THE NEW YORK POST
"Critics demand probe of NY AG Letitia James: ‘People will doubt her integrity’"
Story by Carl Campanile, Bernadette Hogan, Bruce Golding
6 DECEMBER 2022
Calls for a probe into state Attorney General Letitia James’ handling of harassment allegations against her chief of staff intensified Tuesday — with her former Republican challenger demanding a special prosecutor and even a veteran Democratic operative saying she should be investigated.
Lawyer Michael Henry, who James beat to win a second term on Nov. 8, said Ibrahim Khan’s accusers and the public “deserve answers and accountability” from “anyone, potentially including Letitia James, who enabled his behavior.”
“Gov. Kathy Hochul must appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Letitia James’ election time cover-up of a serious inappropriate touching and sexual harassment scandal,” Henry told The Post.
“Why didn’t she or anyone in the office call the police when at least one of the allegations included inappropriate touching?"
"It seems her political career was more important than protecting a victim.”
Veteran Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf also said the scandal involving Khan — who resigned on Friday — “is very damaging to the attorney general because of the time lag” before it surfaced last week.
“James didn’t debate her opponent before the election, and this could be the reason why,” Sheinkopf said.
“There should be an outside investigation of this case and how it was handled."
"Otherwise, people will doubt the integrity of the attorney general.”
Sheinkopf also referenced James’ own probe into the sexual harassment allegations that forced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign last year, saying the Khan scandal “should be handled the same way.”
“There needs to be an independent investigation or else we’ll lose confidence in her ability to do the job,” he said.
Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing and said he was quitting to avoid costly impeachment proceedings that would have paralyzed state government and “brutalized people.”
John Kaehny, of the good-government group Reinvent Albany, stopped short of calling for an investigation of James but said the situation was “obviously highly ironic and disappointing.”
Kaehny also said the timeline that James’ office released Monday night didn’t contain enough information to reassure the public that she dealt with the matter properly.
That timeline showed James hired the Littler Mendelson law firm on Oct. 4 to investigate the allegations against Khan.
“Have they done an adequate job being completely transparent about everything that happened here?"
"No,” Kaehny said.
“They should put together, while respecting the privacy of the complainants, a timeline and explanation of absolutely everything that happened and leave nothing out.”
Also Tuesday, US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-Glens Falls), the powerful chair of the House Republican Conference, said, “New Yorkers deserve to know when Letitia James knew about her senior staff’s illegal misconduct and why she hid this egregious sexual harassment from voters until after the election.”
Outgoing state Assemblyman Mike Lawler (R-Pearl River), who last month defeated US Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-Cold Spring), also said that “James rightly held Gov. Cuomo and his administration to account for his conduct and their handling of sexual harassment allegations.”
“She should hold herself to that same standard,” he said.
“The attorney general must immediately and clearly address questions as to what she knew, when she knew it, and why she withheld information that the public had a right to know.”
The comments came a day after several GOP state lawmakers called for legislative committees to investigate James, with Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor (R-Fishkill) saying that “New Yorkers have a right to know whether the top law enforcement officer in the state suborned sexual harassment, covered it up or delayed addressing it to win an election.”
A Hochul spokesperson declined to comment beyond the comments the governor made Monday, when she said the facts surrounding the scandal “are still unfolding.”
A James spokesperson didn’t immediately return a request for comment, but her office has said that she handles all allegations of misconduct “with the utmost seriousness and this situation is no different.”
Additional reporting by Zach Williams
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... a9b4e260f0
CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
THE NEW YORK POST
"Even as the wealthy flee NY, progressives push to punish them more"
Opinion by Post Editorial Board
11 DECEMBER 2022
A new city analysis shows that a huge chunk of high-income earners fled in 2020.
Yet progressives refuse to hear the alarm bell: They’re pushing to “tax the rich” yet again instead.
The study by the city’s Independent Budget Office shows a 10% plunge in taxpayers who made over $750,000, and 6% of those with incomes between $150,000 and $750,000.
These now-former New Yorkers will no longer pay hefty taxes to the city or state, leaving significantly less revenue to fund progressives’ pet projects.
Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City calls the trend “ominous.”
Clearly, many taxpayers fled to escape New York’s off-the-chart taxes.
Yet the radicals who increasingly dominate local politics want to slam those who haven’t left even more: Last Monday, a group of advocates and elected officials launched a campaign for a ludicrous $40 billion in new taxes on the rich.
“Everybody always worries about whether billionaires and the wealthy are going to get up and leave from New York,” huffed Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos.
“I’m sick of seeing working-class New Yorkers have to leave.”
If lower-income workers are fleeing, it’s not for lack of poorly funded social programs; New York leads the nation in such spending.
No, progressive policies that have allowed crime to skyrocket and schools to degrade would deserve much of the blame.
Meanwhile, the top 1% of taxpayers accounted for 45% of the city’s total income-tax liability in 2020; they’re the ones most sensitive to high taxes (the bottom 50% accounted for less than 4%).
Sure, other factors (like the weather and the lockdown) also pushed wealthy folks to split: As The Post has reported, Manhattanites who moved to sunny Palm Beach County, Fla., earned an average $728,351 each.
Some returned when the pandemic ended.
But the mass exodus came before progressives in Albany spiked state taxes by $4 billion in 2021, punishing mostly top-income New Yorkers with the highest state and local tax rate in the nation.
How many more high earners have left since, or will soon?
The loss of more tax revenue from top earners will only add to the massive budget gaps both the city and state face in coming years, which already threaten cuts to progressives’ beloved programs — and even to core services.
New York needs to stop driving away its tax base before there’s nothing left to bleed.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbu ... 708915ab03
"Even as the wealthy flee NY, progressives push to punish them more"
Opinion by Post Editorial Board
11 DECEMBER 2022
A new city analysis shows that a huge chunk of high-income earners fled in 2020.
Yet progressives refuse to hear the alarm bell: They’re pushing to “tax the rich” yet again instead.
The study by the city’s Independent Budget Office shows a 10% plunge in taxpayers who made over $750,000, and 6% of those with incomes between $150,000 and $750,000.
These now-former New Yorkers will no longer pay hefty taxes to the city or state, leaving significantly less revenue to fund progressives’ pet projects.
Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City calls the trend “ominous.”
Clearly, many taxpayers fled to escape New York’s off-the-chart taxes.
Yet the radicals who increasingly dominate local politics want to slam those who haven’t left even more: Last Monday, a group of advocates and elected officials launched a campaign for a ludicrous $40 billion in new taxes on the rich.
“Everybody always worries about whether billionaires and the wealthy are going to get up and leave from New York,” huffed Queens state Sen. Jessica Ramos.
“I’m sick of seeing working-class New Yorkers have to leave.”
If lower-income workers are fleeing, it’s not for lack of poorly funded social programs; New York leads the nation in such spending.
No, progressive policies that have allowed crime to skyrocket and schools to degrade would deserve much of the blame.
Meanwhile, the top 1% of taxpayers accounted for 45% of the city’s total income-tax liability in 2020; they’re the ones most sensitive to high taxes (the bottom 50% accounted for less than 4%).
Sure, other factors (like the weather and the lockdown) also pushed wealthy folks to split: As The Post has reported, Manhattanites who moved to sunny Palm Beach County, Fla., earned an average $728,351 each.
Some returned when the pandemic ended.
But the mass exodus came before progressives in Albany spiked state taxes by $4 billion in 2021, punishing mostly top-income New Yorkers with the highest state and local tax rate in the nation.
How many more high earners have left since, or will soon?
The loss of more tax revenue from top earners will only add to the massive budget gaps both the city and state face in coming years, which already threaten cuts to progressives’ beloved programs — and even to core services.
New York needs to stop driving away its tax base before there’s nothing left to bleed.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbu ... 708915ab03
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
THE NEW YORK POST
"The incredible shrinking NY: New proof that progressives are driving away residents — including millionaires who pay for their goodies"
Opinion by Post Editorial Board
28 DECEMBER 2022
New York’s #1 — in population decline.
Yes, for the second year in a row, we “led” the country by driving the most people out.
And, most alarming, the biggest earners who pay most taxes in the state are leaving with them.
The double whammy spells economic doom for the Empire State.
First, the overall decline.
This time, we took the dubious first-place prize in both the percent measure of a state’s population shrinkage (.9%) and the absolute size of the decline (around 180,000).
What an accomplishment!
The grim number now brings New York’s population loss, for the two-year period ending in last summer, to a stunning 431,000, around 2% of the state total.
And it’s clear this is being driven by outmigration: New York’s birth is well above its death rate.
Also, the drop here occurred even as other states grew.
Texas saw the biggest absolute increase, with 471,000; Florida took the crown for biggest percentage growth, 1.9%.
Our loss seems to be their gain.
Most worrisome: The rich have been fleeing in droves.
After all, they can afford to!
Between 2019 and 2020, the state lost 9.5% of its income tax filers making above $750,000 and 1.3% of its millionaires — following then-gov Andrew Cuomo’s moronic surtax on high earners, which was meant to pay for our COVID overreaction and made New York the highest-taxed state in the nation.
The drivers aren’t hard to fathom.
One was the state’s horrific (and useless) COVID mandates, which shuttered business and schools, cut off social life and immiserated millions, all while failing to do anything substantive to save lives.
