Post by Logan on Jun 18, 2016 22:09:09 GMT -6
When the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) and the state Democratic Party agreed in recent days to settle lawsuits and shut down a state investigation into Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's 2014 campaign finances, they failed to silence lingering criticisms, such as the claim that the deal cheats the public out of its right to know.
Now, for example, there will be no public answer to what was in those potentially embarrassing emails between Malloy and his top political aides. The emails were among documents that the SEEC subpoenaed in May 2015 as it investigated Republican allegations that Democrats circumvented clean-election laws to use donations from state contractors to help pay for Malloy's re-election campaign.
"The DSCC's actions were the equivalent of pleading the 5th," said Charles Urso, the SEEC investigator who handled the drawn-out case until his recent retirement, referring to Americans' Constitutional right to invoke their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Urso, who as an FBI agent in 2004 had helped convict former Gov. John G. Rowland of corruption, said that if Democrats had formally acknowledged channeling more than $1 million into the 2014 state campaign from a federal campaign account that accepts money from state contractors, they could have faced scrutiny by the FBI or office of the Chief State's Attorney.
Read more: www.courant.com/politics/hc-lender-subpoena-deal-fallout-20160618-column.html
Now, for example, there will be no public answer to what was in those potentially embarrassing emails between Malloy and his top political aides. The emails were among documents that the SEEC subpoenaed in May 2015 as it investigated Republican allegations that Democrats circumvented clean-election laws to use donations from state contractors to help pay for Malloy's re-election campaign.
"The DSCC's actions were the equivalent of pleading the 5th," said Charles Urso, the SEEC investigator who handled the drawn-out case until his recent retirement, referring to Americans' Constitutional right to invoke their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Urso, who as an FBI agent in 2004 had helped convict former Gov. John G. Rowland of corruption, said that if Democrats had formally acknowledged channeling more than $1 million into the 2014 state campaign from a federal campaign account that accepts money from state contractors, they could have faced scrutiny by the FBI or office of the Chief State's Attorney.
Read more: www.courant.com/politics/hc-lender-subpoena-deal-fallout-20160618-column.html