I have to wonder sometimes who is running the show in the Boston’s US Attorney’s office. At times the the Globe disclosing one of its bête noires and the subsequent acts by the U. S. attorney’s office is so striking that all but the most naïve should be aware the newspaper controls Boston’s U.S. attorney. The Globe so much relies on the public gullibility that it has no qualms about being quite open with it. Carmen Ortiz, the present US. Attorney in Boston, was appointed to her office in late 2009. In late 2011 without a hint of embarrassment the Globe named her Bostonian of the Year. She swooned with delight..
That was the time when Ortiz was in the ascendancy. Many, including herself, thought she’d be running for higher office: Governor Ortiz, Senator Ortiz. The Globe in December 12, 2012 reported that Governor Patrick pushed her candidacy in a meeting with the Speaker and Senate president in Massachusetts.
Reality happened to catch up with her. The fallout from the suicide of Aaron Swartz in January 2013 because of her relentless pursuit of the young genius who balked at pleading guilty so she went back and indicted him for more offenses; the death of Delours Price two weeks later from a combination of drugs and alcohol due to Ortiz’s push to have Boston College release the Irish archives; and also in January the abusive attempt to steal the Caswell motel from its owner was put to a stop.
Ortiz had no problem trying to deprive a guy of his family business. Caswell finally prevailed against Ortiz overcoming her damnable attempt. Caswell sold his property which he literally worked at for 24/7 for thirty years for 2.1 million last fall. Ortiz wanted to take that from him.
Ortiz it turned out is a product of the system and the Globe is running it. A prime example of this is the investigation the Globe Spotlight Team did on a guy who owned a fleet of taxis in Boston. It spent nine months on it, even putting one of their reporters in as a cabbie in an undercover position, but could show no more than the owner was a mean bastard who was very demanding on his drivers and his dispatcher took tips to give drivers a better schedule. Those things, by the way, never have been a crimes.
As usual, after such a series, the Globe wants a prosecution. Kevin Cullen suggested: “a lot of what the Spotlight Team found smells of felony.” When Cullen asked Mayor Menino about the Spotlight Report (as you know everything done by the Globe is important) the mayor told him “it’s too long” which was the absolute truth. Stung, Cullen nastily wrote “that’s what some people say about his tenure at City Hall.”
There was no felony, as Cullen alleged, but what did that matter. Just like in the probation matter involving O’Brien there was no felony but that didn’t stop the U.S. Attorney from dreaming one up. So would the same happen with the taxi owner Edward J. Tutunjian?
Ortez’s office initially responded as demanded. Within two months in May 2013 agents from the IRS, Secret Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Boston Police and Cambridge Police executed warrants issued out of Ortiz’s office and denuded Tutunjian’s business of all its records. They swarmed into the taxi garage with guns drawn telling everyone there to put their hand up. The raid went under the radar even though it reeked of police abuse. What threat did any of those cops face from the hard-working cabbies that compelled them to enter a business with guns drawn?
An article in July 2014 noted: “Meanwhile, a raid at Tutunjian’s Boston Cab headquarters conducted by the Internal Revenue Service last year has not resulted in any charges. Neither the IRS nor the US district attorney’s office responded to requests for updates on the investigation.”
As of this writing there have been no charges despite Cullen telling us the matter “smells of a felony.” For me the matter always smelled but not of a felony but of the symbiotic relationship between the Globe and the U.S. Attorney’s office. Ortiz, ever willing to acquiesce to the Globe’s demands, conducted a raid on a business without any reason to believe a crime was committed.
Perhaps Ortiz may have had a future in politics but she blew it when she thought it was working hand-in-hand with the Globe. Hopefully she learned her lesson and will stop following its lead. The best thing she could do is give them back their Bostonian of the Year Award, fire a few prosecutors under her with close Globe connections, and make the Boston U.S. attorney’s office a place where justice can be found.
You should read the indictments of Fitzpatrick. The accusations are very unusual.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sites/default/files/media/2015/04/30/Fitzpatrick%2C%20Robert%20Indictment.pdf.
The accusations are especially weird because most are unprovable. One charge is that Fitzpatrick perjured himself at the 2013 trial by testifying about a conversation he had with Whitey (in the 1980s) where Whitey told Fitzpatrick he wasn’t an informant. It was a private conversation in Whitey’s apartment with just the two present. The only person in the world who could prove Fitzpatrick lied about that conversation is Whitey himself. Whitey would never testify. It’s unprovable.