Those rules are, thankfully, a thing of the past, but their disappearance hasn’t changed the other big issue here: that our overlords in Albany have created an economic climate that punishes wealthy job-creators and average Joes alike via stratospheric taxes, regulations that sock businesses and create massive shortages in housing (and soon, energy) and criminal-justice policies that drive up crime in the Big Apple as well as smaller cities and towns around the state.
Sure, other factors, like the weather, might also contribute to New York’s decline.
But there’s no denying that many now-ex-New Yorkers grew fed up with the state’s radically progressive politics, which take an enormous toll on the quality of life here — from jobs to schools to crime to taxes.
And the loss of wealthier New Yorkers, in particular, means big trouble ahead for the economy and the state’s (and city’s) fiscal future.
These are people, remember, who own and run the companies that provide jobs and investments to help the state grow.
And New York depends on their tax revenue to cover the cost of all the things progressives demand: In 2020, the top 1% of earners paid 46% of all income tax in the state.
If these people go, so do all the social programs lefties love.
To say nothing of jobs, be they on Wall Street or elsewhere.
And with New York facing a fiscal cliff — a $6.2 billion deficit projected for FY 2026 — capital flight means tax hikes for everyone or cuts in services folks rely on, often for their basic needs.
Here’s the indisputable bottom line: Unless New York’s progressives finally recognize reality and roll back their punitive policies, the state will continue to shrink — and with it, its economy, tax base and very future.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 100edba369
"The incredible shrinking NY: New proof that progressives are driving away residents — including millionaires who pay for their goodies"
Opinion by Post Editorial Board
28 DECEMBER 2022
New York’s #1 — in population decline.
Yes, for the second year in a row, we “led” the country by driving the most people out.
And, most alarming, the biggest earners who pay most taxes in the state are leaving with them.
The double whammy spells economic doom for the Empire State.
First, the overall decline.
This time, we took the dubious first-place prize in both the percent measure of a state’s population shrinkage (.9%) and the absolute size of the decline (around 180,000).
What an accomplishment!
The grim number now brings New York’s population loss, for the two-year period ending in last summer, to a stunning 431,000, around 2% of the state total.
And it’s clear this is being driven by outmigration: New York’s birth is well above its death rate.
Also, the drop here occurred even as other states grew.
Texas saw the biggest absolute increase, with 471,000; Florida took the crown for biggest percentage growth, 1.9%.
Our loss seems to be their gain.
Most worrisome: The rich have been fleeing in droves.
After all, they can afford to!
Between 2019 and 2020, the state lost 9.5% of its income tax filers making above $750,000 and 1.3% of its millionaires — following then-gov Andrew Cuomo’s moronic surtax on high earners, which was meant to pay for our COVID overreaction and made New York the highest-taxed state in the nation.
The drivers aren’t hard to fathom.
One was the state’s horrific (and useless) COVID mandates, which shuttered business and schools, cut off social life and immiserated millions, all while failing to do anything substantive to save lives.
Those rules are, thankfully, a thing of the past, but their disappearance hasn’t changed the other big issue here: that our overlords in Albany have created an economic climate that punishes wealthy job-creators and average Joes alike via stratospheric taxes, regulations that sock businesses and create massive shortages in housing (and soon, energy) and criminal-justice policies that drive up crime in the Big Apple as well as smaller cities and towns around the state.
Sure, other factors, like the weather, might also contribute to New York’s decline.
But there’s no denying that many now-ex-New Yorkers grew fed up with the state’s radically progressive politics, which take an enormous toll on the quality of life here — from jobs to schools to crime to taxes.
And the loss of wealthier New Yorkers, in particular, means big trouble ahead for the economy and the state’s (and city’s) fiscal future.
These are people, remember, who own and run the companies that provide jobs and investments to help the state grow.
And New York depends on their tax revenue to cover the cost of all the things progressives demand: In 2020, the top 1% of earners paid 46% of all income tax in the state.
If these people go, so do all the social programs lefties love.
To say nothing of jobs, be they on Wall Street or elsewhere.
And with New York facing a fiscal cliff — a $6.2 billion deficit projected for FY 2026 — capital flight means tax hikes for everyone or cuts in services folks rely on, often for their basic needs.
Here’s the indisputable bottom line: Unless New York’s progressives finally recognize reality and roll back their punitive policies, the state will continue to shrink — and with it, its economy, tax base and very future.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... 100edba369
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
"Rensselaer County's former GOP elections commissioner admits voter fraud - Jason T. Schofield pleaded guilty to voter fraud charges in U.S. District on Wednesday, admitting he fraudulently filed absentee ballots using the personal information of voters without their permission"
Robert Gavin, Albany, New York Times Union
Jan. 11, 2023
ALBANY — Jason T. Schofield, Rensselaer County's former Republican elections commissioner, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of voter fraud charges in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, admitting he fraudulently filed absentee ballots in 2021 using the personal information of at least eight voters without their permission.
The 43-year-old Schofield, joined by his attorney, Danielle Neroni, admitted to unlawful possession and use of a means of identification on five occasions in May, September and October 2021.
After detailing each count, U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino, asked Schofield how he pleaded.
“Guilty,” the Troy man responded.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty and for no other reason?” the judge asked Schofield.
“Yes, your honor,” he replied as courtroom observers, including FBI agents, looked on.
The guilty plea of Schofield is part of a broader, ongoing investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that led to the earlier guilty plea of now ex-Troy City Council Member Kimberly Ashe-McPherson.
The probe is examining the election activities of several top county officials.
When the judge asked Neroni if her client had a viable defense, should the case have gone to trial, Neroni indicated to D’Agostino that Schofield was pleading guilty, at least to an extent, against her advice.
“This is Mr. Schofield’s decision,” Neroni told D’Agostino.
“He wants to go forward."
"This is his choice.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett, in laying out the factual basis for Schofield’s guilty plea, said that on two occasions, Schofield acted on the request of Ashe-McPherson, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge in June.
“If I put a few names in [a state elections] portal, would you be able to give me ballots tomorrow and not mail it?” Schofield asked an employee, whom he supervised, at one point, according to Barnett.
The employee said yes, the prosecutor said.
Schofield did not have the lawful authority to use the voters’ names and dates of birth in the applications for absentee ballots, Barnett told the judge.
After listening to Barnett detail the charges, the judge asked Schofield: “Is that what you did and what occurred in this case?”
Schofield said yes.
Schofield faces 10 to 16 months behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines.
It could be as low as zero to six months depending on the circumstances at the time of his sentencing, which is set for May 12.
He agreed to waive an appeal on any sentence of 21 months or less.
Sources have told the Times Union that he has agreed to cooperate with federal authorities.
Schofield abruptly resigned from his commissioner position on Dec. 28, hours after the Times Union published a story on his decision to plead guilty to the federal charges.
The newspaper also reported that he would resign and cooperate with authorities as part of that plea agreement.
The change of plea notice was apparently a surprise to members of the Rensselaer County Legislature, who had voted on Dec. 13 to reappoint Schofield to the $89,041 job while his federal criminal case was pending.
Schofield was arrested in September outside his residence by the FBI on charges detailed in the indictment.
He initially pleaded not guilty but last month agreed to change his plea.
The indictment that charged Schofield with unlawful possession and use of a means of identification alleged that Schofield violated the law when Rensselaer County had elections for county executive, county clerk, County Legislature seats, the Troy City Council and mayor of the city of Rensselaer.
Schofield was named elections in commissioner in April 2018, the same month he resigned from the city of Troy's Board of Education, where he served for 15 years and was president for seven.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... 09a3f12c1f
Robert Gavin, Albany, New York Times Union
Jan. 11, 2023
ALBANY — Jason T. Schofield, Rensselaer County's former Republican elections commissioner, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of voter fraud charges in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, admitting he fraudulently filed absentee ballots in 2021 using the personal information of at least eight voters without their permission.
The 43-year-old Schofield, joined by his attorney, Danielle Neroni, admitted to unlawful possession and use of a means of identification on five occasions in May, September and October 2021.
After detailing each count, U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino, asked Schofield how he pleaded.
“Guilty,” the Troy man responded.
“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty and for no other reason?” the judge asked Schofield.
“Yes, your honor,” he replied as courtroom observers, including FBI agents, looked on.
The guilty plea of Schofield is part of a broader, ongoing investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that led to the earlier guilty plea of now ex-Troy City Council Member Kimberly Ashe-McPherson.
The probe is examining the election activities of several top county officials.
When the judge asked Neroni if her client had a viable defense, should the case have gone to trial, Neroni indicated to D’Agostino that Schofield was pleading guilty, at least to an extent, against her advice.
“This is Mr. Schofield’s decision,” Neroni told D’Agostino.
“He wants to go forward."
"This is his choice.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett, in laying out the factual basis for Schofield’s guilty plea, said that on two occasions, Schofield acted on the request of Ashe-McPherson, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge in June.
“If I put a few names in [a state elections] portal, would you be able to give me ballots tomorrow and not mail it?” Schofield asked an employee, whom he supervised, at one point, according to Barnett.
The employee said yes, the prosecutor said.
