{"id":5583,"date":"2009-08-28T00:13:45","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T06:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=5583"},"modified":"2009-08-31T11:26:27","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T17:26:27","slug":"u-s-attorney-says-guv-others-arent-exonerated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/u-s-attorney-says-guv-others-arent-exonerated\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. attorney: Richardson, others not exonerated"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gov.

Gov. Bill Richardson (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

The fact that Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> and others won\u2019t face criminal charges following a yearlong investigation into pay-to-play allegations doesn\u2019t mean they should consider themselves exonerated, U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt wrote in a letter sent to witnesses before the grand jury.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to the New York Times<\/a>, which reported Thursday evening on the official letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the letter, Mr. Fouratt\u2019s office said he would not pursue criminal charges, but it added that \u2018pressure from the governor\u2019s office resulted in the corruption of the procurement process\u2019 and said that the letter \u2018should not be interpreted as exoneration of any party\u2019s conduct in that matter,\u2019\u201d the Times article states.<\/p>\n

The newspaper did not release the letter or quote further from it, and did not elaborate on the allegation that pressure from the governor\u2019s office corrupted the process of selecting a company for a state contract several years ago.<\/p>\n

Richardson had a completely different take on the ending of the probe into allegations that CDR Financial Products<\/a> received the lucrative state investment contract from the New Mexico Finance Authority in exchange for campaign contributions to Richardson and two political action committees he started.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Richardson has known all along that neither he nor any staff members committed any transgressions during their successful fundraising back in 2004,\u201d Deputy Chief of Staff Gilbert Gallegos said Thursday in a statement released by the governor\u2019s office. \u201cThe U.S. Attorney\u2019s thorough and lengthy investigation has apparently determined the same thing — that no indiscretions occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times\u2019 report didn\u2019t say when Fouratt\u2019s letter was sent to witnesses. As of Thursday, Richardson hadn\u2019t been told that no charges would be filed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office has not notified Governor Richardson about the completion of its investigation, it appears that no action will be taken as a result of the year-long inquiry,\u201d Gallegos said in the prepared statement.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear: The case has been dropped<\/h4>\n

For weeks, sources have shared with me at times conflicting rumors about whether the case was proceeding toward indictments or being dropped and whether, as it gradually became clear that the statute of limitations was about to expire without action, officials in Albuquerque or Washington were behind the apparent decision to drop the case.<\/p>\n

Early Thursday, The Associated Press<\/a> quoted a source who put the decision to drop the case on officials in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s over. There\u2019s nothing. It was killed in Washington,\u201d the AP quoted the source as saying.<\/p>\n

The GOP was quick to raise questions<\/a> about that. State GOP Chairman Harvey Yates Jr. asked whether the decision was made \u201ccontrary to the advice of experienced, non-political, career prosecutors and the FBI.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Later Thursday, the Washington Post<\/a> published a story quoting a source who concurred that the decision was made in Washington and said it was made by \u201ccareer prosecutors\u201d who \u201cconcluded that an indictment was not warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the Times\u2019 report about Fouratt\u2019s letter. It\u2019s noteworthy that the U.S. attorney\u2019s letter apparently doesn\u2019t back up the Post source who said prosecutors concluded an indictment wasn\u2019t warranted.<\/p>\n

In addition, the Times reported that the decision was Fouratt\u2019s but that \u201ctop Justice Department officials concurred\u201d with him.<\/p>\n

The discrepancy, sources said, is likely indicative of intense behind-the-scenes wrangling between officials in Albuquerque and Washington, and the full details may never be known publicly.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear is that the case has been dropped. What isn\u2019t entirely clear is why, and who exactly made the decision.<\/p>\n

Update, 1:30 a.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Albuquerque Journal<\/a> has more details on the letter, which the newspaper says was written to defense lawyers in the case. Most noteworthy: The letter states that the decision to drop the case now \u201cshall not preclude the United States or the grand jury from reinstituting such an investigation without notification if … circumstances warrant …\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: The fact that Gov. Bill Richardson and others won\u2019t face criminal charges following a probe into pay-to-play allegations doesn\u2019t mean they should consider themselves exonerated, U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[112,122,114,107],"class_list":["post-5583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-bill-richardson","tag-gripgate","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}