Fattah convicted of federal corruption charges

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) was convicted Tuesday in a federal racketeering case likely to send him to prison.

The verdict - announced by a jury of four men and eight women - comes after a four-week trial in which prosecutors alleged that Fattah took bribes and repeatedly stole charitable donations, campaign contributions and federal grant money under his control.

It marks an ignominious end to the career of one of the region's longest-serving members of Congress. Fattah lost his bid for reelection to a 12th term to State Rep. Dwight Evans in April's Democratic primary, just weeks before the trial began.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20160622_Fattah_convicted_of_federal_corruption_charges.html

---

On the radio here they are saying he was found guilty of all (29) counts. The trial has been held in Federal court here.

What a shame. He was my Congressman.

[Akicita]

1. Shame that he was corrupt or a shame that he was caught and convicted? I presume you mean the former

[BumRushDaShow]

3. He was a strong progressive for the past couple decades

http://www.ontheissues.org/PA/Chaka_Fattah.htm

[Akicita]

4. Too bad he turned out to be just for himself. If he was skimming grant money meant for the poor then

he is a disgusting piece of shit. And charitable donations? He stole charitable donations? I hope he goes away for a long time. Set an example for the rest of the political pigs.

Hopefully you can find a strong progressive who is honest and honorable to replace him.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. You should check out his background

first before calling someone a "piece of shit". His parents have been activists for almost 50 years and are still working in the community, and that is the environment that he grew up in.

We will see if he appeals or not.

[Akicita]

6. His parents might be the best people in the world. If HE was convicted of stealing money meant for

the poor, that is enough for me to label him a POS regardless of his background.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. If all of this is the case

he would be a classic case of the downside of having activist parents who may have spent more time taking care of other people's neglected children while their own are left to their own devices. Such is what happened to his own son.

In this case, it seems the focus was on mostly on his brief campaign for mayor and the disposition of a $1 million loan/donation to that effort. His staff seemed to me more involved in the grift aspects.

[Ikonoklast]

7. He's a thief who stole from the poor. I don't care if his parents were Mary and Joseph.

I cannot believe anyone would apologize for a politician of any party who steals from the poor in order to enrich himself.

Fuck that guy.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. No one is apologizing

It is more a lament for the state of politics in my congressional district (which used to have Bill Gray as the congressman).

[Akicita]

17. Not apologizing but it sure seems you are trying to make up excuses for and downplaying his actions.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. I'm not taking this case as personal as you.

Maybe you need to step back and get out of attack mode.

[Akicita]

26. I just haven't lost my outrage at crooked politicians who steal from poor people.

It's a little more than disappointing. It's outrageous and we shouldn't put up with it and downplay or make up excuses for it. That just perpetrated more of it.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. As an AA

I have been under generational "outrage", passed on from my parents and grandparents and on back. As a cultural thing within my family, and as a survival tactic, being perpetually "outraged" could lead to making one severely depressed and it's not worth it.

[Akicita]

30. I don't blame you. I would just point out that it has been moral outrage that has forced changes for

the better for African Americans. From the moral outrage of the abolitionists against the evil of slavery to the moral outrage against the treatment of AA during Jim Crow to the more recent outrage against cops shooting unarmed AA, it has been moral outrage expressed by good people of all races that has brought about positive change for AA. That change has been way to slow, but without outrage at the injustices there would have been no change at all.

Expressing outrage against acts of evil is a good thing and can bring about needed change whether those act of evil are injustices to AA or a corrupt politician stealing from the poor.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. I'm afraid that too much internalizing

of the negativity is what causes many other detrimental impacts across communities, including seeking solace through alcohol or drugs... and the AA community has had its share of that (although some flee to churches, which was, from early days in this country, the only place where the enslaved and oppressed could gather).

I.e., there will always be outrage but it must be harnessed and directed towards some goal, which is where various social and civil rights organizations come into play. Basically "safety in numbers" and "more power in numbers". This is versus individuals essentially "going off" in "outrage" due to their own state of affairs, where the result may be taking out their frustrations on others - most often those closest to them including their own families.