Schofield did not have the lawful authority to use the voters’ names and dates of birth in the applications for absentee ballots, Barnett told the judge.
After listening to Barnett detail the charges, the judge asked Schofield: “Is that what you did and what occurred in this case?”
Schofield said yes.
Schofield faces 10 to 16 months behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines.
It could be as low as zero to six months depending on the circumstances at the time of his sentencing, which is set for May 12.
He agreed to waive an appeal on any sentence of 21 months or less.
Sources have told the Times Union that he has agreed to cooperate with federal authorities.
Schofield abruptly resigned from his commissioner position on Dec. 28, hours after the Times Union published a story on his decision to plead guilty to the federal charges.
The newspaper also reported that he would resign and cooperate with authorities as part of that plea agreement.
The change of plea notice was apparently a surprise to members of the Rensselaer County Legislature, who had voted on Dec. 13 to reappoint Schofield to the $89,041 job while his federal criminal case was pending.
Schofield was arrested in September outside his residence by the FBI on charges detailed in the indictment.
He initially pleaded not guilty but last month agreed to change his plea.
The indictment that charged Schofield with unlawful possession and use of a means of identification alleged that Schofield violated the law when Rensselaer County had elections for county executive, county clerk, County Legislature seats, the Troy City Council and mayor of the city of Rensselaer.
Schofield was named elections in commissioner in April 2018, the same month he resigned from the city of Troy's Board of Education, where he served for 15 years and was president for seven.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... 09a3f12c1f
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
"McLaughlin trial begins in an anxious season for Rensselaer Co. GOP - County executive's case is separate from ongoing state, federal investigations into ballot fraud"
Kenneth C. Crowe II, Albany, New York Timkes Union
Jan. 22, 2023
TROY — With jury selection beginning Monday in the criminal trial of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, his fellow Republicans are watching and waiting for the latest developments in what has been an anxiety-inducing period.
And they are doing both of those things very quietly.
The reason: McLaughlin's case — felony charges that he stole from his campaign and filed falsified documents to cover it up — has been moving toward trial over the past 13 months as unrelated state and federal investigations of ballot fraud have been intensifying and already netted guilty pleas in U.S. District Court from two local GOP officials.
"Nobody is talking about it when that might get you before a grand jury," said a longtime Republican elected official and party activist, speaking on condition of anonymity.
McLaughlin's trial in Rensselaer County Court begins less than two weeks after former county Republican Elections Commissioner Jason T. Schofield pleaded guilty to federal charges and admitted fraudulently obtaining and filing absentee ballots using the personal information of at least eight voters without their permission.
He pleaded guilty seven months after former Troy Councilwoman Kim Ashe-McPherson pleaded guilty to similar federal charges.
The ongoing investigations have created a palpable level of anxiety in the county's political class, and a sense that other arrests may be imminent.
McLaughlin's case is being prosecuted by the Public Integrity Bureau for the state attorney general's office.
The voter fraud investigation that led to the two convictions is being conducted by the FBI and U.S. attorney's office, although the attorney general's office also has a parallel investigation ongoing into ballot fraud allegations in Rensselaer County.
McLaughlin's defense attorney is Benjamin W. Hill of Albany, who previously served as a law clerk to former U.S. Magistrate Randolph W. Treece and also was part of the defense team for former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, who was acquitted of federal corruption charges.
In the voter fraud case, a federal grand jury has been hearing testimony as a trove of election records from the county have been subpoenaed by the U.S. attorney's office and the state attorney general's office.
The federal investigation also led to at least two top-ranking county officials, Richard W. Crist, the county director of operations, and Jim Gordon, the county purchasing director who is also a North Greenbush town councilman, having their mobile phones seized last year.
McLaughlin, Crist and Gordon have significant political influence.
McLaughlin, whose post grants him access to a significant number of patronage positions, declared himself the "boss" of the county in a tape recording made during the 2019 Troy mayor’s race, in which he tried unsuccessfully to pressure GOP mayoral candidate Tom Reale to drop out.
Crist's expertise in running campaigns as a consultant as well as his oversight of campaign petitioning and absentee ballot efforts has made him a central asset for Republicans across the county.
("Rich is the Republican Party," one GOP official said.)
McLaughlin has pleaded not guilty to the state felony charges — third-degree grand larceny and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing — arising from the alleged misuse of campaign funds.
Interviewed by the Times Union during a public event on Thursday, McLaughlin assailed the charges.
"Despite the constant attacks, we are ready to go — I'm 100 percent innocent," he said during a break from the announcement of the grand opening of the Rensselaer County Emergency Services Training Complex in Wynantskill.
"This is a persecution much more than a prosecution."
"There is no case here, and a first-year law student could see that."
"So we're ready, and it's going to be just fine."
Asked whether the prosecution offered a plea deal to resolve the case and if he plans to testify at trial, McLaughlin declined comment.
The county executive is facing another challenge this winter: In December, McLaughlin announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and would be undergoing treatment.
He has said the diagnosis would not force him to leave office.
On Thursday, he said his health would not prompt him to request a delay in the trial.
"I've been ready to go since the day they launched this attack," McLaughlin said.
"No, it's not going to deter me; that's just something that I deal with."
If convicted of a felony, McLaughlin would under state law have to leave office.
Under the county charter, he would be succeeded by Deputy County Executive Mary Fran Wachunas, also the county health director, who was appointed by McLaughlin to the post and confirmed by the county Legislature in December.
The charges against McLaughlin, a former state assemblyman, arose from his use of campaign funds during his first successful campaign for county executive in 2017.
The state and federal absentee ballot fraud investigations are tied to elections in 2021, when McLaughlin won reelection with 63 percent of the vote.
But he has not been identified as a focus in the voter fraud probes.
McLaughlin is not the only Rensselaer County executive to face trial in a political corruption case in recent decades.
Republican Henry F. Zwack of Stephentown was acquitted in September 2001 of perjury charges in a case involving a no-show job.
Just eight months later, Zwack and four others were acquitted on 27 misdemeanor counts and seven felonies related to an alleged attempt to rig a 1998 civil service test in exchange for political support.
Between the two trials, Zwack resigned as county executive.
He went on to become a state Court of Claims judge and served as an acting state Supreme Court justice.
He retired from the bench in December.
McLaughlin stands accused of stealing $5,000 in funds from his campaign account on Nov. 21, 2017, and falsely reporting the expense in campaign documents filed with the state Board of Elections.
According to the charges, McLaughlin wrote a check from his campaign account to Hudson Valley Strategies, a consulting firm owned and operated by Crist.
The political operative allegedly deposited the check in his firm's bank account and then wrote a new check for $3,500 that he delivered to McLaughlin's former campaign treasurer, Jennifer R. Polaro, who had previously worked as McLaughlin's chief of staff in the Assembly.
Crist allegedly paid Polaro at the State Police barracks in Sand Lake.
At the time, Polaro and McLaughlin had recently had a falling out related in part to her allegations that he had assaulted her — a charge she retracted in a recording made by McLaughlin and then un-retracted a few months later.
He has denied any physical abuse, but apologized for using abusive language caught on a recording.
Amid that conflict, Polaro claimed that McLaughlin owed her money as well as the value of a laptop and iPad she had loaned him.
Polaro went to the State Police barracks as a neutral site to meet Crist.
A trooper, apparently unaware of the origin of the funds, facilitated the handoff.
"There's nothing illegal — ever — in what I did," McLaughlin said last week.
"I've been innocent every day."
"I've never taken money."
"I've never directed money to be spent on my behalf, and we will be victorious."
Polaro was arrested in March 2020 as part of the same investigation and charged with grand larceny, a felony, and petit larceny, a misdemeanor, for allegedly withdrawing funds from the former assemblyman's campaign account and spending the money at Rivers Casino in Schenectady years earlier.
Polaro pleaded guilty three years ago to a misdemeanor charge in Schenectady City Court.
She has been cooperating with law enforcement authorities, testified before the grand jury that indicted McLaughlin and is expected to testify at his trial.
The unrelated federal investigation into ballot fraud led to Schofield's Jan. 11 guilty plea to 12 counts of unlawful possession and use of a means of identification that he used to commit voter fraud.
Schofield has resigned his county post to which he had been reappointed in December by the county Legislature.
Last June, Ashe-McPherson — who in addition to her elected service on the Troy City Council had a county job — pleaded guilty to fraudulently submitting absentee ballots in the 2021 primary and general elections, in which she was a winning candidate.
The Conservative-Republican incumbent resigned her City Council seat representing the South Lansingburgh and North Central neighborhoods a day after pleading guilty.
The Times Union reported in October that the state attorney general's office had served a grand jury subpoena on Rensselaer County seeking a trove of absentee ballot documents that were handled last year by Crist and Gordon.
Though neither Crist nor Gordon has been accused of wrongdoing, there are concerns within the party that the ongoing investigations could distract or sideline them from their political work for this year's local elections.
The same attorney general's subpoena asked for absentee documents that may have been handled by county employees Leslie A. Wallace and Sara J. McDermott.
McDermott has held the Troy patronage post of "city marshal," and ran for county executive on the progressive Working Families Party line after beating McLaughlin's Democratic challenger, Gwen Wright, in a primary for the third-party line.
