Xavier Becerra: Unfit for Any Office

By Ronald Kolb

On June 2nd, California held a statewide primary to select the top two candidates for Governor to replace term-limited Gavin Newsom. It's a "jungle primary" where party identification takes no precedence. Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell had led the polls until he resigned in April after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. 

Former Democratic Congressman and Biden Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who is a strong advocate for abortion and for universal health care, even for undocumented migrants, finished first and is headed toward the November election and will face Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton.

But there is something from his time in Congress that should have precluded Becerra from ever holding public office again, when he had paired with fellow future Biden cabinet member disgraced Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas to obtain a pardon for a major cocaine trafficker from outgoing President Bill Clinton.

In Bill Clinton’s final months in the White House in 2000, his office became a flea market and clearing house for terrorists, drug dealers, con artists and other of societies miscreants and criminals to receive clemencies and pardons, most notably fugitive billionaire and tax cheat Marc Rich. 

Members of the Clinton family would cash in, including Hillary’s brother Tony Rodham, who would receive 240 thousand dollars from two carnival promoters who were convicted of bank fraud, and most notably, her brother Hugh--who would be paid as we shall see--over 400 thousand dollars for his unholy efforts. 

Hillary herself was involved months earlier with the notorious FALN terrorist pardons, in a blatant attempt to try and secure the substantial Puerto Rican vote in New York during her 2000 Senate campaign. But by 2001, pardon and clemency handouts were a no-holds barred circus. One of them became as noteworthy as the FALN and Rich pardons.

A few years earlier on December 20, 1993, a grand jury in Minneapolis issued a 34-count indictment against Carlos Vignali, Jr. and 29 others in the largest drug investigation in Minnesota history. Vignali, born in 1971, was the ringleader and the group had shipped more than 800 hundreds of pounds of cocaine from California to Minnesota to be made into crack.

The evidence was overwhelming. On December 12, 1994, all but one of the defendants were convicted or pled guilty. Vignali was convicted of three counts of conspiracy and cocaine distribution and acquitted on a fourth count, and had been caught on audiotape, coming across as a boastful bully. Vignali remained uncooperative and unrepentant during the trial. 

He was also a fledging rapper calling himself “C-Low” with Brownside, an Hispanic group formed by Eazy-E, and spent some of his proceeds at the tables in Las Vegas with his father, who had set up Carlos in an exclusive condo. The pre-sentencing report had recommended 12-15 years, and on July 17, 1995, Judge David Doty sentenced him to the latter.

His father, Carlos “Horacio” Vignali, Sr., born in 1946 who had immigrated from Argentina in the early 1960's and later become a wealthy L.A. area real estate owner, had hosted fundraisers and donated to several local political figures. Soon after the conviction of his son, he filed an appeal and began contacting his political friends to write letters that falsely claimed that Carlos had no previous criminal record.

But a House Committee investigating the Clinton pardons in 2002 found that Vignali had two prior convictions and two arrests. In 1989, Vignali had been convicted and fined for fighting in a public place, and later for vandalism. He’d also been arrested for reckless driving and later for assaulting a girlfriend. Vignali had also admitted being involved with two different gangs.

After the appeal was unanimously defeated in appellate court in 2016, Horacio decided to try for executive clemency with the Clinton White House.

He contacted then-L.A. area Congressman Xavier Becerra, whom he had donated 16 thousand dollars to in three of Becerra’s campaigns. Even though neither of the Vignali’s had resided in his district, Becerra next called Alejandro Mayorkas, who was U.S. Attorney for Central California in Los Angeles, and he claimed the sentence was too harsh (even though neither Vignali lived in Mayorkas' jurisdiction as well.)

Becerra then contacted Pardon Attorney Roger Adams at the Justice Department and Meredith Cabe at the White House (legal) Counsel Office. Cabe would later say he was pushing for clemency for Vignali, but Becerra later claimed he never explicitly supported clemency for Vignali but had wanted a “review” of the case.

On November 21, 2000, Becerra sent a letter to Bill Clinton, who had less than two months remaining in office. Becerra falsely claimed that Vignali had no previous criminal record, was innocent, and how much it had affected his parents, whom he both knew. Becerra added that, "in the interest of redeeming the life of a young man, I respectfully urge you to weigh a few factors in Mr. Vignali's favor."

Meanwhile, Mayorkas twice contacted Minnesota U.S. Attorney Todd Jones, who had originally prosecuted Vignali. During the first contact, Jones warned Mayorkas that Vignali was “a major player,” and “don’t go there,” and that Vignali was “bad news.” Mayorkas contacted Andrew Dunne, who worked with Jones as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. Mayorkas hoped that Jones’ office would actually lobby for clemency for Vignali, but Dunne flatly rejected it.