It may be easier for those not on the receiving end of an "outrage" (e.g., the abolitionists) to help do something about it as one does not have that burden already weighing them down. Far too many of us are, as Fannie Lou Hamer had famously declared - "Sick and tired of being sick and tired".

[Akicita]

33. I would think that justice, and clean, honest government would be worthy goals to harness and

direct our outrage towards. If you are not up to it for the reasons you state, I guess it is up to the rest of us to clean up corrupt government. Wish us luck.

[BumRushDaShow]

34. Just like they often call lawyers

"liars", so too might one call politicians. "Corruption" is inherently part of human nature. It has been around since Homo Sapiens var. sapiens came to be. You can spend a lifetime making that attempt to eliminate a human trait but will never succeed in that lifetime (perhaps save for performing billions of lobotomies), but I suppose it will give you something to do.

[Akicita]

35. Wow! You sound depressed and hopeless. Maybe you should get out of where you are living. There are

Last edited Wed Jun 22, 2016, 10:37 PM - Edit history (1)

plenty of good places to live in this country that have a minimum of corruption and low crime rates. People take pride in their communities and don't allow it.

Good judges don't allow crooked lawyers to get away with lying. Good citizens don't let crooked politicians get away with corruption. If you live in a community where the citizens shrug their shoulders at crime and corruption maybe you should consider moving to a better community.

""Corruption" is inherently part of human nature. It has been around since Homo Sapiens." True. The same can be said of murder, rape, genocide, racism, animal cruelty, etc. Even slavery has been around a long, long time. All these things are called evil and yes evil is a trait in many humans and always has been. Good is also a trait that many, many humans possess. There has always been a struggle between good and evil and it continues today.

Many, many people spend a lifetime fighting evil knowing they can never eliminate it. But they can minimize it thereby making their community, country, and the world a better place to live and raise their families. Dr. King is a great example.

[BumRushDaShow]

36. Figures that you would attempt to apply your worldview

on mine, with yours automatically assumed to be superior, and IMHO, yours is about as naive a view as can be. You still don't get it. You don't know me, you don't know where I live, nor what I do for a living, yet you created a fantastical image in your mind and posted based on those fantastical assumptions.

I live in reality, not fantasy. But enjoy your life in the merry old land of Oz!

[Akicita]

37. I assume you live in or near Philadelphia if this criminal is your representative.

In conversing with you, I am beginning to see how such a corrupt charlatan continues to be reelected time after time.

Life here in Oz is good. You should try it. It is in fact reality.

I guess you would rather wallow in your victimhood than try to make things better in your own community.

Best of luck with that.

[anigbrowl]

10. Yeah because that turned out to be the most profitable position for him to take

Don't be a rube. All of those votes are suspect until a full audit of his finances and past campaigns has been conducted.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. I expect that has already been done

And name-calling is typical when one has other way to argue a point.

[anigbrowl]

12. Why would you expect that?

The criminal investigation would only go as far back as the statute of limitations. A prosecutor isn't going to spend money on investigating things that can't be brought into court as evidence. they have limited budgets to work with.

Nobody called you any names, and I am not exactly short of argumentative ability.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. It's a federal probe

and it behooves to "know the answer before the question is asked" in cases like this. As a 30+ year fed myself who has had to work with U.S. Attorneys over the year since our agency can't file criminal cases, I know what "budgets" are out there.

Calling someone a "rube" who is only putting background info out there for discussion, is about as juvenile as one can get.

[anigbrowl]

14. I see you ducked my point about the statute of limitations

Prosecutors don't spend money investigating crimes that can't be charged.

And I didn't call you a rube, I told you not to be one, in response to your uncritical assertion that the guy was a progressive beacon of light.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. You still don't get how lawyers work

including investigating background issues, and what discovery does in terms of building a case - whether it is presented as "evidence" or not. You don't have just one or two people on these cases. There is a team.

And since you apparently didn't bother to read his record, you can easily put words in my mouth while at the same time, completely dismissing his contributions to the party over the years as if they didn't exist.