McDermott, who has been described by Republicans as a GOP operative, did not actively campaign for county executive; her primary run was viewed as an attempt to siphon votes away from Wright, whose name only appeared on the Democratic line.
It's a strategy that, like other forms of political warfare, has a long history in Rensselaer County.
Robert Gavin contributed reporting.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... 09a3f12c1f
Kenneth C. Crowe II, Albany, New York Timkes Union
Jan. 22, 2023
TROY — With jury selection beginning Monday in the criminal trial of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, his fellow Republicans are watching and waiting for the latest developments in what has been an anxiety-inducing period.
And they are doing both of those things very quietly.
The reason: McLaughlin's case — felony charges that he stole from his campaign and filed falsified documents to cover it up — has been moving toward trial over the past 13 months as unrelated state and federal investigations of ballot fraud have been intensifying and already netted guilty pleas in U.S. District Court from two local GOP officials.
"Nobody is talking about it when that might get you before a grand jury," said a longtime Republican elected official and party activist, speaking on condition of anonymity.
McLaughlin's trial in Rensselaer County Court begins less than two weeks after former county Republican Elections Commissioner Jason T. Schofield pleaded guilty to federal charges and admitted fraudulently obtaining and filing absentee ballots using the personal information of at least eight voters without their permission.
He pleaded guilty seven months after former Troy Councilwoman Kim Ashe-McPherson pleaded guilty to similar federal charges.
The ongoing investigations have created a palpable level of anxiety in the county's political class, and a sense that other arrests may be imminent.
McLaughlin's case is being prosecuted by the Public Integrity Bureau for the state attorney general's office.
The voter fraud investigation that led to the two convictions is being conducted by the FBI and U.S. attorney's office, although the attorney general's office also has a parallel investigation ongoing into ballot fraud allegations in Rensselaer County.
McLaughlin's defense attorney is Benjamin W. Hill of Albany, who previously served as a law clerk to former U.S. Magistrate Randolph W. Treece and also was part of the defense team for former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, who was acquitted of federal corruption charges.
In the voter fraud case, a federal grand jury has been hearing testimony as a trove of election records from the county have been subpoenaed by the U.S. attorney's office and the state attorney general's office.
The federal investigation also led to at least two top-ranking county officials, Richard W. Crist, the county director of operations, and Jim Gordon, the county purchasing director who is also a North Greenbush town councilman, having their mobile phones seized last year.
McLaughlin, Crist and Gordon have significant political influence.
McLaughlin, whose post grants him access to a significant number of patronage positions, declared himself the "boss" of the county in a tape recording made during the 2019 Troy mayor’s race, in which he tried unsuccessfully to pressure GOP mayoral candidate Tom Reale to drop out.
Crist's expertise in running campaigns as a consultant as well as his oversight of campaign petitioning and absentee ballot efforts has made him a central asset for Republicans across the county.
("Rich is the Republican Party," one GOP official said.)
McLaughlin has pleaded not guilty to the state felony charges — third-degree grand larceny and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing — arising from the alleged misuse of campaign funds.
Interviewed by the Times Union during a public event on Thursday, McLaughlin assailed the charges.
"Despite the constant attacks, we are ready to go — I'm 100 percent innocent," he said during a break from the announcement of the grand opening of the Rensselaer County Emergency Services Training Complex in Wynantskill.
"This is a persecution much more than a prosecution."
"There is no case here, and a first-year law student could see that."
"So we're ready, and it's going to be just fine."
Asked whether the prosecution offered a plea deal to resolve the case and if he plans to testify at trial, McLaughlin declined comment.
The county executive is facing another challenge this winter: In December, McLaughlin announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and would be undergoing treatment.
He has said the diagnosis would not force him to leave office.
On Thursday, he said his health would not prompt him to request a delay in the trial.
"I've been ready to go since the day they launched this attack," McLaughlin said.
"No, it's not going to deter me; that's just something that I deal with."
If convicted of a felony, McLaughlin would under state law have to leave office.
Under the county charter, he would be succeeded by Deputy County Executive Mary Fran Wachunas, also the county health director, who was appointed by McLaughlin to the post and confirmed by the county Legislature in December.
The charges against McLaughlin, a former state assemblyman, arose from his use of campaign funds during his first successful campaign for county executive in 2017.
The state and federal absentee ballot fraud investigations are tied to elections in 2021, when McLaughlin won reelection with 63 percent of the vote.
But he has not been identified as a focus in the voter fraud probes.
McLaughlin is not the only Rensselaer County executive to face trial in a political corruption case in recent decades.
Republican Henry F. Zwack of Stephentown was acquitted in September 2001 of perjury charges in a case involving a no-show job.
Just eight months later, Zwack and four others were acquitted on 27 misdemeanor counts and seven felonies related to an alleged attempt to rig a 1998 civil service test in exchange for political support.
Between the two trials, Zwack resigned as county executive.
He went on to become a state Court of Claims judge and served as an acting state Supreme Court justice.
He retired from the bench in December.
McLaughlin stands accused of stealing $5,000 in funds from his campaign account on Nov. 21, 2017, and falsely reporting the expense in campaign documents filed with the state Board of Elections.
According to the charges, McLaughlin wrote a check from his campaign account to Hudson Valley Strategies, a consulting firm owned and operated by Crist.
The political operative allegedly deposited the check in his firm's bank account and then wrote a new check for $3,500 that he delivered to McLaughlin's former campaign treasurer, Jennifer R. Polaro, who had previously worked as McLaughlin's chief of staff in the Assembly.
Crist allegedly paid Polaro at the State Police barracks in Sand Lake.
At the time, Polaro and McLaughlin had recently had a falling out related in part to her allegations that he had assaulted her — a charge she retracted in a recording made by McLaughlin and then un-retracted a few months later.
He has denied any physical abuse, but apologized for using abusive language caught on a recording.
Amid that conflict, Polaro claimed that McLaughlin owed her money as well as the value of a laptop and iPad she had loaned him.
Polaro went to the State Police barracks as a neutral site to meet Crist.
A trooper, apparently unaware of the origin of the funds, facilitated the handoff.
"There's nothing illegal — ever — in what I did," McLaughlin said last week.
"I've been innocent every day."
"I've never taken money."
"I've never directed money to be spent on my behalf, and we will be victorious."
Polaro was arrested in March 2020 as part of the same investigation and charged with grand larceny, a felony, and petit larceny, a misdemeanor, for allegedly withdrawing funds from the former assemblyman's campaign account and spending the money at Rivers Casino in Schenectady years earlier.
Polaro pleaded guilty three years ago to a misdemeanor charge in Schenectady City Court.
She has been cooperating with law enforcement authorities, testified before the grand jury that indicted McLaughlin and is expected to testify at his trial.
The unrelated federal investigation into ballot fraud led to Schofield's Jan. 11 guilty plea to 12 counts of unlawful possession and use of a means of identification that he used to commit voter fraud.
Schofield has resigned his county post to which he had been reappointed in December by the county Legislature.
Last June, Ashe-McPherson — who in addition to her elected service on the Troy City Council had a county job — pleaded guilty to fraudulently submitting absentee ballots in the 2021 primary and general elections, in which she was a winning candidate.
The Conservative-Republican incumbent resigned her City Council seat representing the South Lansingburgh and North Central neighborhoods a day after pleading guilty.
The Times Union reported in October that the state attorney general's office had served a grand jury subpoena on Rensselaer County seeking a trove of absentee ballot documents that were handled last year by Crist and Gordon.
Though neither Crist nor Gordon has been accused of wrongdoing, there are concerns within the party that the ongoing investigations could distract or sideline them from their political work for this year's local elections.
The same attorney general's subpoena asked for absentee documents that may have been handled by county employees Leslie A. Wallace and Sara J. McDermott.
McDermott has held the Troy patronage post of "city marshal," and ran for county executive on the progressive Working Families Party line after beating McLaughlin's Democratic challenger, Gwen Wright, in a primary for the third-party line.
McDermott, who has been described by Republicans as a GOP operative, did not actively campaign for county executive; her primary run was viewed as an attempt to siphon votes away from Wright, whose name only appeared on the Democratic line.
It's a strategy that, like other forms of political warfare, has a long history in Rensselaer County.
Robert Gavin contributed reporting.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... 09a3f12c1f
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
"Jury seated in trial of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin - State prosecutors will try to prove the Republican stole from his campaign and filed false documents to cover it up"
Robert Gavin
Jan. 23, 2023
Updated: Jan. 23, 2023 6:55 p.m.
TROY — A jury was selected Monday afternoon in the trial of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, who is accused of stealing from his campaign and filing false documents to cover it up.
Nine women and five men, including two alternate jurors, were sworn in for the trial of the 59-year-old Republican as selection began in Rensselaer County Court amid a snowstorm.
County Judge Jennifer Sober is presiding over the trial.
Opening arguments are expected after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
McLaughlin, a former state assemblyman, is facing charges in connection with his use of campaign funds during his first campaign for county executive in 2017.
Prosecutors for state Attorney General Letitia James allege that on Nov. 21, 2017, McLaughlin stole $5,000 from his campaign account and falsely reported the expense to the state Board of Elections.