Mayorkas then met the elder Vignali and had conversations about clemency for his son. Vignali brought up executive clemency and asked if Mayorkas would call the White House. Mayorkas made the second call to prosecutor Jones, telling him of his intent to call the White House. Jones once again told Mayorkas he opposed clemency.

In spite of Jones second stern warning, Mayorkas called White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey, who was very close to the Clintons, and then received a return call from Meredith Cabe and Eric Angel, who worked with Lindsey on pardons.

Mayorkas and Becerra had laid the groundwork for clemency, but there was another major player that Horacio Vignali reached out to--L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca. Vignali had raised or contributed a stunning total of over 200 thousand dollars to Baca’s campaigns.

Vignali asked Baca to write Clinton a letter, and he also told Baca that Hillary’s brother Hugh Rodham was helping Carlos receive clemency. Vignali had already paid Hugh four thousand dollars, and would pay another 200 thousand if Carlos was pardoned. 

Baca then received a call from Rodham and then a call from Dawn Woolen, assistant to Lindsey. She asked Baca if Clinton should pardon Carlos. Baca said he supported a commutation but did not want to write it in a letter.

Meanwhile, Bruce Lindsey was the point man at the White House for Horacio. He falsely told Lindsey that Vignali was innocent and had no previous criminal record. He mentioned Mayorkas, Becerra and Baca supported clemency as well as the prosecutor, Todd Jones in Minnesota. However, Jones and his assistant prosecutors both opposed clemency as did Judge David Doty, who had sentenced Vignali.

But the White House staff, including Lindsey, Cabe and Angel, would soon find out the truth. Pardon Attorney Roger Adams issued a strong report denying clemency, noting Vignali was not a first-time offender, was the leader of the cocaine ring, and the prosecutors and Judge Doty had all opposed any pardon.

When Adam's report was sent to the White House, it did not contain Deputy Attorney General Holder’s signature. Adams signed the report opposing clemency for Vignali instead of Holder, thinking the Justice Department should be on record opposing a pardon. Adams concluded his report writing that “…I recommend that you deny his (Vignali’s) petition.”

Even after learning the truth about Carlos Vignali’s history, the staff later claimed that they considered the support of Sheriff Baca, U.S. Attorney Mayorkas and Congressman Becerra to be significant. Lindsey, who would soon be president of the tainted Clinton Foundation, later said under oath that he thought the Vignali commutation was an “appropriate one.”

On January 20th, Bill Clinton’s final day in office, Becerra called the White House, but Clinton had not yet made the decision final. But later that day he commuted Vignali’s sentence, who had served less than six years (and less than 40 percent) of his fifteen-year sentence. Most of the media coverage focused on the Marc Rich pardon. There was also controversy about Clinton pardoning two Weather Underground terrorists, including the infamous Susan Rosenberg.

On January 24th, Hugh Rodham received 200 thousand dollars from the senior Vignali for helping his son receive clemency. On February 20, numerous media reports headlined that Hugh Rodham had been paid over 204 thousand dollars by Horacio Vignali and another 230 thousand by Glenn Braswell, who sold miracle medical cures and had been convicted of mail fraud, perjury and tax evasion. Hillary, who had just been sworn in as a senator, claimed that she was “extremely disappointed,” and “knew nothing” about Hugh taking money for pardons.

Bill Clinton claimed “neither Hillary or I had any knowledge” of the payments, and that Hugh should return any money, but Rodham’s attorney later said that Hugh had not returned most of the money and had no intent to return anything else. Clinton himself has never explained why he chose to pardon Vignali, a major and unrepentant drug trafficker, to serve less than half of his 15-year sentence.

Even though Pardon Attorney Roger Adams made the White House aware of the facts of the Vignali case, no one ever contacted Minnesota law enforcement, the Federal prosecutors there, or Judge David Doty. Todd Jones, the U.S. Attorney and the chief prosecutor, told Roger Adams he was against the pardon because “it was a no-brainer.” Judge Doty sent a letter to the Justice Department opposing clemency because of Vignali’s role in the conspiracy and his lack of remorse.

Gerry Wehr and Jeff Burchett, retired investigators of the Vignali case in Minnesota, recently told me Becerra and Mayorkas are corrupt and incompetent and their careers should have ended years ago. In 2017, Los Angeles County Sheriff Baca was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI because of the abuse of county inmates, including beatings, rape and trying to cover it up. Other officers were also convicted, and Baca was released from prison in 2022 after serving two years of a three-year sentence.

After Biden nominated Mayorkas and Becerra for their cabinet posts in 2020, they were narrowly confirmed by the Senate on mostly party line votes. But the actions of Becerra, Mayorkas and Sheriff Baca in 2001 had given the Clinton White House an excuse to pardon drug kingpin Carlos Vignali and should have ended the careers of all three men.

Judge Doty had said the Vignali pardon was outrageous. In 2005, Doty had told LA Weekly in referring to the Vignali clemency that, “the whole thing stunk,” and that it had “money and corruption and fraud written all over it.” 

