Around the Region
Angela Davis
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8 Mar. 22, 2012 - Mar. 28, 2012
sent my treasurer a check for $500 and another check for the same amount from Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio as well.” “Money – lots of it – was paid to evade the campaign finance laws. You have to establish to a magistrate that a crime was committed before he or she will agree to a raid. Thomas’s problems started with a raid,” she said, referring to disgraced former D.C. Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. As the investigation into the financial dealings between local businessman Jeffrey Thompson, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and members of the D.C. Council widens, speculation is rife about evidence of actual wrongdoing, what if any corruption exists, how deep it goes and who will become ensnared in the web. Thompson, 57, an accountant, businessman, and prodigious fundraiser and donor to local campaigns, is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, both of whom seek to determine if he violated any local and federal campaign finance laws. Federal agents also raided the home and offices of Jeanne Clarke Harris, a Thompson associate and PR consultant to the Gray campaign, and carted away records. The raids and subsequent delivery of subpoenas are an indication of the feds’ far-reaching investigation into whether there were financial improprieties during Gray’s 2010 election campaign. Cheh said she gets dispirited and depressed watching the council lurch from one scandal to another. “When you have the drip, drip, drip of scandal, it weighs on your reputation and your ability to do your job,” she said. “We can’t keep staying under this cloud. Soon we will have another spectacle in May.” May 3 is the date Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced for stealing $356,000 of public funds. “The man who I sat beside for four years is going to jail. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that,” said Cheh. Gray, 69, has been questioned incessantly by the media, but has generally limited comment. Gray spokeswoman Doxie McCoy declined to answer any questions The Washington Informer
on Friday, March 16 about the latest developments in the case except to say, “… He has run his campaigns with integrity, and can’t comment any further because this is an ongoing investigation.” However in a March 7 press conference, Gray stated categorically that he had no knowledge of unlawful activities by his campaign as it relates to cash and money orders. He said he only became aware of any allegations after the campaign. Whatever problems that may have cropped up Gray blames on a lack of oversight caused by a condensed campaign. Local businessman Leo Alexander said as he watches the scandal unfold, he has little doubt that the feds are using Thompson to bring down Gray. “I read an article the other day where Gray’s campaign workers said he brought $100,000 to them on the final day that they could file campaign contributions,” Alexander said. “If that’s true, that’s just arrogance. I see this as the beginning of the end. People are talking, trying hard to save their [butts] because no one wants to go to jail. Right now, someone is probably telling the feds that Gray’s fingerprints and DNA are all over that money and I’m sure he’ll be saying, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong.”’ “2012 will go down as the year of the indictment. The feds are doing the same thing they did with Thomas, making a case. They are moving toward the mayor. There will be quite a few people going down. I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s going to be interesting times, sad times but interesting. And they will be selling lots of papers because bad news sells. We’re sitting down and watching.” Alexander, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2010, said the city can do without another black eye. “We don’t need this. We don’t need a return to the 1980s with all the problems and scandals. There are too many other issues in the city that elected officials need to be taking care of,” he said. With regard to the Thompson investigation, Alexander said he’s not surprised. “I heard early on that Thompson bankrolled candidates. I even approached him but he told me he was a Fenty man. Thank God, because if not, they’d probably be investigating me now. God
was looking out for me,” Alexander said laughing. Lawrence Guyot, a veteran of the Civil Rights and student movements in the 1960s, and who teaches the history of that era, said he regards the entire saga with suspicion. “I find this absolutely astounding,” he said. “If you’re going to do a criminal investigation, it’s good to start with a crime that has been committed. This is not a serious investigation; its intent is to inhibit this government’s operations. It is an issue framed as if it’s only about purity. We should have as much concern for having a functioning government as a pure government.” “I’m not interested in donors. They’re acting as if it’s illegal to simultaneously coordinate contributions. It’s not. I don’t want this government stymied by discussions of who’s the purest in the group. When I go to the polls, I go to elect politicians, not saints.” While not a supporter of Gray, Guyot said he strenuously opposes any effort to either recall the mayor or D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown (D). “Race is fundamental to all of this. Look at who are the champions of purity,” he said. “There’s no decision made in D.C. politics that’s not done through the prism of race … that’s why I’m irrevocably opposed to any recall against any politician.” A longtime D.C. resident who knows Thompson well, agrees with Guyot, adding that while Thompson may have made some mistakes, he’s acting exactly as others have politically in this country for centuries. “He is a notable minority businessman and a leader. I give him a lot of respect for coming here as a young man, building a business and helping other minorities,” said the man who chose to speak anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue. “He’s done exactly what the Italians, Irish, Polish and English have been doing for 500 years. When a black man tried to do the same thing that white people have been doing for 300 years, he’s targeted.” (There is a lot more to this story. Read it all online at washingtoninformer.com.) wi www.washingtoninformer.com