The prosecutors, who include Assistant Attorneys General Christopher Baynes, Benjamin Mastaitis and Shadi Masri, allege McLaughlin wrote a check from his campaign account to Hudson Valley Strategies, run by Richard Crist, the county’s director of operations.
Crist deposited it in his firm’s bank account and wrote a $3,500 check to McLaughlin’s campaign treasurer at the time, Jennifer Polaro, who had been McLaughlin’s chief of staff in the Assembly.
She claimed McLaughlin owed her money and the value of a laptop and iPad she had loaned to him.
Crist gave the check to Polaro at the State Police barracks in Sand Lake.
Polaro is among as many as 10 witnesses who are expected to testify at the trial for both the prosecution and defense.
Last week, McLaughlin told the Times Union he was ready for the trial and “100 percent innocent” of the charges, calling it a “persecution much more than a prosecution.”
McLaughlin is being represented by defense attorneys Thomas Capezza and Benjamin Hill.
The judge disqualified some prospective jurors, including a woman who said she would have a difficult time viewing the case objectively.
Another would-be juror told Sober that she and her daughter worked for the county and that her husband had donated to McLaughlin’s campaign.
Another among those not selected was a member of the National Rifle Association who told the judge that he would have a difficult time deciding McLaughlin's case.
“I’ve supported him since he’s been in office."
"He’s been standing up for me,” he told the judge during questioning by Mastaitis.
Hill then asked the man if he could be objective on the facts of the case.
After a pause, he stated: “I think I’m biased.”
The jury was finalized about 3:45 p.m.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... 09a3f12c1f
Robert Gavin
Jan. 23, 2023
Updated: Jan. 23, 2023 6:55 p.m.
TROY — A jury was selected Monday afternoon in the trial of Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, who is accused of stealing from his campaign and filing false documents to cover it up.
Nine women and five men, including two alternate jurors, were sworn in for the trial of the 59-year-old Republican as selection began in Rensselaer County Court amid a snowstorm.
County Judge Jennifer Sober is presiding over the trial.
Opening arguments are expected after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
McLaughlin, a former state assemblyman, is facing charges in connection with his use of campaign funds during his first campaign for county executive in 2017.
Prosecutors for state Attorney General Letitia James allege that on Nov. 21, 2017, McLaughlin stole $5,000 from his campaign account and falsely reported the expense to the state Board of Elections.
The prosecutors, who include Assistant Attorneys General Christopher Baynes, Benjamin Mastaitis and Shadi Masri, allege McLaughlin wrote a check from his campaign account to Hudson Valley Strategies, run by Richard Crist, the county’s director of operations.
Crist deposited it in his firm’s bank account and wrote a $3,500 check to McLaughlin’s campaign treasurer at the time, Jennifer Polaro, who had been McLaughlin’s chief of staff in the Assembly.
She claimed McLaughlin owed her money and the value of a laptop and iPad she had loaned to him.
Crist gave the check to Polaro at the State Police barracks in Sand Lake.
Polaro is among as many as 10 witnesses who are expected to testify at the trial for both the prosecution and defense.
Last week, McLaughlin told the Times Union he was ready for the trial and “100 percent innocent” of the charges, calling it a “persecution much more than a prosecution.”
McLaughlin is being represented by defense attorneys Thomas Capezza and Benjamin Hill.
The judge disqualified some prospective jurors, including a woman who said she would have a difficult time viewing the case objectively.
Another would-be juror told Sober that she and her daughter worked for the county and that her husband had donated to McLaughlin’s campaign.
Another among those not selected was a member of the National Rifle Association who told the judge that he would have a difficult time deciding McLaughlin's case.
“I’ve supported him since he’s been in office."
"He’s been standing up for me,” he told the judge during questioning by Mastaitis.
Hill then asked the man if he could be objective on the facts of the case.
After a pause, he stated: “I think I’m biased.”
The jury was finalized about 3:45 p.m.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... 09a3f12c1f
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
"Prosecutor: Steve McLaughlin's campaign fund was 'personal piggy bank' - During opening argument, assistant attorney general says the Rensselaer County executive stole from campaign account, covered it up. McLaughlin's lawyer argues politics are behind prosecution."
Robert Gavin, Albany, New York Times Union
Jan. 24, 2023
Updated: Jan. 24, 2023 8:26 p.m.
TROY — A state prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin stole $5,000 from his campaign fund to covertly pay back a former top staffer — then covered it up.
“We intend to show that the defendant in Rensselaer County in 2017 used his campaign fund as a personal piggy bank for his own expenses,” assistant Attorney General Christopher Baynes told the jury in a 15-minute opening statement at McLaughlin’s grand larceny trial.
“That’s what this case is about.”
McLaughlin, 59, sat beside his attorneys as Baynes described him as a criminal.
It is illegal to use campaign money for a non-campaign-related purpose.
McLaughlin, a Republican elected in 2017, is charged with third-degree grand larceny and offering a false instrument for filing, both felonies.
The larceny charge carries a maximum of seven years in prison.
One of his attorneys, Thomas A. Capezza, a former longtime Assistant U.S. attorney in Albany, scoffed at the charges in his opening statement of nearly nine minutes.
He immediately noted that the allegedly illegal exchange took place at a State Police barracks in West Sand Lake as arranged by his client.
“Criminals do not call the New York State Police to supervise their crimes,” Capezza said.
“Earning money is not stealing it.”
He suggested politics were at play, saying the attorney general’s office headed by Democrat Letitia James “took the view that we have the target."
"Now let’s find the crime.”
Capezza added that the state set its sights on “the Republican county executive.”
The trial comes as McLaughlin, an outspoken figure, is facing a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer.
He has said he is “100 percent innocent” and would be vindicated.
The prosecution’s case, Baynes told jurors, revolves mostly around the events of a single day.
On Nov. 21, 2017, he said, McLaughlin wrote a campaign check for $5,000 to an intermediary, Richard W. Crist, who then paid $3,500 to a former campaign staffer, Jennifer Polaro, at a State Police barracks in Rensselaer County.
Polaro had previously worked as McLaughlin’s chief of staff in the state Assembly and had been treasurer of his state election campaign.
Baynes said on Dec. 4, 2017, McLaughlin listed the payment to Crist’s consulting firm, Hudson Valley Strategies, as a campaign expense with the state Board of Elections.
Baynes described Crist, who was not charged, as an employee or associate of McLaughlin.
Crist is now the county’s director of operations and a longtime influential Republican operative in Rensselaer County.
Baynes said on the day of the alleged theft, Crist deposited the $5,000 check from McLaughlin’s campaign in a Key Bank account.
He said Crist then drew a new check from another Key Bank branch to pay the $3,500 back to Polaro.
Polaro had wanted payment back from a loan or gift to McLaughlin in addition to a laptop, iPad and a dog later identified by the name of Batman, Baynes told jurors.
The prosecutor said evidence against McLaughlin includes phone records, text messages and emails.
“It’s not his money."
"It’s not personal money."
"It’s campaign money."
"It’s donated by folks who are backing a political campaign, not bankrolling a person’s lifestyle,” Baynes told jurors.
Polaro took the stand Tuesday afternoon, testifying that she had loaned McLaughlin the $3,500 to pay for a rental property and for the final payment for ashes of McLaughlin’s late mother.
“Hey d——bag, when can I get my money?” Polaro text-messaged McLaughlin at one point, according to evidence submitted at trial.
Polaro’s cross-examination by McLaughlin attorney Benjamin Hill became testy when the attorney asked Polaro about a past conviction for stealing money from McLaughlin’s Assembly campaign in 2017 to use on gambling at Rivers Casino in Schenectady.
Polaro initially denied it emphatically.
Hill confronted the witness with court documents showing the factual basis from Polaro’s 2020 guilty plea to petit larceny.
She had used the ATM card for the campaign at the casino for gambling between March 31, 2017 and Oct. 17, 2017.
“How much did you steal?” Hill asked Polaro.
“I don’t recall,” she replied.
“Was it more than $1,000?” Hill pressed.
“I don’t remember,” Polaro answered.
“Probably not.”
In an attempt to show that McLaughlin was being unjustly charged, Hill asked Polaro if she ever filed documents with the state Board of Elections reflecting her thefts and if she was ever charged for the omission.
She said she had not.
Hill grilled Polaro about her cooperation agreement with the prosecutors — and noted that it will allow her to escape jail time.
Hill asked Polaro if she ever paid back the money she received from Crist or that she stole from McLaughlin’s Assembly campaign.
She said no.
“So you’re getting paid to testify here today?” Hill asked Polaro.
Baynes immediately objected.
The judge sustained the objection.
Baynes later elicited testimony from Polaro that she approached prosecutors about her thefts from McLaughlin’s Assembly campaign, not the other way around.
Capezza told the jury that McLaughlin’s campaign was not deprived of any money.
He said Crist was paid for his work as his client’s campaign manager in both the GOP primary and the general election.
He noted that there was a second payment of $7,500 to Crist.
He said Crist had his own reasons for wanting to pay Polaro.
“There will be no evidence of coercion, no evidence that he was controlled, no evidence that he was forced,” Capezza said.
The first witness was the State Police sergeant who oversaw the meeting between Crist and Polaro at the barracks.