As for Xavier Becerra, he had taken $16,000 from Vignali’s father, reached out to the White House and Justice Department, sent a letter to Bill Clinton and called the White House only hours before Clinton issued the pardon on his final day. Now, shamefully, Becerra thinks he is qualified to be Governor of the largest State of the Union and lead 40 million people into the future. 

Ron Kolb is a native of Washington, DC and resides in Corpus Christi, Texas and has been posted in National Review, American Spectator, Wall Street Journal, Townhall and American Greatness 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Jack Murtha to Kamala Harris: The Failed Legacy of Nancy Pelosi

by Ronald Kolb

When Nancy Pelosi announced that she was retiring from the House after she completes her 20th full term in 2027, her twenty years as Democrat House leader and eight of those years as Speaker were filled with controversies, pettiness and failures. It started with her failure to have corrupt John Murtha to become Majority Leader instead of her nemesis Steny Hoyer as she was incoming as Speaker in 2006 and ended with her choice to force Biden out of the 2024 presidential race and replace her with the hapless Kamala Harris.  

Born in Maryland in 1940, her father was Thomas D'Alesandro, a member of the U.S. House and later longtime Mayor of Baltimore. As a child, she helped her father at campaign events. She graduated with a degree in political science from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. in 1962. She later joined the staff of Maryland U.S. Senator Daniel Brewster along with another intern, Steny Hoyer, a year her senior. 

She met businessman Paul Pelosi, a native of San Francisco, and they soon married, moving to California in 1969. Nancy resumed her political career, became close to Rep. Phil Burton, and eventually became head of the California Democratic Party. Burton died in 1983, and his wife Sala succeeded him. While terminally ill from cancer in 1987, Sala recommended Pelosi to succeed her, and she narrowly won a special election, never losing an election again. 

In 2000, Pelosi ran for Minority Whip (second in position to Leader Dick Gephardt) and defeated Steny Hoyer. John Murtha from Pennsylvania ran her campaign and became her closest adviser. He took office in 1974, was eight years her senior and a Vietnam veteran (with several questions about his record). In 1980, he was taped during the infamous FBI bribery sting and narrowly avoided indictment and expulsion. He was named an unindicted co-conspirator and agreed to testify against Frank Thompson (NJ), a World War Two vet who fought at Iwo Jima and Okinawa and John Murphy (NY) a Korean War vet, who had bravely taken out a machine gun nest while fellow troops were under fire. 

After they went to jail, Murtha sat in the back row of the House. He slowly built up his power, first by ramming through pay raises, then members of both parties went on bended knee and Murtha helped them get earmarks and other corrupt deals. It soon became the "Pennsylvania Corner" and by 2000 when he joined forces with Pelosi, it was now the “Murtha Corner." 

He and Pelosi became forces to be reckoned with. After she became Whip in 2001, Murtha ran her successful campaign to become Minority Leader in 2003. Pelosi had already come out against the Iraq war in 2002 and by 2004, she increased her criticism and aligned the Democrats as well, but the party still lost three seats. In 2005, Pelosi urged Murtha to do the same. He called the war a failure and to "redeploy" the troops, and by 2006 he was a constant media presence and caused the Iraq war to become the main issue leading up to the midterms. 

In June, Murtha said publicly that if the Democrats took the midterms, he hoped to be Majority Leader and behind Pelosi as Speaker. Soon Hoyer, then Majority Whip, said he hoped to do the same. In October, a month before the midterms, the January 1980 Murtha Abscam videotape was made public. 

On the full tape after Murtha had said he "wanted to know you guys better" before taking the $50,000 bribe, he made his real intentions clear, saying "those guys" (Thompson and Murphy) can have their deal, but he wanted his own deal and would be back in touch. On February 2nd the FBI went public. Before they busted middleman Howard Criden, a Philadelphia attorney, he said he'd spoken with Murtha and he's ready to "play now." 

He initially agreed to plead guilty, get a short sentence and testify against Thompson, Murphy and Murtha (and indict Murtha for conspiracy) but the deal fell apart when Criden was an initial focus of media leaks and attention. A witness was still needed against Thompson and Murphy because Criden had handled the cash on their tapes, so Murtha quickly volunteered.

He was named an unindicted co-conspirator and testified against both men and Criden, who were all sentenced to prison. As noted, Murtha slowly built up his reputation again as a corrupt dealmaker with clout before becoming Pelosi's chief advisor. When the full contents of the Abscam tape were revealed a month before the 2006 midterms, the mainstream press deliberately ignored the story and the Democrats took the House. 

The tape had damaged Murtha, and a week after the midterms but days before the leadership election, Murtha had begged Pelosi for her endorsement as Majority Leader, and she did so publicly. The story finally took off, with the Abscam tape going worldwide. There was a revolt among the Democratic caucus with many shifting to Hoyer. Pelosi began meeting with other members and threatening them, including with poor committee assignments, but to no avail. 

