently received, are clearly warning shots across the bow of federal political campaigns around the country. And the blatant and unsympathetic nature of Mr. Harber’s crime should give no comfort to those watching and advising political candidates and campaigns. sewing factory , sewing of ladies suits , sewing expert , sewing factory near me , lawn suits , pakistani lawn suits , pakistani lawn , buy pakistani lawn suits online , pakistani lawn suits online , pakistani lawn suits online sale The United States Department of Justice means to pursue the illegal coordination between official campaigns and Super PACs, and Mr. Harber’s is the first of many investigations into the world of big money politics coming to an election cycle near you. Now, Mr. Harber is not a guy who engenders much sympathy. During a three month period in 2012 he was Campaign Manager and general consultant for a Congressional Candidate in Virginia. While leading that campaign he directly coordinated and participated in the purchase of $325,000 in advertising by a political action committee (PAC) that opposed his candidate’s opponent, and thus benefitted his candidate. He was paid more than $9,000 as a “commission” for his work.

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