He said McLaughlin had earlier called him wanting to cease contact with Polaro, who had been calling McLaughlin about wanting her money back.
The trial is expected to have about 10 witnesses.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... 09a3f12c1f
Robert Gavin, Albany, New York Times Union
Jan. 24, 2023
Updated: Jan. 24, 2023 8:26 p.m.
TROY — A state prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin stole $5,000 from his campaign fund to covertly pay back a former top staffer — then covered it up.
“We intend to show that the defendant in Rensselaer County in 2017 used his campaign fund as a personal piggy bank for his own expenses,” assistant Attorney General Christopher Baynes told the jury in a 15-minute opening statement at McLaughlin’s grand larceny trial.
“That’s what this case is about.”
McLaughlin, 59, sat beside his attorneys as Baynes described him as a criminal.
It is illegal to use campaign money for a non-campaign-related purpose.
McLaughlin, a Republican elected in 2017, is charged with third-degree grand larceny and offering a false instrument for filing, both felonies.
The larceny charge carries a maximum of seven years in prison.
One of his attorneys, Thomas A. Capezza, a former longtime Assistant U.S. attorney in Albany, scoffed at the charges in his opening statement of nearly nine minutes.
He immediately noted that the allegedly illegal exchange took place at a State Police barracks in West Sand Lake as arranged by his client.
“Criminals do not call the New York State Police to supervise their crimes,” Capezza said.
“Earning money is not stealing it.”
He suggested politics were at play, saying the attorney general’s office headed by Democrat Letitia James “took the view that we have the target."
"Now let’s find the crime.”
Capezza added that the state set its sights on “the Republican county executive.”
The trial comes as McLaughlin, an outspoken figure, is facing a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer.
He has said he is “100 percent innocent” and would be vindicated.
The prosecution’s case, Baynes told jurors, revolves mostly around the events of a single day.
On Nov. 21, 2017, he said, McLaughlin wrote a campaign check for $5,000 to an intermediary, Richard W. Crist, who then paid $3,500 to a former campaign staffer, Jennifer Polaro, at a State Police barracks in Rensselaer County.
Polaro had previously worked as McLaughlin’s chief of staff in the state Assembly and had been treasurer of his state election campaign.
Baynes said on Dec. 4, 2017, McLaughlin listed the payment to Crist’s consulting firm, Hudson Valley Strategies, as a campaign expense with the state Board of Elections.
Baynes described Crist, who was not charged, as an employee or associate of McLaughlin.
Crist is now the county’s director of operations and a longtime influential Republican operative in Rensselaer County.
Baynes said on the day of the alleged theft, Crist deposited the $5,000 check from McLaughlin’s campaign in a Key Bank account.
He said Crist then drew a new check from another Key Bank branch to pay the $3,500 back to Polaro.
Polaro had wanted payment back from a loan or gift to McLaughlin in addition to a laptop, iPad and a dog later identified by the name of Batman, Baynes told jurors.
The prosecutor said evidence against McLaughlin includes phone records, text messages and emails.
“It’s not his money."
"It’s not personal money."
"It’s campaign money."
"It’s donated by folks who are backing a political campaign, not bankrolling a person’s lifestyle,” Baynes told jurors.
Polaro took the stand Tuesday afternoon, testifying that she had loaned McLaughlin the $3,500 to pay for a rental property and for the final payment for ashes of McLaughlin’s late mother.
“Hey d——bag, when can I get my money?” Polaro text-messaged McLaughlin at one point, according to evidence submitted at trial.
Polaro’s cross-examination by McLaughlin attorney Benjamin Hill became testy when the attorney asked Polaro about a past conviction for stealing money from McLaughlin’s Assembly campaign in 2017 to use on gambling at Rivers Casino in Schenectady.
Polaro initially denied it emphatically.
Hill confronted the witness with court documents showing the factual basis from Polaro’s 2020 guilty plea to petit larceny.
She had used the ATM card for the campaign at the casino for gambling between March 31, 2017 and Oct. 17, 2017.
“How much did you steal?” Hill asked Polaro.
“I don’t recall,” she replied.
“Was it more than $1,000?” Hill pressed.
“I don’t remember,” Polaro answered.
“Probably not.”
In an attempt to show that McLaughlin was being unjustly charged, Hill asked Polaro if she ever filed documents with the state Board of Elections reflecting her thefts and if she was ever charged for the omission.
She said she had not.
Hill grilled Polaro about her cooperation agreement with the prosecutors — and noted that it will allow her to escape jail time.
Hill asked Polaro if she ever paid back the money she received from Crist or that she stole from McLaughlin’s Assembly campaign.
She said no.
“So you’re getting paid to testify here today?” Hill asked Polaro.
Baynes immediately objected.
The judge sustained the objection.
Baynes later elicited testimony from Polaro that she approached prosecutors about her thefts from McLaughlin’s Assembly campaign, not the other way around.
Capezza told the jury that McLaughlin’s campaign was not deprived of any money.
He said Crist was paid for his work as his client’s campaign manager in both the GOP primary and the general election.
He noted that there was a second payment of $7,500 to Crist.
He said Crist had his own reasons for wanting to pay Polaro.
“There will be no evidence of coercion, no evidence that he was controlled, no evidence that he was forced,” Capezza said.
The first witness was the State Police sergeant who oversaw the meeting between Crist and Polaro at the barracks.
He said McLaughlin had earlier called him wanting to cease contact with Polaro, who had been calling McLaughlin about wanting her money back.
The trial is expected to have about 10 witnesses.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... 09a3f12c1f
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
"Not guilty: Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin acquitted - Jury quickly decided case in favor of county's top official after closing arguments on Wednesday"
Robert Gavin, Albany, New York Times Union
Jan. 25, 2023
Updated: Jan. 25, 2023 6:54 p.m.
TROY — Rensselaer County Executive Steven F. McLaughlin was acquitted Wednesday afternoon on all charges in a criminal case in which he was accused of stealing $5,000 from his campaign and falsifying records to cover it up.
He did not have to wait long for the verdict: Jurors began deliberations at about 3:45 p.m. and delivered their decision within an hour.
The former state assemblyman's attorneys hugged supporters in Rensselaer County Court after the verdict was read, prompting applause in the small courtroom.
The two rows of seats for the public were mostly filled during the day-and-a-half-long trial.
McLaughlin emerged from the courtroom and greeted reporters: "Hello everyone; how was your day?"
The Republican, who was elected county executive in 2017, thanked the jury, the judge and his attorneys, Thomas A. Capezza and Benjamin W. Hill.
He said his attorneys "saw this case for what it was right from the beginning."
McLaughlin, who had previously suggested the charges leveled against him by the office of Democrat state Attorney General Letitia James were politically motivated, thanked his family, friends, his girlfriend, her children and his children and "all the ... citizens of Rensselaer County who have supported me throughout the years."
"They know the good work that we’re doing and we’re going to continue to do the good work."
McLaughlin added: "With that, you all have a good night — we’ll speak later on."
Capezza declined comment beyond saying, "It’s (McLaughlin’s) day."
"The jury did what they needed to do and there’s nothing more to say."
"Obviously we think the jury got it right," Hill said.
"It wasn’t a very complicated case."
"It came down to, 'Did he steal? Did he not?'"
"They decided he didn’t and they got it right."
McLaughlin, 59, had faced the prospect of being ousted from the county's top office if convicted.
James issued a statement following the verdict saying that while she is "disappointed in the jury’s finding today, I respect their decision."
"I am proud of the case we brought before the court and stand by our efforts to hold County Executive McLaughlin accountable," James added.
"New Yorkers deserve to have faith in their public officials and can always count on my office to investigate allegations of corruption and fight for public integrity."
The two-day trial revolved around the issuance of a $5,000 campaign check to Richard W. Crist on Nov. 21, 2017, which a state prosecutor described as a crime covertly orchestrated by a powerful but financially strapped political boss through his "bagman."
McLaughlin's defense said he was simply paying Crist, his political consultant and currently the county's operations director, for a job well done.
He was charged with third-degree grand larceny, a felony that could have carried up to seven years in prison had he been convicted, and offering a false instrument for filing in the first-degree.
The jury had the option of convicting McLaughlin of second-degree offering a false instrument for filing, a less severe charge.
Prosecutors alleged that McLaughlin used the $5,000 from his campaign fund and induced Crist to pay off a debt of $3,500 that he owed to Jennifer Polaro, who had been his chief of staff in the state Assembly, during an exchange at a State Police barracks in West Sand Lake.
Neither Crist nor Polaro were charged.
Polaro pleaded guilty three years ago to a misdemeanor petit larceny charge for stealing money from McLaughlin’s Assembly campaign to use for gambling at Rivers Casino and Resort in 2017.
Her case was part of the same investigation that led to the county executive's indictment and also was prosecuted by the state attorney general's Public Integrity Unit.
Prosecutors contended McLaughlin covered up his alleged payment to Polaro — whose volatile relationship with McLaughlin nearly derailed his initial run for county office — by listing it as an election consultant expense to Crist in a December 2017 filing with the state Board of Elections.
It is illegal to use campaign funds for non-campaign purposes, including personal expenses.
Assistant Attorneys General Christopher Baynes and Benjamin Mastaitis argued McLaughlin had paid Polaro to settle the personal debt.