When the caucus met behind closed doors, Pelosi was chosen as Speaker, but Hoyer defeated Murtha for Majority Leader in a landslide, 149-86. When the new leadership emerged to meet the press, Hoyer was beaming, Pelosi was shaken, and Murtha was standing in the back, constantly looking down. Pelosi awkwardly grabbed Hoyer's hand and they raised arms together to show unity, but the damage was done. 

Pelosi's first decision as Speaker for having Murtha as her number two went down in flames and her longtime nemesis Hoyer was chosen instead. This would set the stage for other controversies and failures of her tenure as leader. 

In 2010, she guided the passage of the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) which is still a drain on health care and the economy. In 2019, in her contempt for Trump, she led the first failed impeachment, which charged him with trying to bribe Ukraine to investigate Biden's son Hunter of corrupt activity, when the facts showed that Biden had tried to bribe Ukraine to stop investigating Hunter. 

In 2020 during Trump's State of the Union speech, and only weeks before her 80th birthday, Pelosi childishly tore up her copy of Trump's speech before the eyes of the world. In 2021, even though Trump was no longer President, Pelosi led the second failed impeachment, this time concerning January 6th, even though Trump had told protestors to be "peaceful and patriotic" and had never been charged with inciting a riot. 

Pelosi had now turned impeachment into a political weapon against opponents. The Nixon impeachment had dealt with him covering up his reelection campaign and White House involvement with the Watergate burglary and that he had conspired with others to cover it up. The Clinton impeachment involved him lying in the deposition Paula Jones had brought about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and conspiring to cover it up. 

In 2024, she made several ugly and crude statements about Republican voters, and over the years has done the same about her contempt for Trump, while he sometimes responds in kind. She has refused to address legitimate questions about the staggering wealth she and her husband have made from stock deals and possible inside trading. She also advocates that states be required to perform transgender surgery for children on a nationwide basis.

And finally, after the disastrous June 2024 debate with Trump which only proved that Biden was no longer mentally capable of serving, Pelosi visited Biden personally and warned him if he didn't get out, she would expose the polls showing he would lose to Trump and would also expose his true mental condition.

So even though Biden had won enough delegates and clinched the nomination, the system be damned, and Kamala Harris was anointed as the nominee, without receiving a single vote. She would go on to lose in an electoral landslide and Trump would win the popular vote. And Pelosi now blames Biden for not withdrawing sooner. 

Even before announcing her retirement, she called Trump "a vile creature" and "the worst thing on the face of the earth." One should never forget the pettiness, corruption and failures of Pelosi's tenure. Because if you don't remember the past, you might be doomed to repeat it. 

 

   

 

 

 

 

Cop-Killers, Terrorists and Mamdani and Cuomo by Ronald Kolb-10/25/25

On September 25, infamous fugitive terrorist and cop-killer Joanne Chesimard a.k.a. Assata Shakur passed away in Havana. She had been given asylum by the Castro government after her conviction and life sentence for killing a New Jersey State Trooper in 1973 and her subsequent breakout from prison aided by other terrorists in 1979.

Two of the terrorists who helped her escape, David Gilbert and Judith Clark, were later convicted of killing three, including two police officers, and would later be released with a huge assist from former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and a current New York mayoral candidate. They were among the first of 43 cop-killers that the Cuomo's hand-picked State Parole Board have released since 2017.

Fellow mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa brought that stunning fact up at a recent mayoral debate, yet Cuomo said nothing. And the Democratic Socialists of America, who are huge supporters of Queens Assemblyman and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani (and who is a proud member of the far-left group), recently honored Chesimard's legacy, yet he has refused to comment on their action or on Chesimard herself.

Politicians from both parties and law enforcement from around the tri-state denounced her as a terrorist and cop-killer, and Mamdani had to know who she was because she has been celebrated by the left for decades. 

Chesimard was born in Queens, New York in 1947. She joined the Black Panthers briefly in 1970 but left them the following year for the more radical Black Liberation Army (BLA), and being one of the few female members, she was considered as the "soul of the group."

Their most notable actions in the 1970's was the targeting and assassination of at least a dozen police officers, usually killed in pairs. At about 1 a.m. on May 2nd, 1973, Chesimard was in a car on the New Jersey Turnpike with two other BLA members. They had false ID's and were all wanted--Chesimard for two bank robberies and two bar robberies--and one of which included a murder. 

They were speeding, had a broken taillight and were stopped by State Troopers James Harper and Werner Foerster. A shootout quickly ensued and all were hit. Foerster went down with his pistol lying nearby and Chesimard picked it up and discharged a fatal headshot. Foerster was 34 and left behind a widow and three-year old son.

