Less than two months before former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi is scheduled to stand trial on federal corruption charges, one of his codefendants has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in exchange for a shorter jail sentence.
Joseph P. Lally Jr., the salesman who sold the state the two multimillion-dollar software contracts at the center of the case, is expected to plead guilty today to conspiracy, extortion, and mail and wire fraud under a plea agreement made public yesterday. The deal would need the approval of US District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf.
This does not bode well for DiMasi. It looks like he might just join Tom Finneran and Charles Flaherty in the list of indicted former MA speakers of the house. Finneran copped a guilty plea to obstruction of justice charges and was summarily disbarred for his actions. Flaherty was Massachusetts Speaker of the House before Finneran, and wound up pleading guilty to federal tax evasion charges.
It does make one wonder - does the MA Speaker of the House position attract criminals... or make them?
That is all.
7 comments:
It can't be both?
Agree, Sounds like BOTH!
I guess it's about the same as being an IL governor... You serve a term or two and then you serve a term or two.
::scotaku in exile::
It does make one wonder - does the MA Speaker of the House position attract criminals... or make them?
Well, let's see.
1) it's a position of power.
2) it's always filled by a career politician.
Point 1 suggests it makes them (power corrupts, yada yada), while point 2 suggests it attracts existing ones (as everyone knows, "career politician" = "crook that hasn't been caught yet"). So I guess it's both.
There're libs/progs; it's a natural thing...
Y'all got nothin' on Louisianna insurance commissioners. Last time I looked, all but one in the last 40 years has been convicted of some felony or other.
Very bad news for Sal. No doubt Lally will be singing like the proverbial canary. Part of the plea deal is that Lally will "cooperate" with investigators.
DiMasi will probably be going on a Buddy Cianci Fellowship at a minimum security federal correctional facility in the near future.
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