Polaro testified Tuesday that she had loaned McLaughlin money for a rental property and the final payment for his late mother’s ashes.
In a 35-minute closing argument, Baynes said McLaughlin’s bank records showed that the defendant was broke on the day he allegedly stole the $5,000 from his campaign.
Baynes argued that Polaro was becoming an issue for McLaughlin that needed to be addressed.
"Want to know why this happened?"
"It was to shut her up, and he didn’t have any money," Baynes said.
He described McLaughlin as a "puppet master" who directed underlings to do his bidding, including the payment to Polaro.
"I ask you to make the defendant responsible for using his campaign — and, frankly, his employees — as a personal piggy bank," the prosecutor told jurors.
The defense contended Crist was paid for his work as a consultant to run McLaughlin’s primary and election campaigns for county executive.
In a closing argument of nearly 40 minutes, Hill told jurors that Crist had paid Polaro on his own.
He said McLaughlin did not want to pay Polaro, but Crist had every legal right to pay her.
"It’s not a case of a no-show job; it’s not a sham payment," Hill told jurors.
"All of this was done in the open."
Earlier Wednesday, the final prosecution witness, Sara Pogorzelski, a supervising analyst with the attorney general's office, testified about her compilation of evidence — including bank records, phone calls and text messages — since late 2017.
Under cross-examination, Hill grilled Pogorzelski about an error she made when testifying before a grand jury about Crist’s payments to Polaro.
She said she adjusted the error on Tuesday night.
"And this is an investigation that’s been going on since 2017?" Hill said.
“Correct,” the witness responded.
He asked Pogorzelski if she was aware that McLaughlin had a 401K retirement savings account, life insurance and a state pension — all of which he could have borrowed against.
Pogorzelski said she was unaware of that information.
Hill also revealed through his questions to Pogorzelski that other officials in the county — including Judges Debra Young and Paul Morgan, as well as former U.S. Rep. John Faso — had paid Crist for his political consulting services.
And he elicited testimony that a news release issued at the time of McLaughlin’s arrest noted that if convicted of a felony, he would have to step down from his post.
Baynes objected, and the judge sustained it.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... #taboola-1
Robert Gavin, Albany, New York Times Union
Jan. 25, 2023
Updated: Jan. 25, 2023 6:54 p.m.
TROY — Rensselaer County Executive Steven F. McLaughlin was acquitted Wednesday afternoon on all charges in a criminal case in which he was accused of stealing $5,000 from his campaign and falsifying records to cover it up.
He did not have to wait long for the verdict: Jurors began deliberations at about 3:45 p.m. and delivered their decision within an hour.
The former state assemblyman's attorneys hugged supporters in Rensselaer County Court after the verdict was read, prompting applause in the small courtroom.
The two rows of seats for the public were mostly filled during the day-and-a-half-long trial.
McLaughlin emerged from the courtroom and greeted reporters: "Hello everyone; how was your day?"
The Republican, who was elected county executive in 2017, thanked the jury, the judge and his attorneys, Thomas A. Capezza and Benjamin W. Hill.
He said his attorneys "saw this case for what it was right from the beginning."
McLaughlin, who had previously suggested the charges leveled against him by the office of Democrat state Attorney General Letitia James were politically motivated, thanked his family, friends, his girlfriend, her children and his children and "all the ... citizens of Rensselaer County who have supported me throughout the years."
"They know the good work that we’re doing and we’re going to continue to do the good work."
McLaughlin added: "With that, you all have a good night — we’ll speak later on."
Capezza declined comment beyond saying, "It’s (McLaughlin’s) day."
"The jury did what they needed to do and there’s nothing more to say."
"Obviously we think the jury got it right," Hill said.
"It wasn’t a very complicated case."
"It came down to, 'Did he steal? Did he not?'"
"They decided he didn’t and they got it right."
McLaughlin, 59, had faced the prospect of being ousted from the county's top office if convicted.
James issued a statement following the verdict saying that while she is "disappointed in the jury’s finding today, I respect their decision."
"I am proud of the case we brought before the court and stand by our efforts to hold County Executive McLaughlin accountable," James added.
"New Yorkers deserve to have faith in their public officials and can always count on my office to investigate allegations of corruption and fight for public integrity."
The two-day trial revolved around the issuance of a $5,000 campaign check to Richard W. Crist on Nov. 21, 2017, which a state prosecutor described as a crime covertly orchestrated by a powerful but financially strapped political boss through his "bagman."
McLaughlin's defense said he was simply paying Crist, his political consultant and currently the county's operations director, for a job well done.
He was charged with third-degree grand larceny, a felony that could have carried up to seven years in prison had he been convicted, and offering a false instrument for filing in the first-degree.
The jury had the option of convicting McLaughlin of second-degree offering a false instrument for filing, a less severe charge.
Prosecutors alleged that McLaughlin used the $5,000 from his campaign fund and induced Crist to pay off a debt of $3,500 that he owed to Jennifer Polaro, who had been his chief of staff in the state Assembly, during an exchange at a State Police barracks in West Sand Lake.
Neither Crist nor Polaro were charged.
Polaro pleaded guilty three years ago to a misdemeanor petit larceny charge for stealing money from McLaughlin’s Assembly campaign to use for gambling at Rivers Casino and Resort in 2017.
Her case was part of the same investigation that led to the county executive's indictment and also was prosecuted by the state attorney general's Public Integrity Unit.
Prosecutors contended McLaughlin covered up his alleged payment to Polaro — whose volatile relationship with McLaughlin nearly derailed his initial run for county office — by listing it as an election consultant expense to Crist in a December 2017 filing with the state Board of Elections.
It is illegal to use campaign funds for non-campaign purposes, including personal expenses.
Assistant Attorneys General Christopher Baynes and Benjamin Mastaitis argued McLaughlin had paid Polaro to settle the personal debt.
Polaro testified Tuesday that she had loaned McLaughlin money for a rental property and the final payment for his late mother’s ashes.
In a 35-minute closing argument, Baynes said McLaughlin’s bank records showed that the defendant was broke on the day he allegedly stole the $5,000 from his campaign.
Baynes argued that Polaro was becoming an issue for McLaughlin that needed to be addressed.
"Want to know why this happened?"
"It was to shut her up, and he didn’t have any money," Baynes said.
He described McLaughlin as a "puppet master" who directed underlings to do his bidding, including the payment to Polaro.
"I ask you to make the defendant responsible for using his campaign — and, frankly, his employees — as a personal piggy bank," the prosecutor told jurors.
The defense contended Crist was paid for his work as a consultant to run McLaughlin’s primary and election campaigns for county executive.
In a closing argument of nearly 40 minutes, Hill told jurors that Crist had paid Polaro on his own.
He said McLaughlin did not want to pay Polaro, but Crist had every legal right to pay her.
"It’s not a case of a no-show job; it’s not a sham payment," Hill told jurors.
"All of this was done in the open."
Earlier Wednesday, the final prosecution witness, Sara Pogorzelski, a supervising analyst with the attorney general's office, testified about her compilation of evidence — including bank records, phone calls and text messages — since late 2017.
Under cross-examination, Hill grilled Pogorzelski about an error she made when testifying before a grand jury about Crist’s payments to Polaro.
She said she adjusted the error on Tuesday night.
"And this is an investigation that’s been going on since 2017?" Hill said.
“Correct,” the witness responded.
He asked Pogorzelski if she was aware that McLaughlin had a 401K retirement savings account, life insurance and a state pension — all of which he could have borrowed against.
Pogorzelski said she was unaware of that information.
Hill also revealed through his questions to Pogorzelski that other officials in the county — including Judges Debra Young and Paul Morgan, as well as former U.S. Rep. John Faso — had paid Crist for his political consulting services.
And he elicited testimony that a news release issued at the time of McLaughlin’s arrest noted that if convicted of a felony, he would have to step down from his post.
Baynes objected, and the judge sustained it.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... #taboola-1
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
THE NEW YORK POSTNOVEMBER 03, 2022
Remarks by President Biden on Standing up for Democracy
Columbus Club, Union Station
Washington, D.C.
(November 2, 2022)
7:01 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, everyone.
We, the people, must decide whether the rule of law will prevail or whether we’ll allow the dark forces to thirst — that thirst for power put ahead of the principles that we — have long guided us.
And I want to be very clear: This is not about me.
It’s about all of us.
It’s about what makes America “America.”
It’s about the durability of our democracy.
For democracies are more than a form of government.
They’re a way of being, a way of seeing the world — a way that defines who we are, what we believe, why we do what we do.
Democracy is simply that fundamental.
We must, in this moment, dig deep within ourselves and recognize that we can’t take democracy for granted any longer.
With democracy on the ballot, we have to remember these first principles.
Democracy means the rule of the people — not the rule of monarchs or the monied, but the rule of the people.
Autocracy is the opposite of democracy.
It means the rule of one: one person, one interest, one ideology, one party.
"‘Affront to democracy’: NY Assembly move to snuff out GOP voices in Albany"
Story by Zach Williams
7 FEBRUARY 2023
Albany Democrats tightened their vice-like grip over New York’s legislative agenda Tuesday with a power play aimed at preventing debate on topics like bail reform.