The three terrorists then fled. One of them was quickly found dead after suffering fatal injuries. Chesimard and her other companion were found after an extensive manhunt, and she was convicted in 1977 and eventually sent to the Clinton (N.J.) Correctional Facility for Women.

While Chesimard was in prison, the May 19th group, who were remnants of the Weather Underground and after Vietnam named themselves after the birthdays of Ho Chi Minh and Malcolm X, wanted to rob banks and "expropriate money for the struggle," and wanted to "liberate" Chesimard from prison and use funds to harbor her and then smuggle her to Cuba for asylum.

The May 19th group were mostly white females and included former Weather members Susan Rosenberg and Judith Clark (who had both even attended some of her New Brunswick murder trial), Kathy Boudin and her companion David Gilbert, with whom she would share a son, and Marilyn Buck, who would consider herself BLA. They joined forces with the BLA and spent nine months planning the jailbreak--and it was a success. 

On November 2nd, 1979, Chesimard had left four phony names of BLA members as "visitors" and they smuggled guns in through lax security, and giving a .357 Magnum to Chesimard and took two guards hostage in a prison van, and driving out of the prison (which had no gates) they transferred to vehicles rented by Gilbert and driven by Rosenberg, Clark and Buck and then released the two hostages. Chesimard hid at an address with Buck in Pittsburgh and eventually arrived in Havana, receiving asylum.

In 1980, after the success of the Chesimard breakout, the May 19th group decided to graduate from robbing banks to robbing armored trucks to continue their activity and also fund their drug addictions. A pattern soon developed. Jeral Wayne Williams a.k.a. Mutulu Shakur was the leader of the BLA "action five." He would command a stolen truck, and the others would assault the targeted truck with M16 rifles, jump back into the stolen vehicle and flee with the proceeds. 

They would be accompanied by two backup/getaway cars driven by Rosenberg and Clark and would go to a designated decoy U-Haul rented by Gilbert (and accompanied by Boudin) and the five BLA members would hide in the back with the proceeds. They had a number of successful robberies and on June 2nd, 1981, they opened fire on a Brinks truck in the Bronx, killing guard William Moroney and seriously injured another Brinks guard, and they made off with about $200,000. 

Susan Rosenberg had been trolling another Brinks route and reported to the group they would make millions during their last pick up at the bank at Nanuet Mall in suburban Rockland County. Gilbert rented a U-Haul and parked behind an abandoned Korvettes department store (with Boudin) about a mile from the mall. Shakur drove a stolen red Chevy van to the Brinks truck as Guards Peter Paige and Joseph Trombino were loading bags into the truck and the five jumped out firing their M-16 rifles, killing Paige and seriously injuring Trombino. 

They drove off, followed by Rosenberg driving a white Oldsmobile and Clark driving a tan Honda to meet with Gilbert. When they arrived, two bags containing $800,000 were put in the Honda's trunk and four sacks containing another $800,000 were put in the back of the U-Haul. Shakur and the five other robbers then jumped in the back. The red van was abandoned as the U-Haul and two back-up cars headed back toward New York City.

But what they didn't realize was that a young woman living nearby witnessed the transfer and had called the police. The U-Haul soon approached the New York State Thruway entrance in nearby Nyack and four officers armed with a rifle and three pistols had just set up a roadblock and approached the U-Haul. Boudin got out and approached Nyack Detective Arthur Keenan saying there were no black people there while Officer Brian Lennon was returning his shotgun to his car while Keenan still insisted on seeing into the back of the truck.

The six in the back of the U-Haul heard Keenan and got their rifles ready, flung open the door and began firing at the officers. Keenan was hit twice and took cover behind a tree and began returning fire. Officer Waverly "Skipper" Brown, the only black member of the Nyack force, was hit and returned fire. He was hit and fell again, while one of the shooters pumped more bullets into him. Sergeant Ed O'Grady took cover behind his vehicle returning fire. Kneeling while reloading, one of the shooters coolly walked over to him and shot him three times with his M-16. 

Lennon, still in his patrol car, started firing at the U-Haul with his rifle, then drew his pistol and started firing as the U-Haul tried to ram his vehicle. They were stuck by the roadblock and the patrol car and fled, abandoning the U-Haul and the money. Lennon was stuck in his car, blocked by the U-Haul on one side and O'Grady, who was dying, blocking the other.

Meanwhile, Michael Koch, an off-duty officer who had been stuck in the roadblock, saw Kathy Boudin start running along the side of the Thruway and pursued her and tackled her as she shouted and tried to resist. David Gilbert jumped in the passenger seat of Clark's Honda while BLA shooter Sam Brown jumped in the back. 

Marilyn Buck had strapped a gun to her leg and in her haste to remove it during the shootout shot herself in the leg. She staggered to Rosenberg's Olds and sat in the passenger's seat. Then BLA shooter Solomon Bouines jumped in the back seat. Both cars then fled the scene at a high rate of speed. 

