Thursday, April 16, 2009

DeLeo and company go before Grand Jury

As we first wrote about this months ago, the beginning stages of fact finding are happening and it's my humble opinion that there will be some revelations about DiMasi and DeLeo's connections in trying to influence a contract with the State. Look for this to take out a Rep or two and perhaps seal the fate of DiMasi and DeLeo at the same time.

House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo's chief of staff and a state representative with close ties to former speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi testified this week before a federal grand jury investigating the awarding of two multimillion-dollar state contracts to the software company Cognos, several officials confirmed yesterday.

James Eisenberg, who has served as DeLeo's chief of staff since the speaker chaired the House Ways and Means Committee, appeared before the grand jury on Tuesday after being subpoenaed by federal authorities. According to DeLeo spokesman Seth Gitell, Eisenberg was told by his lawyers that he is not a target of the probe and was subpoenaed primarily to produce records from the Ways and Means Committee.

Representative Lida Harkins, the assistant majority leader under DiMasi, also appeared before the grand jury, according to officials who did not want to be identified because the grand jury's proceedings are confidential.

Harkins, who represents Needham, declined to comment yesterday. Her name was mentioned in a state education department e-mail, obtained by the Globe last fall, which indicated she had contacted the department about a Cognos contract on DiMasi's behalf .

4 Comments:

At April 16, 2009 at 6:08 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

This is going to be some interesting developments I am sure. Let's hope they can not keep the truth of what is found out from the public. They seem to be pretty good at that, but Pillsbury, you seem to be even better at weeding the truth out. We count on you for that, so keep up the good work it. It really is a valuable resource.

 
At April 17, 2009 at 10:17 AM , Blogger Fred J. said...

Jim are any of these hearings open to the public? How do we find out what is really going on behind these closed doors? If any one currently in office gets indicted, do they automatically have to resign from office, and how does a replacement get chosen?

 
At April 17, 2009 at 10:39 AM , Blogger Jim Pillsbury said...

Fred,

These are double top secret hearings and depositions. There may even be gag orders involved. I don't believe any of us could ever get in the court room.

I surmise, it will take a few weeks to wrap things up and then a court will decide if there's legal reasons to pursue action against anyone. Most likely, someone will drop a dime on those who took money and who exactly at the State House, past and present, directed the contracts to be awarded.

A story that will be followed closely by the media for sure.

 
At April 17, 2009 at 11:58 AM , Blogger Brian V. said...

We have a problem with the politicians in this state, and by now, everyone should know that. But I take exception to how many are responding to that. There were a bunch of lunatics protesting on tax day, yelling and screaming about how they don’t want to get taxed anymore. But I did not see one of them offering any solution to how we pay the bills without increasing the revenue, hence, increasing taxes. You have two choice, cut the expenses, or raise the charges. Pretty simple equation if you ask me. These same people standing with signs at the statehouse are screaming if you tell them we are going to cut the number of fire, or police, or teachers, and screaming even louder if someone says we have to increase the meal tax of the sales tax. What is their solution to an underfunded budget? They are asking for support, when they can not tell me what the hell they are offering that I should support. We need a plan here people, and I will support anyone who can show me a reasonable, doable plan, to get the MA budget balanced and replace the sitting politicians. I won’t support some nutcase whose claim to fame is he can hold a sign and put down the politician currently in office. Don’t take much intelligence to do either of those things.

 

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