The Democratic Assembly supermajority is now putting a strict limit on the number of times per year members can force committee votes on bills — a move that allows them to effectively block the vast majority of GOP-backed legislation without discussion.
"It’s not just the bills that actually get considered."
"It forces conversations,” said Assemblyman Ed Ra (R-Valley Stream).
“This is another way of centralizing power.”
The moved was introduced by Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D-Buffalo), a top lieutenant of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx).
Another change, also approved in a Monday resolution, effectively requires GOP lawmakers to attend legislative sessions — while allowing Democrats to vote yes by default.
Assembly members traditionally could force committee votes on bills by leveraging a parliamentary maneuver called a “99” — forcing chairs to hold votes before the end of the regularly scheduled legislative session in June.
Republicans have leveraged a 99, also known as a Motion to Discharge, in the past to force Democrats to state on the record their opposition to making more gun crimes bail-eligible, preventing parole for child murderers and making shooting at a “public safety officer” a Class B felony, among other bills.
“It basically holds us all accountable,” said Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-Staten Island), who has used the maneuver to get left-leaning Democrats to say on the record why they do not want judges to have more discretion to jail people pre-trial.
But GOP legislators are now limited to doing that just four times per year compared to the past when an individual member could theoretically make such a move on nearly 200 bills per year.
“This is all designed to reduce the number of Republican bills that they even have to look at and reduce the number of bills they have to explain why they’re not voting in favor of,” Assemblyman Andy Goodell (R-Jamestown), the GOP floor leader, said Tuesday.
Lawmakers from both parties have also leaned on the move in recent years as part of efforts to overcome committee chairs resisting bills ranging from a progressive push to expand public power last year to a 2019 GOP push to give “Gold Star families” more tuition assistance.
The timing of the rule change struck Republicans as suspicious considering how Assembly Democrats only began broadcasting committee meetings following years of criticism about a lack of transparency compared to the state Senate.
“Seems like a total coincidence that just weeks after the Assembly finally started streaming Committee meetings the Majority is passing a rules change to limit the ability of members to force committee consideration of their bills!” Ra tweeted Monday.
Republicans also expressed outrage they are also outraged over another change to Assembly rules that lets legislators skip sessions of the full chamber as long as they are OK with being listed as a yes vote unless a “slow roll call” is allowed in the chamber dominated by the Democratic supermajority.
Anyone who wants to vote against bills coming up for floor votes will have to physically come into the chamber per the change, which follows the December approval by Albany Democrats of a $32,000 pay bump that makes the $142,000 salary given to New York state lawmakers the highest in the nation.
“The new process is an affront to democracy."
"Members were elected by their constituents to listen to the debate and make an informed vote,” Goodell said.
“They give themselves this massive pay raise and then vote to have a no-show job,” he added.
A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D – who has boycotted questions from the New York Post for the past two weeks – did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday about the rule change.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... f73facd926
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
MoneyWise
"‘Deeply disturbing’: US watchdog uncovers $5.4 billion in potentially fraudulent COVID-19 loans — obtained using over 69,000 sketchy Social Security numbers"
Story by Bethan Moorcraft
7 FEBRUARY 2023
A U.S. government watchdog has issued a “deeply disturbing” fraud alert over the widespread use of “questionable” Social Security numbers (SSNs) to get pandemic loans.
The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) found that 69,323 potentially fraudulent SSNs were used to obtain $5.4 billion from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.
The shocking revelation dropped just days before a hearing by the Republican-led House of Representatives Oversight Committee on fraudulent pandemic spending was set to begin.
“What PRAC has discovered is deeply disturbing,” said Sens. Rand Paul and Joni Ernst, who are demanding an investigation into COVID-19 loan fraud.
“The extent of the fraud could be far greater.”
Suspicious SSNs fell through the cracks
The Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the PPP and EIDL programs in 2020 to help small businesses and their employees recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Over the pandemic, the SBA provided about $800 billion in PPP loans and over $378 billion in EIDL loans — not all of them, it would seem, to deserving businesses and individuals.
But with that much money being distributed in pandemic relief — and so quickly — oversight was a must.
And so the CARES Act created PRAC for just that purpose.
In a review of more than 33 million PPP and EIDL applications, the committee uncovered 221,427 potentially invalid SSNs.
Of those, 69,323 sketchy SSNs made it through the system and were used in connection with 99,180 successful loan applications, amounting to $5.4 billion that was doled out between April 2020 and October 2022.
A further 175,768 of the red-flag SSNs were used in loan applications that weren't paid out.
However, PRAC cautioned that these SSNs “could be used in a future attempt to obtain benefits from other government programs, and therefore warrant further scrutiny.”
To find the suspicious activity, PRAC’s Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence (PACE) used publicly available Social Security Administration (SSA) data to identify suspicious SSNs, such as those not issued by SSA or those with inaccurate names and dates of birth.
Probing pandemic fraud
What made these two programs particularly vulnerable to fraud, PRAC says, was the “elevated urgency” to hand out the funds in a timely manner.
“SBA’s initial approach to implement these programs quickly made billions of dollars available to millions of borrowers affected by the pandemic, but used few program controls to verify applicants’ eligibility prior to disbursing funds,” the committee explained in its fraud alert.
After the announcement, Paul and Ernst sent a letter to Hannibal Ware, Inspector General of the SBA, calling for “more scrutiny” into pandemic relief to assess the “true extent of fraudulent activity” in the government’s pandemic programs.
The senators went on to urge the SBA to work with the Department of Justice to “ensure that fraudsters are held accountable.”
If such an investigation does happen, it wouldn’t be the first examination of how pandemic funds were used.
The SBA’s COVID-19 relief programs have already come under fire for how “hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars spent under the guise of pandemic relief were lost to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement,” as House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Rep. James Comer put it.
The committee opened a hearing on Wednesday to probe how taxpayer dollars were used — or in their words “wasted” — in COVID-19 relief programs.
“We must identify where this money went, how much ended up in the hands of fraudsters or ineligible participants, and what should be done to ensure it never happens again,” Comer said in his opening remarks.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbu ... 337581d87e
"‘Deeply disturbing’: US watchdog uncovers $5.4 billion in potentially fraudulent COVID-19 loans — obtained using over 69,000 sketchy Social Security numbers"
Story by Bethan Moorcraft
7 FEBRUARY 2023
A U.S. government watchdog has issued a “deeply disturbing” fraud alert over the widespread use of “questionable” Social Security numbers (SSNs) to get pandemic loans.
The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) found that 69,323 potentially fraudulent SSNs were used to obtain $5.4 billion from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.
The shocking revelation dropped just days before a hearing by the Republican-led House of Representatives Oversight Committee on fraudulent pandemic spending was set to begin.
“What PRAC has discovered is deeply disturbing,” said Sens. Rand Paul and Joni Ernst, who are demanding an investigation into COVID-19 loan fraud.
“The extent of the fraud could be far greater.”
Suspicious SSNs fell through the cracks
The Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the PPP and EIDL programs in 2020 to help small businesses and their employees recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Over the pandemic, the SBA provided about $800 billion in PPP loans and over $378 billion in EIDL loans — not all of them, it would seem, to deserving businesses and individuals.
But with that much money being distributed in pandemic relief — and so quickly — oversight was a must.
And so the CARES Act created PRAC for just that purpose.
In a review of more than 33 million PPP and EIDL applications, the committee uncovered 221,427 potentially invalid SSNs.
Of those, 69,323 sketchy SSNs made it through the system and were used in connection with 99,180 successful loan applications, amounting to $5.4 billion that was doled out between April 2020 and October 2022.
A further 175,768 of the red-flag SSNs were used in loan applications that weren't paid out.
However, PRAC cautioned that these SSNs “could be used in a future attempt to obtain benefits from other government programs, and therefore warrant further scrutiny.”
To find the suspicious activity, PRAC’s Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence (PACE) used publicly available Social Security Administration (SSA) data to identify suspicious SSNs, such as those not issued by SSA or those with inaccurate names and dates of birth.
Probing pandemic fraud
What made these two programs particularly vulnerable to fraud, PRAC says, was the “elevated urgency” to hand out the funds in a timely manner.
“SBA’s initial approach to implement these programs quickly made billions of dollars available to millions of borrowers affected by the pandemic, but used few program controls to verify applicants’ eligibility prior to disbursing funds,” the committee explained in its fraud alert.
After the announcement, Paul and Ernst sent a letter to Hannibal Ware, Inspector General of the SBA, calling for “more scrutiny” into pandemic relief to assess the “true extent of fraudulent activity” in the government’s pandemic programs.
The senators went on to urge the SBA to work with the Department of Justice to “ensure that fraudsters are held accountable.”
If such an investigation does happen, it wouldn’t be the first examination of how pandemic funds were used.
The SBA’s COVID-19 relief programs have already come under fire for how “hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars spent under the guise of pandemic relief were lost to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement,” as House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Rep. James Comer put it.
The committee opened a hearing on Wednesday to probe how taxpayer dollars were used — or in their words “wasted” — in COVID-19 relief programs.
“We must identify where this money went, how much ended up in the hands of fraudsters or ineligible participants, and what should be done to ensure it never happens again,” Comer said in his opening remarks.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbu ... 337581d87e