May 30 2010
White House’s Sestak-Memo Proves Law Was Violated
Maybe it’s because the world is crumbling around this young and inexperienced administration, but the White House Memo on their job offer to Rep Joe Sestak is a clear admission of guilt. I have no idea who much they are paying their lawyers, but they aren’t worth a dime.
Here is a key passage from the WH memo containing two clear sentences:
[1] The White House Chief of Staff enlisted the support of former President Bill Clinton who agreed to raise with Congressman Sestak options of service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board. [2] Congressman Sestak declined the suggested alternatives, remaining committed to his Senate candidacy.
In legal matters clarity is everything, and this one paragraph says it all. In sentence [1] we have the admission that Rahm Emanuel ‘enlisted‘ (voluntarily and knowingly) former Bill Clinton to raise ‘options of service‘ (job offers – plural) related to panels only the President can nominate a member to (Rahm can’t, Clinton can’t). That is the offer of the bribe.
The admission this was a bribe requiring a quid pro quo is found in the second sentence. The WH clearly stated Rep ‘declined the suggested alternatives‘, with the result being Sestak remained committed to his Senate candidacy. So therefore, if the WH offers had been accepted, Sestak would not have remained in the Senate race. QED: Bribe offered and declined, according to White House Council.
Only but the most die hard supporters, willing to corrupt anything to save this presidency, can ignore this clear admission of intent and result. Over at Huffington Post one legal scholar has had enough:
But it’s obvious that none of these folks have read the specific law involved. I, too, was entirely prepared to dismiss Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) allegations of impropriety as politically motivated exaggerations. The guy doesn’t exactly have a great track record, as a litany of bizarro actions proves.
But then I read the law. It’s about electioneering, not federal bribery per se. But it’s a felony, and it still counts:
18 U.S.C. § 600 – Promise of employment or other benefit for political activity
Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation, contract, appointment, or other benefit, provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress, or any special consideration in obtaining any such benefit, to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity or for the support of or opposition to any candidate or any political party in connection with any general or special election to any political office, or in connection with any primary election or political convention or caucus held to select candidates for any political office, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
Emphasis in original. Sadly for the White House, the fact one of the offers was an unpaid position is irrelevant. The fact President Bill Clinton was the indirect path of the offer is irrelevant. The White House basically issued a signed admission of guilt, including the admission they initiated this illegal activity with Rep Sestak of their own free will. A signed confession is hard to spin away.
BTW, someone over at the American Thinker has discovered that Joe Sestak is not any kind of white knight coming to clean up Washington. Seems Clinton and Sestak have some very shady ties in some well known scandals. H/T Reader MerlinOS2.
Update: Doug Ross has posted a reasonably good time line of events surrounding this mess.
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Awah shucks……..this is just business as usual, everybody does it……..even Obama, not as bad a Bush…..let’s just get over it and go back to doing the work of the people……….more health care anybody……we all want that right?
This means , does it not, that they admit Clinton violated 18 USC 600?
The first word is “Anyone…”, not just a government official, Anyone!
Let’s hope Issa can make progress in this, and that Fox and bloggers like AJ will keep up the pressure.
This job offer is just the latest in a real interesting history for Sestak.
His ties to the Clinton White House and other issues back then are also dots that need to be connected to build the whole picture of the man.
I was watching Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace today and I got the impression that the problem was not legal so much as ethical and political. Whatever, if it was no big deal they should have come clean months ago.
WH memo = Exhibit A in the criminal case. They wrote their own confession. I just stare with disbelief every time I look at the WH memo.
I like “former Bill Clinton” in the paragraph under the memo. Would that it was.
My guess is that Hussein and co. were so STUNNED by the media interest in this story–astounded that it wasn’t simply covered up like everything else surrounding THE ONE–that they were unable to even LIE well when the time presented itself. Of course MSM lackeys will have dropped the Sestak affair by the middle of next week, so it won’t ultimately matter much. But to see Hussein and his minions caught so completely flat-footed by the media actually almost acting like the MEDIA…now THAT’S FUNNY!!!
One gets the idea that all the WH and DOJ lawyers appointed by Obama are affirmative action graduates. Were they so dumb that they didn’t think they needed to know anything about electioneering laws in a political situation or was it a case of “we arn’t going to pay any attention to silly things like the law” as usual.
[…] The Strata-Sphere – White House’s Sestak-Memo Proves Law Was Violated […]
“But it’s a felony, and it still counts:”
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DON’T PUSH THIS until after the Nov. elections. Biden is Vice-President…and Pelosi is next in line. Do we really want Pelosi that close to the highest office in the land??
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2010/05/laffaire-sestak-remember-that-white.html
from your timeline that the job offer (Navy Sec.) to Sestak was made sometime between early February, 2009 to, at or around, March 26, 2009- contrary to what the White House and Sestak claimed last Friday that the offer was sometime “last summer”. Sestak likely turned down the offer and told them he would stay in the race, so then Obama nominated Mabus. Any offer by the White House to Sestak after March 26 would’ve been predicated upon Mabus stepping down or being replaced — possible, but less likely.
A possible related note: I have no idea whether this is relevant to your timeline at this point, but it might be, so I’ll throw it out there: The White House Counsel at the time the job offer was made to Sestak was Gregory Craig. Robert Bauer, a former Democrat election lawyer, who wrote the Sestak legal memorandum released last Friday, now holds the position.
Rumors started leaking last summer — less than half a year on the job — that the highly experienced Yale Law grad Gregory Craig was already on his way out, and were reported in many media outlets (WaPo, WSJ, etc.). On July, 22, 2009 White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina denied the rumors, “Sounds like typical Washington parlor games to me. These rumors are wrong.” (WaPo), and denied it again to the WSJ a month later…
Nothing will come of these events, other than that for honest people the corruption of this regime will be shown even more completely. But they have successfully infiltrated or destroyed every American institution which could have done something about this, and they know it.
The attorney general? He is a pathetically incompetent affirmative action candidate who has stacked the entire DOJ with goons and flunkies. Furthermore, he is an accomplished perjurer himself – so the entire DOJ is now dedicated to killing this story and killing this complaint. The name really should be changed to the Department of INJustice, since that’s all it’s interested in anymore.
Every private person who tries to make a complaint will find the case shifted to regime-compliant judges who will throw the case out on “standing” issues. So the Judiciary is out as a solution.
Pelosi’s House? HA! Don’t make me laugh.
Obama and his minions are laughing at the pathetic weakness his opponents are showing. Like babies in the crib, they cry and howl and can do nothing, and thus are ignored.
And now we see that in only 18 months, Obama truly has brought Soviet Style governance to our shows. He and his followers truly believe they are Above the Law, and they are rubbing our noses in it.
[…] tips: Homeland Security U.S. and MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Linked by: Gateway Pundit, Dan Riehl, Strata-Sphere, Nice Deb and Creative Minority Report. […]
[…] […]
Sounds like impeachment.
[…] As I noted previously, the White House excuse floated last Friday on the Sestak incident is simply a signed confession of guilt: Here is a key passage from the WH memo containing two clear sentences: [1] The White House Chief of Staff enlisted the support of former President Bill Clinton who agreed to raise with Congressman Sestak options of service on a Presidential or other Senior Executive Branch Advisory Board. [2] Congressman Sestak declined the suggested alternatives, remaining committed to his Senate candidacy. […]
[…] Strata-Sphere.com […]