Nonetheless, Fitzpatrick has to plead guilty to all the charges. He’s 75 and seriously ill. He can’t go to trial and risk dying in jail.
Wyshak is deranged, but I think he has a few angles here that are bigger than Bob Fitzpatrick. The Feds only make select cases that send a broader message. First, Wyshak’s protecting one aspect of his cover story in that Whitey was a real informant so it can’t be questioned. When Fitzpatrick pleads guilty, it’s going to look like he’s admitting that he knew Whitey was actually an informant when Fitz clearly didn’t believe it. Second, it’s a warning to anyone else who dares question Wyshak’s cover story that this all wasn’t widespread federal corruption, it was an isolated Irish Catholic problem. Third, it kills Fitzpatrick’s credibility so Fitz can’t ever expose Wyshak. Specifically, a perjury conviction keeps Fitzpatrick from publishing the new book he wrote that attacks Wyshak’s corrupt efforts to conceal the truth. The conviction also keeps Fitz from ever being a witness against Wyshak or anyone else.
Wyshak has employed this strategy several times before to silence people who exposed him. Frank Salemme for example, accidentally exposed Wyshak, so Wyshak quickly charged Salemme with perjury. Wyshak quickly induced a plea to perjury from Salemme by offering a mass murderer a tiny sentence because all Wyshak really wanted was the perjury conviction. Then Salemme could never be a credible witness against the DOJ. Wyshak neutralized Salemme to conceal the truth.
(In 2000, the Dept of Labor Agents working on the Cashman/Teamsters case accused Wyshak of something improper. Wyshak responded by seating a secret grand jury in Worcester to investigate the DOL Agents. Wyshak got the Agents to back off him by keeping that GJ seated until enough time had passed where he couldn’t get in trouble.)
You may recall that Salemme testified at John Connolly’s first trial that he gave Connolly bribes and Connolly tipped him off to the 1995 indictment. (The tipoff was critical to Wyshak and Durgam because it extended the state of limitations back to 1990 when Commilly was still an agent. One of Wyshak’s “witnesses” did the exact same thing in the Teamsters case !) After Connolly’s trial, Salemme went back to prison and bragged to another inmate how the U.S. Attorneys fed him the lies they wanted him to say about Connolly. Salemme also told the inmate that the USA gave him a copy of Black Mass and said that’s the story we want. It turns out that the inmate Salemme told all this to was an FBI informant. The inmate wrote everything down and it is in an FBI report.
http://justiceforjohn.com/?attachment_id=210#main
Wyshak is a sicko.
Patty:
True, the indictment is quite strange. Only in Wyshak’s world is perjury also an obstruction of justice. It is amazing he gets away with it. I don’t think Fitzpatrick will fold. I’ll do all in my power to help the guy out since this indictment is plainly wrong; Fitzpatrick believes what he has been saying and one can’t be indicted for perjury if he believes he is telling the truth. I’m no Fitzpatrick fan but I have little doubt he was canned by the FBI as a retaliation for going over the head of the SAC and accusing him of committing a crime. That the FBI can come up with some fake report he wrote (by the way the best I can figure out is that he was covering for another FBI guy something that is routinely done) doesn’t change Fitzpatrick’s belief. I’m aware of the many people who have really committed perjury but they were not charged by Wyshak because they were his witnesses. I think this is Wyshak’s jump the shark moment; it shows the true colors of the man which are not pretty.
On the Teamsters case there were several whistleblower complaints against Wyshak and Kelly, so they empaneled a sham Worcester grand jury through former AUSA John Mitchell and Special Attorney John Durham to investigate the Whistleblowers past the 5 year statute of limitations (Wyshak’s main scam).
Bruce:
Wyshak has invented his own way to make the statute of limitations not applicable. I had dealings with him during that case; I can’t say much about it (lawyer/client privilege) but what he was trying to do was something that was quite unheard of.
I don’t know how any of them sleep well at night, let alone sleep at all. If US Attorney’s office family knew the other side of these stories, I think they would truly be disgusted!!
Traeci. You have to remember that power corrupts. This is an example of it. These prosecutors have become so self-righteous with nothing checking them that they destroy lives without a second thought. They sleep well at night because they have lost their moral compass and have no idea of the word Justice. You err in thinking they have normal feelings – had they, they would not be acting like they do.
I see a former FBI agent got arrested today. Will other former members of the FBI write letters on his behalf as they did regarding another former FBI AGENT NOW SERVING TIME IN PRISON?
Norwood. You are missing the point. This FBI agent is wrongfully charged he did not commit perjury. The U.S. attorney is punishing him because he testified for Whitey. This is an outrageous attempt to suppress information that may contradict a prosecutor.
