What ELSE Mukasey Declines to Prosecute: Sexual Assault of a Subordinate
I’ve just gotten through the first Department of Interior IG report, and wanted to pull out these few discrete details as an example of what Attorney General Mukasey has declined to prosecute.
The first report describes the corrupt acts of Gregory Smith, who managed the Royalty in Kind program. In that program, companies drilling on Federal land, give the government oil or gas, which the government then contracts to sell in lieu of payment for the drilling; one of the scandals underlying this program is that the companies contracted to sell the oil were getting contracts because they were cozy with someone in DOI, not because they could get us the best price.
Among other things this report reveals is that Smith repeatedly offered himself as a consultant to companies doing business with RIK, promising to alert those companies of opportunities with other companies doing business with RIK.
But what really fries my ass is this bit.
We interviewed yet another RIK employee who stated that in approximately 2005, Smith "insisted" that she ride in his car from one business establishment to another, and she agreed.
The employee stated that Smith took "the long way" between the two businesses, and during the drive, he asked to go to her nearby home, but she refused. "He wanted to have sex; I said no," she recalled. Smith then asked if she would have oral sex with him, but she told him she did not want to. She said then Smith "basically forced [her] head into his lap," and she performed oral sex on him while he drove the car slowly. She said she resisted Smith when he pulled her head into his lap, but Smith did not relent and continued to pull her head down. She said Smith was "real persistent" but not violent, and she did not feel as though she had been sexually assaulted by Smith. She stated that it was difficult for her to have sex with Smith because he superivised her and RIK, but she "felt like [she] could get fired," so she did what Smith wanted. SHe said she was "scared" that if she did not do what Smith wanted her to do, it could possibly affect her employment.
The report goes on to describe Smith telling this employee, when the OIG investigations began, that he was going to deny it if asked about it by investigators.
And the outcome?
The results of this investigation, to include a substantial amount of information obtained through federal grand jury process that is not included here, were provided to the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in March 2008 for prosecutorial consideration. In May 2008, DOJ advised that it was declining to prosecute Smith on various charges.
Now, perhaps this woman just refused to serve as a witness to her own sexual assault. Perhaps DOJ has a good reason not to prosecute this guy that they’re not telling us.
But Smith did this while you and I were paying his salary. And Michael Mukasey’s DOJ seems to think a government manager sexually assaulting a woman on our dime is okay.
Update: Link to report added.
I don’t think this guy has a clue as to how disappointing he turns out to be. A footnote to Gonzales, nothing more.
The first sentence in your last quote means that the IG considered that there was reason to prosecute, yes? (Or however one puts that.)
Yes. I think it means they referred it for prosecution, and DOJ said no.
Rape is fine with these people.
They deserve everything and pay for nothing.
A little more polish than Saddam or Mugabe, but the same mindset of privilege.
Mukasey is worse than Gonzales because he’s not a simpleton.
-G
EW- do we know anything else about the boss man and the subordinate here, ages, races, etc?
Clinton was impeached for his bj but with this administration it seems that a bj is a condition of employment.
And if forcing a woman to do a sexual act as a condition of employment is sexual assault no ifs and or buts. This mukasey is proving even worse than his two predecessors.
The relationships between Clinton & Lewinsky as opposed to Smith & employee are slightly different, but wasn’t Clinton/Lewinsky considered consensual? Still inappropriate, but at least consensual?
How much is that man willing to sacrifice in order to keep bad publicity away from BushCo? I mean, we never expected someone who would actually take action against BushCo, but you wouldn’t think that rape by a career (as opposed to elected or appointed) offical would be considered against Bush.
Of course, no telling what the rape trial might have uncovered.
I take some comfort in knowing that the next AG can re-open the case. But that’s about it.
Can the lady file a civil suit, I wonder?
Boxturtle (Karmic backlash is a bitch. Mukasey should remember that)
OT, but directly pertinent to your upstairs “Drill, Baby, Drill” post:
Johathan Zasloff at the Reality Based Community reminds us:
The answer, of course, is Senator John McCain of Arizona, who has been been largely MIA from the Senate for a year and a half. The Dems should start making some hay out of this but I haven’t seen an cutting or baling yet.
Oops! Once again, I hit “Submit” before linking.
Doesn’t this latest Scandal have the familiar ring of BushCo Corruption and Racketeering?
The Abramoff-Murkowski Sex Slave Island:
In January 2001 Abramoff switched lobbying firms to Greenberg Traurig. “‘Our standing with the new administration promises to be solid as several friends of the CNMI (islands) will soon be taking high-ranking positions in the Administration, including within the Interior Department,’ Abramoff wrote in a January 2001 letter in which he persuaded the island government to follow him as a client to his new lobbying firm, Greenberg Traurig.” [4] Patrick Pizzella joins the Bush-Cheney transition team, and in April 2001 is nominated to Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management at the Department of Labor.
