Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick

WASHINGTON –  In the Motor City, Spring is near and scandal is in the air.

U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, 64, the  mother of ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, has been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury, the Detroit Free Press reported. She said Thursday that she is not the target of the probe.

What is known is that her son, who pleaded guilty to perjury in a text message scandal, and was forced from office, is under FBI investigation.

The Free Press recently reported that a contractor who pleaded guilty to corruption charges has told the feds that he gave the mayor bribe money in 2002.

For Full Story

Yemen officials have arrested an American with suspected ties to al Qaeda members, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The man was under FBI investigation in Delaware, the paper reported.

Yemen authorities said that Sharif Mobley, who was raised in New Jersey and later lived in other east coast cities,  was arrested and then killed a guard while trying to escape.

“He has blood on his hands,” Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni embassy in Washington told the paper.

“Albasha said Mobley was arrested last week during a sweep of al-Qaeda operatives with close ties to an Alabama-born extremist based in Somalia, Abu Mansour, known as ‘the American’, and the group al-Shabaab, or ‘the Youth’,”the paper reported.

His father has denied that his son is a terrorist.

For Full Story

Judge Thomas Porteous

WASHINGTON – It comes as no surprise that U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous of New Orleans is in big big trouble.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously Thursday to impeach him, the Associated Press reported. The news service reported that lawmakers felt he avoided criminal charges only because the statute of limitations had expired.

The Senate now conducts a trial on charges of high crimes and misdemeanors. A two-thirds vote is required to convict.

He has been accused of “taking cash from lawyers and gifts from a bail bondsman, lying to the Senate and the FBI to win confirmation and making false statements in his personal bankruptcy proceedings to hide financial problems and gambling debts,” according to AP.

Ex-Gov Blago poses with Celebrity Apprentice group

Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants more time to prepare for his public corruption case that was set for June 3. His attorneys want the trial moved to November.

The Chicago Tribune reports that his attorneys said they can’t properly prepare a defense in time “without knowing whether they have to defend against charges of ‘honest services’ fraud.”

The U.S. Supreme Court could take up the matter of the honest services law by June and could strike down part or all of the law, the Tribune reported.

The lawyers also said they’ve been inundated with government materials they need to review, the paper reported. The government turned over almost 33,000 pages of evidence since February.

The seldom-quiet ex-Gov is scheduled to make his debut appearance on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice on Sunday.

To read more click here.

By Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON — It’s all pretty simple. The Mexican drug cartels have lots of money. And some federal law enforcement agents who patrol the Mexican border can’t resist the cash.

Representatives from the FBI and Homeland Security testified before the subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security Committee about the “rising corruption among the ranks of federal law enforcement officers who patrol the border and guard ports of entry,” the New York Times reported.

FBI agent Kevin Perkins, who helps supervise corruption investigations, testified that the problem “is significantly pervasive”, according to the Times.

To read more click here.

Dirty Harry

WASHINGTON — Could it be: Dirty Harry Meets J. Edgar Hoover?

The Hollywood Insider website reports that actor Clint Eastwood of “Dirty Harry” fame is planning to direct a movie based on the life of the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

The publication reported that Eastwood will work with screenwriter Dustin Lance Black.

J. Edgar Hoover/fbi photo

The Hollywood Insider said the film will “follow Hoover’s career, from the founding of the FBI in 1935 to his long tenure as director of the crime-fighting organization that lasted until 1972 when he died.”

The trade publication said it was unclear which studio would make the film. It said it was originally intended for Universal, but it was likely to go to Warner Bros., which has done a lot of work with Eastwood.

A second ex-New Orleans cop — who is now an agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona — has been federally charged with covering up the infamous Danziger Bridge police shootings in 2005 just after Hurricane Katrina that resulted in two deaths and four injuries, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

The paper reported that Jeffrey Lehrmann, 38, was charged with misprision of a felony or failing to report a crime. He is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in New Orleans Thursday and is cooperating with federal authorities, the paper reported.

Lerhmann was not involved in the shootings, but was tasked with interviewing witnesses.

Last month, Lt. Michael Lohman pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to conspiring to obstruct justice. He too was involved in investigating the case and covering up the findings.

The New Orleans paper reported that authorities charged that “Lehrmann knew of the conspiracy among his fellow officers to obstruct justice and participated in the ‘creation of false reports and the provision of false information to investigating agents’.”

To read full story click here.

By Allan Lengel

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Wednesday nominated U.S. Attorneys for Idaho and Maine, the website Main Justice reported.

The nominees include Main Superior Court Justice Thomas Edward Delahanty for Maine and assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson for Idaho.

The website, which closely tracks U.S. Attorney appointments, says President Obama has now made 54 U.S. Attorney nominations and the Senate has confirmed 34 of those.

Meanwhile, the website reported that the Senate on Wednesday night confirmed the U.S. Attorney nominations of William J. Hochul Jr. for the Western District of New York and Sally Q. Yates for the Northern District of Georgia.

-