|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Patrick Fitzgerald: Illinois Prosecution Update
In his day job as U.S. Attorney for Chicago, Leakgate Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has prosecuted even more people associated with former Republican Gov. George Ryan than the 60 we noted yesterday. The latest tally on Fitzgerald's GOP prosecutions comes from London's Financial Times, which noted on Saturday that his investigation into the Illinois GOP'er "has led to 79 arrests and 73 convictions." But it's also true that Fitzgerald has done a better job going after Democrats than media reports we cited yesterday would indicate. Fitzgerald's corruption probe into the contract award practices of the Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's Democratic administration, known as the "Hired Truck" scandal, have so far yielded 30 indictments and 23 convictions.
Story Continues Below We've also learned that the Daley scandal is potentially much bigger than anything former Gov. Ryan is accused of. In Dec. 2003, for instance, Fitzgerald indicted Ryan for allegedy lying about favors he accepted that amount to no more than $200,000. The Daley Hired Truck scandal reportedly involves tens of millions of dollars in bid rigging and phony affirmative action contracts. So why has Fitzgerald nailed three times as many Republicans in the Ryan mini-scandal as he has Daley Democrats mired in the Hired Truck cesspit? The Ryan probe is much older, Fitzgerald defenders note - bequeathed to the New York native by his predecessor in 2001, when he took over the Chicago U.S. Attorney's office. We'll be watching to see if Fitzgerald's Daley probe catches up to his quest to bring the long-retired Republican governor to justice. But right now he has a long way to go.
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Inside Cover Stories
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2009 NewsMax.Com |