Meanwhile, in nearby South Nyack, Police Chief Alan Colsey had been monitoring the police radio and heard that O'Grady and Lennon intended to stop the U-Haul and he began racing toward the scene and arrived just when the Honda and Olds were fleeing and a high-speed chase began, including weaving through other traffic. 

During the pursuit, they approached a sharp turn at an intersection. Rosenberg in the Olds negotiated the turn, but Clark in the Honda crashed into a wall, totaling it. Colsey pulled over to focus on the Honda while Rosenberg continued on. Using his car as a shield, Colsey pulled out his gun and ordered the terrorists to come out with their hands up. 

Gilbert emerged but kept slowing walking toward Colsey until he repeatedly ordered him to stop. Clark kept searching under her seat until backup arrived and was arrested. A gun was found under her seat, and a magazine was found in her purse. Brown was injured during the crash and was eventually removed.

The two bags were found in the Honda and the four bags were found in the abandoned U-Haul. All $1.6 million was recovered. Three people were dead and four terrorists were under arrest and several more were now fugitives. 

Gilbert bitterly complained about his treatment in prison and even that prisons existed. Sam Brown was severed from the trial and he and Clark were joined by Donald Weems a.k.a. Kuwasi Balagoon, who was arrested in early 1982. Kathy Boudin, at the urging of her father the leftist super lawyer Leonard Boudin, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years. 

Gilbert, Clark and Weems argued that the government had no right to try them, with Gilbert saying that "we are neither terrorists nor criminals...we became freedom fighters." Often during the trial, the three would cause disruptions so they had the audio piped into their cells. After the three were convicted in 1983, Judge David Ritter gave them the maximum, 75-years-to-life (25 for each murder) meaning they would have to serve at least 75 years. Ritter said the three defendants "hold society in contempt and have no respect for human life," and there was "no chance for future rehabilitation." Weems would later die in prison from aids in 1986. 

But in 1985, Clark was sentenced to two years of solitary confinement for plotting with Marilyn Buck and fellow terrorists Linda Sue Evans and Laura Whitehorn to escape. The three had already been involved with several bombings in New York and Washington including the U.S. Capitol in 1983 with Susan Rosenberg, who was arrested a year earlier, and they were plotting more.

In 2006, Clark renewed her attempts to gain freedom by attempting to overturn her conviction in 1983 because she had no legal counsel, even though she had refused one, but the effort failed. In 2010, Clark again renewed her attempts to gain freedom. She asked then Governor David Paterson for clemency, but on his last day in office, he denied her. Then in 2012, she had a favorable profile in the New York Times where she wanted to bond with her daughter who was less than a year old during the Brinks arrest. In 2014, she sent letters to then Governor Cuomo and applied for clemency.

In 2016, she approached Governor Cuomo to meet with her in prison. He went to Bedford Hills Prison for Women to meet Clark but refused to meet with any Brink's survivors and victims. She now claimed remorse for the victims and mentioned her work against aids and with service dogs. Cuomo said, "that she had been a "a 20-year-old accessory" (actually about to turn 32) and he got "a sense of her sole" and granted her clemency, and a stunned Michael Paige (son of Peter Paige), and others responded.

Without his action, she would have to serve her full sentence but now would have to face the State Parole Board. Cuomo, who had appointed many of them to six-year terms said, "she has a hell of a case." Letter-writing campaigns to Cuomo ran ten-to-one against her parole, including police organizations and law enforcement.

Her parole hearing took place in April 2017. Three of the fifteen Commissioners were chosen at random, and it was obvious that Clark thought she would be freed, but the questions were direct. Clark admitted the money would be used to buy deadly weapons, that her fellow perpetrators were armed, and they hoped to steal millions of dollars.  

She reluctantly admitted hearing the shots during the robbery at the bank and didn't know there was a pistol under her car seat after she had fled--which was found after she was arrested after Officer Colsey said she was searching for it while he demanded that she surrender. She also didn't know how the magazine clip for the gun got in her purse. She also admitted having no remorse for O'Grady, Brown and Paige or their three widows and nine children for years but now claimed she did. 

Clark, Cuomo and others were stunned when they voted 3-0 to deny her parole. They noted her previous criminal activity when she was jailed for nine months in 1969 during the violent Vietnam "Days of Rage" protests; later during the Brinks robbery where she was in her mid-thirties; her lack of remorse for the victims for several years; that she had conspired with other terrorists to break out of prison; that there was overwhelming opposition from law enforcement and the public to her release and that she was a "symbol of violent and terroristic crime." 

That December, Clark sued the Parole Board for bias. Her lawyers claimed, "she had accepted responsibility for her crimes" and demanded the decision be overturned. By the time of her next Parole Hearing in April 2019, Cuomo had appointed two members of the Parole Board, including Tana Agostini, who it was found had married a convicted murderer. 