And finally, thank you in advance for ending this nonsense of defining me, what I write, and how I might characterize an argument. It's the epitome of condescension and only shows how far DU has fallen, devolving into nothing but angry retorts.

[Akicita]

18. Nonsense. If Bill Cosby is convicted of multiple counts of rape and is denounced on DU for that are

you going to tell us that before we disparage him we should review his outstanding record as a comedian and AA icon? That's BS. If Cosby is convicted of raping women he is a scumbag. Period. And this congressman is a scumbag for stealing from the poor. Period.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. Your example has actually been widely discussed on DU

Just as the rise and fall of Alan Grayson has been (and continues to be) discussed on DU.

I.e., in the worldviews of many, life is not as black and white as you insist it should be and people will always view situations differently from you. This doesn't mean that we don't agree, but it also means that folks will often lament the rise and fall of individual humans. I.e., post #2 sums it up.

[Akicita]

28. So in those wide discussions did you urge people to consider Cosby's achievements when forming their

Last edited Wed Jun 22, 2016, 07:25 PM - Edit history (1)

opinions of him if he is convicted of rape?

Corruption thrives when people have a worldview that corrupt actions are less than black and white. That worldview is especially harmful when the corruption involves stealing from the poor.

Conviction on all 22 counts is pretty black and white. That this person was so privileged to be elected to a high position of public trust and then betrayed that trust by stealing from poor people makes it all the more grievous.

If everyone always viewed situations the same as me there wouldn't be much point in replying to posts on DU.

It is certainly very understandable to lament the fall of a progressive icon. He wasn't the person you thought he was. My point is that once he was unmasked by his convictions to be a corrupt scalawag, you shouldn't, in my opinion, try to downplay or excuse his corrupt actions because he was a good progressive. Good progressives don't steal from the poor anyway.

Instead, turn your back on the corrupt pol and elect another good progressive who is honest. Make sure the new rep is made aware that you will not view corruption as kind of sort of squishy, but that you will not put up with corruption at all. That's just my opinion.

[BumRushDaShow]

32. I would hope that my post #31

describes my take. I am not going to internalize these situations given that this country was peopled by the criminals and miscreants of multiple European countries, many of whom dragged my ancestors here in chains and slaughtered those who had been here for millennia. The "corruption" of today is nothing compared to what was baked into the Constitution of this country.

Given the types of legislation needed to get this country back on track, the "shame" is in the failings of a human from "our side", who himself grew up in a household with parents attempting to help struggling men and boys (including his own brother), turn away from the world of gangs and gang violence that ran rampant here in Philly (and other cities) during the '60s.

I don't operate in a world of tunnel vision.

[Coolest Ranger]

2. I'm disappointed in the congressman

I thought he was better than that

[Ash_F]

16. OP, I am sorry to see Duers coming at you over this.

This election season people have a particular sore spot over corruption. Or the perception of corruption.

[Akicita]

19. Perception of corruption? What a wonderland we live in here in the clouds. He was convicted. On 22

counts. Kind of like saying there is some perception out there that nearly 50 people were murdered in an Orlando massacre.

Sheesh.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. For your to conflate the death of 49

with this case, really showcases the over-the-top hyperbole that you continue to express in this thread. Perhaps take a break?

[Ash_F]

25. Swish!

[RobinA]

23. Fattah

was not my congressman, but I am from the Philadelphia area and remember when he was a good guy. This is a shame. I would love to know the full story of what happened with him from someone who is truly interested without an ax to grind. Good guy gone wrong? Never a good guy but had good press? Reality of the political system makes being a good guy untenable? As good as it's ever going to get in Philadelphia? Secret gambler? I sure don't know. I'd like to for my own ongoing education in human beings.

[glennward]

24. Sad. nt

[RAFisher]

29. O look another member of CBC got in trouble for something.

The last four Democratic Congressmen to be sent to jail have all been members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Chaka Fattah
Jesse Jackson Jr.
William J. Jefferson
Frank Ballance

I don't know if it's because they have all been from very blue, sometimes gerrymandered, minority-majority districts that they feel they can get away with corruption. Extremely unfortunate for another democratic congressman decided to take advantage of his constituents.