In January 2006, CNMI Governor Benigno Fitial demanded that Preston Gates & Ellis and Greenberg Traurig return much of the money originally paid for lobbying services, claiming that “the positive benefits of those services have been undone by the wide scandal brought on by the criminal charges against Abramoff.”[11]
In August 2006, Roger Stillwell, formerly an employee of the Department of the Interior, pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to report gifts received from Abramoff during the period that Abramoff was lobbying the Interior on behalf of the Commonwealth of the Marianas Islands.[12]
In April 2008, the US Senate campaign of Republican Bob Schaffer was rocked by reports of Schaffer’s participation in a 1999 trip with his wife to the CNMI organized by Preston-Gates, and paid for by the Traditional Values Coalition. Schaffer was photographed parasailing during the “fact-finding” tour. Schaffer later used his position on the House Resources Committee to attack reports of abuses on the islands.[13]
IIRC, in the Sex Slave Island scheme, PIN was used by Rove and Bush to Block any prosecution of their Cronies – who were dealing in forced abortions for the (almost exclusively female) imported minimum wage workers, whose ‘debts’ to the ‘company store’ on the Island were ‘worked off’ through sexual services.
Why Denver and not Houston for RIK? Because Denver is where Rep. Bob Shaffer (R-Co) operates, and Rep. Don Young (R-Ak) was only a phone call away.
Schaffer, lobbyist strategies meshed:
And their efforts would include “preparing questions and factual backup for the friendly Senators and Congressmen,” as well as “outlining our hearing campaign and ensuring our lead friends in the House and Senate are ready to conduct our game plan.”
Schaffer said his “were questions that occurred to me at the time listening to the testimony.”…
…”There is no doubt that trips to the (Mariana Islands) are one of the most effective ways to build permanent friends on the Hill and among policy makers in Washington,” Abramoff wrote…
…Among the at least 11 people who have pleaded guilty as a result of the Abramoff investigation is Mark Zachares. A former government official in the Northern Mariana Islands, Zachares had been pushed for a job in Washington by Abramoff, according to a later investigation by The Washington Post, first as head of the OIA after George W. Bush won the White House in 2000 — a job he didn’t get — and then as a staff member for Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, a job he did land.
Young was chairman of the House Resources Committee at the time of the 1999 hearing. And Schaffer met with Zachares, the islands’ secretary of labor and immigration, during his tour, according to a draft copy of his agenda. (Schaffer said he couldn’t remember whether he had met Zachares on the visit.)
Thanks for your comments @ 10 and 11.
I posted a comment/question for Marcy on the next thread (@ 17) asking how long before the RIK scandal is tied Abramoff and then tied to Palin due to her hiring of an Abramoff lobbyist…
klynn – It’s hard not to surmise that Palin’s Wasilla $27M earmark, which included the ‘Eminent Domain’ Hockey Rink, is connected straight to Jack Abramoff’s Corruption and Influence Racket.
The “Ends Justify the Means” for Sarah.
And that includes she and her family and friends Bullying the Alaska Department of Public Safety – truly incredible!
She fired DPS Director Monegan and…wait for it…put in a Sexually Compromised Toady – the Abramoff Model for creating ‘permanent’ friends in Government – who had to resign when he got found out.
She’ll make a Great Gooper VP!
Ew you never quit working for justice. Mukasey appears to be rotten to the core
Over at War and Piece, Laura Rozen notes that Cunningham briber Mitchell Wade’s company – MZM – got its fateful contract to supply “office furniture” to the White House through Interior’s MMS contracting unit. RIK is a division of MMS – and bother are par of Interior.
Why is this interesting, well the Post today noted that another scandal associated person – Lucy Querques Dennett – a lady formerly part of RIK and also a former Associate Director at MMS now “retired” after leaving in January for “personal reasons” — is married to Paul A. Denett, procurement policy administrator for the White House Office of Management and Budget.
Prior his appointment at OMB Dennett was Director of Administration at the Interior Department, which is a position pretty high up in Interior.
Irony not lost, David Safavian was Director of Procurement Policy for the White House OMB. Dennett replaced Safavian after Safavian went to jail.
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/102209-1.html
They’ve got this whole procurement thing wired for corruption and self-reward.
While at Interior, I wonder if Dennett opened up MMS to let MZM in?
Sounds like the girl already was a witness; they could just subpoena her, so it’s not that. Dunno about the second part; maybe. Doesn’t look like he is rolling, but it is sure possible.
Odd that DOJ won’t prosecute. Lower levels usually take the fall, like, for example, those few bad apples at GTMO. Maybe Smith knows something and is being protected.
I’ll turn in my tinfoil hat now.
Evidence would be minimal, and it probably boils down to he said / she said.
Is this Troy Eid, or someone at Justice? Who at Justice?
I dunno would made the call, but it is above Troy Eid’s pay grade.