When the hearing began, Agostini took control, and Clark repeatedly expressed remorse and mentioned she wanted to bond with her daughter. Clark again claimed she didn't know there was a gun under her seat or how the magazine ended up in her purse and claimed she came out of the Honda with her hands up, but Officer Colsey said she was removed from the car by backup officers. 

Commissioner W. Walter Smith, Jr appointed by George Pataki, asked about her letters with Buck and others about a prison break, but she repeatedly lost her memory. Most of the rest of the hearing involved Cuomo appointees Agostini and Ellen Alexander focusing on Clark's social work, including on AIDS and service animals. 

The decision was 2-1 to release Clark, with Smith dissenting. He noted her criminal behavior during protests during the war, the excessive violence of the Brinks robbery and plotting with other terrorists to escape. He finished by saying, "media coverage will lessen. What will not diminish is the loss of the loved ones of O'Grady, Brown and Paige. The sounds of their weeping will remain. I vote to deny your release at this time." 

The reaction from law enforcement and family members was swift, bitter and angry. Michael Paige, son of Brink's driver Peter Paige said "my entire family by this decision...Judith Clark should never see the light of day. She should remain in prison the rest of her life." Patrick Lynch of the Police Benevolent Association said, "Judith Clark is a murderer and terrorist...she will be allowed to escape accountability for her crimes. This is not justice." 

Arthur Keenan bitterly said, "Cuomo took it upon himself to give her clemency in 2016, but he never spoke to me or any of the families," even though Keenan repeatedly asked. Keenan and Paige later sued the Board because Agostini had hidden that she was married to a murderer. The decision stood, but she is no longer on the Board after serving her allotted six years.

In 2021, after a New York State investigation reported that Cuomo had harassed 11 women mostly on his own staff (and later include two more), and was facing removal by the New York Senate, he was contacted by San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin for a favor. Boudin's parents were David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, and he asked Cuomo if he could give issue clemency to his father for the Brinks murders and make him eligible for parole by the board Cuomo now had complete control over (Chesa would be recalled in a landslide a year later as a failed D.A.). So, Cuomo issued clemency for Gilbert in his final hours in office on August 23. 

The parole hearing took place on October 19, 2021, which was just one day before the 40th anniversary of the Brinks murders. The three commissioners were all Cuomo appointees. They spent the first half reminiscing about Gilbert's anti-war activity (even though he was twice convicted of assaulting the police) and the second half about his AIDS work and other social activity in prison. They only briefly talked about the Brinks murders, where Gilbert admitted hearing the shots in the distance from the robbery while he waited for them in the U-Haul. It was like a talk among old friends. 

They made the decision on October 26 and released him on November 4 but kept both actions private at the time because, like Judith Clark, there was anger and disgust expressed at Gilbert's possible release. O'Grady's son, Edward the third, wrote that Cuomo's last-minute grant of clemency was an act of cowardice, and that Gilbert "wasn't an activist or symbol", but just a "thief and a murderer."

Four years later, Cuomo is desperate to make a political comeback after his forced resignation as Governor to become Mayor of New York and still purports to support law enforcement and the police in spite of his direct and indirect history of letter cop killers go free.

Mamdani is anxious to begin his path to power in that same lofty position even with his ties to the Democratic Socialists of America and his attempts to downplay his brutal history of ugly comments about law enforcement. I reached out to his Assembly offices in Albany and in Queens and his campaign if he wished to make a statement about Chesimard or DSA's praise of her and have received no response. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Larry Pressler, Abscam, and the Hall of Fame 

by Ronald Kolb  7/30/2020

With the recent indictment of former Congressman and Abscam figure Michael "Ozzie" Myers for election fraud, the high profile FBI sting from 40 years ago was back in the news. And now eyes turn to former South Dakota Senator Larry Pressler, who is scheduled to be inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame this September. 

In 2014, Pressler was attempting to return to the Senate after an 18-year absence. Jonathan Ellis was a reporter covering the campaign for the Argus News Leader, the state's largest newspaper in Sioux Falls. I sent Ellis the transcript of the FBI undercover tape of Pressler made during the controversial Abscam investigation in 1979 as well as some background material showing Pressler has been less than honest about the penultimate event of his career. 

Ellis never mentioned it publicly, even though Pressler was using his dubious account of Abscam as the centerpiece of his campaign. I would find that other media in the state were aware of Pressler's fallacious account of the most significant event of his political life, but the Argus Leader and other news outlets in the state endorsed him, even though he would ultimately lose. 

Last year, Ellis endorsed Pressler in his bid for a seat in the South Dakota Hall of Fame. I contacted the Hall and at the time, he was rejected. But Pressler tried again this year. The current staff was unaware of my previous contact and this time, Pressler is now scheduled to be inducted into the Hall in less than two months. 