I do believe Fitzpatrick has greatly exaggerated his accomplishments in life, but his trial testimony was effectively undercut during cross examination. Bulger was duly convicted. Any prosecutor has limited resources. The fact that the U.S. attorney in Boston has chosen to use some of this valuable time and money on a revenge prosecution is truly outrageous.
Agree with all comments. Do you guys get the feeling Fitz might be a legend in his own mind? That is not a crime, either way he must have really pissed someone off up the chain. Real targets should be Pat Nee, John Martorano, Kevin Weeks. Fitz may have pulled a Brian Williams with the lying, but atleast he was not setting people up to be buried in the family basement or killing everything moving or even being a piss boy for Bulger and lying about Pat Nee killing Halloran and Michael Donahue. Pat Nee is the one who really made out in all of this. Hope Wyshak sleeps well at night.
Doubting. This shows the shallowness of Wyshak. He’s petty and vicious abusing his power to go after Fitzpatrick. Yes, Fitz seems to remember things a little differently but he would never commit perjury. You know he has commented here and that we see things differently. But to do to him what Wyshak has done is about the lowest thing a prosecutor can do especially after producing all his own witnesses who were liars.
How about the Globe highlighting Brian Kelly and his withering cross examination of Fitzpatrick, accusing him of “exaggerating his stories to sell book”.
That was shortly before Kelly joined Howie Carr and his comedy sideshow, taking money to tell his stories to…you got it…sell books. You can’t make this stuff up!!
Declan: you note that the media has so prostituted itself to the Feds it is incapable of telling the true story. That is what happens when you sell yourself. I had to laugh at the line “blistering cross-examination ” The sad truth is neither Wyshak or Kelly has any skill at cross-examinating a witness. I’llnever forget how the woman title examiner made Wyshak look like a fool; and my recollection is that Fitzie stuffed Kelly.
Wyshak and the DoJ used Boston Globe reporters planted news articles to time bar the murder victims families civil claims with a FTCA statute of limitations scam and then screwed the victims of their restitution from over $14 Million of seized defendants’ assets.
I was flabbergasted by Fitzpatrick’s indictment. It’s an outrageous waste of the government’s time and money.
Outreageous but sadly, not surprising. That office needs an enema.
Declan. True it is outrageous but think of the DOJ which approved it – who is the guy who calls himself the fixer and has been there over 40 years who is a buddy of Wyshak’s – this is a warning to every FBI agent to know his place. Let’s see if the FBI will stand tall or run and hide again. Or, perhaps it also is complicit in the message.
Dan. When you think of it you have to assume that it is the Feds way of intimidating witnesses. If anyone committed obstruction of Justice it is Wyshak and his toadies.
Matt: I agree. I hope others (in the bar) speak up publicly about this abuse of power. Perhaps the clatter will discourage a repeat performance.
Robert Fitzpatrick has turned himself in on a perjury charge from the whitey trial, currently in custody, will be in court today.
He’s commented here a few times. Not a fan of his, but this is another shocking move by that u.s attorney’s office. They have suborned perjury for years and they’re indicting him?
Declan. Agee fully. Will post on it. One of the greatest outrageous acts by any prosecutor.
Jim. Thanks for the info. It is something I’ll follow up on.
What Ortiz, her office and the Globe have done smells of a conspiracy to violate the Constitutional Rights of Swartz, Caswell, O’Brien, Connolly, Turner and Rico. Coakley did the same to Cahill and O’Brien. 2. Turner got three years from the Feds for taking two hundred dollars that may have been a campaign contribution. What penalty should be imposed on those running the Clinton Library-Foundation for taking two billion in gifts. Was the foreign Corrupt Practices Act violated? Presidential pardons were given out in return for contributions ( Mark Rich and drug dealers). Is the foundation a racketeering enterprise. The Clintons seem to profit handsomely from this scheme. A quality prosecutor could easily bring charges against this fifteen year corrupt enterprise. Millions are donated by foreigners in return for favorable treatment. The Clintons are similar to LBJ. They both come from working class backgrounds with minimal assets when they start in politics. When they finish they are worth over 100 million. In 1960 Harry Truman heard that JFK was having a thousand dollar a plate fundraiser. He said there goes our democracy. 3. How have the liberal welfare policies in the cities worked out? The Democrats run these places. Are the schools, families, Churches, and businesses running well? Has there been any progress? Or are these programs proven failures? Did LBJ create a Great Society or an Ingrate Society?