Simply Politics & News

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Corruption Scandals Led to Harry Reid’s Abrupt “Retirement”

You’d never know it from the mainstream media puff pieces of Harry Reid’s sudden retirement, but it was a long string of corruption scandals—including a recent one involving his attorney son—that drove the veteran Nevada senator to abruptly leave public office.

For nearly a decade Judicial Watch has investigated and exposed Reid’s involvement in a multitude of transgressions and JW even warned the Senate Ethics Committee, but not surprisingly, no action was ever taken.

On multiple occasions, the Senate minority leader appeared on JW’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” list for his role in a number of political scandals that got more serious as his seniority and clout in Congress increased.

As far back as 2006, Reid was in hot water for violating Senate rules by concealing a seven-figure payoff on a suspicious land deal orchestrated by a longtime friend known for political bribery and mob ties.

The influential senator secretly collected a $1.1 million profit on land he hadn’t personally owned for years.
To hide the deal, Reid transferred ownership, legal liability and tax consequences to a company owned by a former casino lawyer who has been investigated by federal authorities. Months earlier Red got busted for accepting gifts from a state agency trying to influence him. In that scheme, the lawmaker quietly took very expensive ringside boxing tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission while that state agency was trying to influence him on the sport’s federal regulation.

In 2012 Reid made JW’s corrupt politician list because he was embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal involving a Chinese “green energy” client of a Nevada law firm run by his son Rory.

The senator was one of the Nevada project's most prominent advocates, helping recruit the company during a 2011 trip to China and applying his political muscle on its behalf, according to a mainstream news report. Reid’s son was an attorney at the prominent Las Vegas firm that represented the Chinese Company, ENN Energy Group, and helped it locate a 9,000-acre desert site for well below its appraised value from Clark County.

In 2013 Reid was again named to JW’s most corrupt politician list for taking more than $130,000 in illegal campaign funds from a shady donor, Harvey Whittemore, who eventually went to jail.

Whittemore hired four of the senator’s sons at a law firm in which he served as senior partner and worked with Reid on huge land deals that required federal legislation.

Additionally, Reid sponsored at least $47 million in earmarks that directly benefitted organizations with close ties to one of his sons, Key Reid.
The legislator also colluded with President Obama to nix a proposed nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain Nevada after U.S. taxpayers spent $15 billion on the project.

More recently Reid abused his authority to pressure the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to expedite a $115 million foreign investor visa deal critical to his son’s casino client.

Reid got the DHS to override agency procedures to rush through hundreds of visa applications from foreign nationals who helped fund a Las Vegas hotel and casino that hired Rory Reid to provide legal representation for the project, according to a recent news report.

The article goes into tremendous detail about the illicit scheme that evidently served as the straw that broke the camel’s back. A few days later Reid said he wouldn’t run for a sixth term in the Senate. His hometown newspaper called it a “surprise announcement.” On his government website, Reid posted a goodbye video saying he did his best though hasn’t been perfect.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/03/corruption-scandals-led-to-harry-reids-abrupt-retirement/

Sen. Harry Reid’s Pal Gets Jail for Giving Him Illegal Cash

Convicted of three felonies, a close friend and political donor of U.S. Senator Harry Reid is going to jail for funneling more than $130,000 in illegal campaign funds to the Nevada Democrat who happens to be the Senate majority leader.

The big question is what will happen to Reid, who has been embroiled in a number of corruptions scandals in the last few years. Yet, he remains unscathed and continues abusing the power of a top federal lawmaker to enrich his friends and family. We’ll get into those later, but now let’s look at this latest story involving the senator’s convict pal, Nevada developer Harvey Whittemore.

This week Whittemore, a one-time Nevada power broker, and lobbyist, was sentenced to two years in prison for operating the illicit scheme in which he skirted campaign finance laws to fill Reid’s coffers. The wealthy businessman did it by giving money to family members and employees so they could be the official contributors. Whittemore insists he had no idea this was illegal and Reid claims he was “unaware of any potential problems with the money he received.”

Whittemore and Reid go back years and the veteran senator has long used his influence in Washington to help his friend land lucrative deals. In fact, in 2007 a mainstream newspaper reported that for four years Reid used his power as a legislator to help Whittemore clear obstacles for a profitable real estate deal.
As the project advanced, the paper reported, “Reid received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Whittemore.” The developer also hired one of Reid’s sons (Leif) as his personal lawyer and then promptly handed the junior Reid the responsibility of negotiating the real estate deal with federal officials. This landed Reid on Judicial Watch’s list of “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.”

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2013/10/sen-harry-reids-pal-gets-jail-for-giving-him-illegal-cash/
REID RETIRED AND GOT AWAY WITH ALL HIS CRIMES - CRIME DOES PAY IN WASHINGTON D.C.