Pressler's career began in 1974, when the 32-year-old South Dakota registered Democrat approached the incumbent House Democrat Frank Denholm for a job, but there were no openings. Pressler changed his registration to Republican, ran against Denholm and defeated him. After serving just two terms in the House, Pressler ran for a Senate seat in 1978 and won. On September 25, 1979, just eight months after his victory, Pressler announced his candidacy for President in 1980.

Meanwhile Joe Silvestri, who was a real estate developer in New Jersey, was trying to obtain a license for a casino in Atlantic City, and learned what turned out to be fictitious FBI Abscam "sheiks," of "Abdul Enterprises" who told Silvestri that they were willing to invest millions, and also might need political help to immigrate to America for the right price. 

Silvestri eventually contacted a volunteer for Pressler's campaign, and told her some wealthy Arabs might be willing to contribute to his campaign, which is technically illegal. On the afternoon of November 7, 1979, Silvestri called FBI agent Anthony Amoroso who was part of the Abscam investigation, and told him that a scheduled House member would not be coming, but that Senator Pressler would be instead. Approval for a bribe offer quickly went up the chain, including then FBI Director William Webster. What Pressler would eventually say about the meeting was far different then what is in the official government transcript.

When Pressler and Silvestri arrived late that afternoon they were warmly greeted by Amoroso and Mel Weinberg, a con man working for the FBI who helped invent the sting. The transcript shows they discussed Pressler's primary campaign, then Amoroso mentioned that the sheiks, because of instability in the Middle East, would need assurances that they could come to America if necessary, and that the "right people" could help them. Pressler replied that, "my door is always open." Amoroso added that they want "guarantees from people" in case they need to leave. 

Pressler added, "they're gonna, wanna, for example, even if they wanna home here, they have to get a visa or become an American citizen...I mean that's what they want in the bluntest terms." Amoroso responded, "yeah, the bluntest terms,,,and they don't want to come here, and you know, get kicked out." Pressler interjected, "in the event of an overthrow or something like that." Amoroso added that "what we're trying to do is line up people who could be of service to 'em," and that he was aware that Congressmen "could introduce legislation."

Pressler adds "you can't really introduce legislation anymore," then mentioned former Congressman Henry Helstoski (D-NJ) who was indicted the previous session for taking cash from two South Americans to obtain green cards, and eventually lost his seat. "I knew him," said Pressler. Amoroso interjected that "I would like to do this, I would like you to research this thing, and see what you could do for us." 

"Yeah," responded Pressler, "it would be so hard to know because you'd have to persuade your colleagues, you know, and you'd have to have a reason...it seems that people who stand up for us get kicked in the teeth in the end...I mean my door would always be open to entertain people's problems...but I don't know if we can really assure these people that one Senator or even the Senate would, you know, even agree to this, you know, until they're presented with this matter." Pressler said he wasn't being evasive, but to "let me research this" and find out what he could do.

Amoroso said, "we've got the money, okay, and like I said, and I told Joe (Silvestri), you know, fifty thousand is no, you know, is no problem, putting that kind of money out. I don't care what you wanna call it, I don't care if you wanna call it a campaign contribution, you wanna call it, I don't, you know."

Pressler responded that, "well, but I'm not going to be like a President, you know, I mean I'm running for different reasons, to get my name known, and I'm a young Senator and so forth. And I mean, I would be surprised if I, I'm not saying I'm not going to be elected President, but we're gonna do well in some of the primaries...but I don't wanna-what we do, we're trying to run a viable campaign and we can't make any promises or any, you know, other to listen and be educated, and then to make a judgment, you know."

Amoroso hoped that Pressler could research it and see what he could do. Pressler replied, "sure, yeah....the people who have been friendly to us and, you know, we should be able to help 'em out as much as we can help them out...God, we help our enemies out more than we help our friends, but beyond a commitment to that, I mean like I can't promise that I would introduce "X' bill for "X" person...because I don't even know if I can." 

Amoroso told Pressler that the sheiks could invest in the state to give him better cover. "Sure," Pressler replied, "and helping constituents out." Pressler noted that for a potential bill, "you have to have 50, you have to have 51 Senators voting for it, and I would surely vote for anything that would help our people...but it would be hard to give you a guarantee." 

"Well, as long as you did your part to help them. I know there's no such thing as a guarantee," Weinberg added. "Yeah," Pressler replied, and added "I'm gonna have my staff prepare a memo" on what the processes were for a foreign citizen, and "I'll give you a copy of it." 

Amoroso suggests finding out what he can do and have another meeting, and Pressler says that "it would not be proper for me to promise to do anything in return for a campaign contribution," and that he could not make any promises. He added that "there are people who have introduced special legislation, when, when they keep a maid in the country for a year or longer, but that's become very suspect, you can introduce a special bill...so now there are people who check everybody who's introduced a special bill and they ask you what your purpose was, and so it's, it's not easy to do."

Amoroso again brings up investing in the area to show a reason to help. Pressler noted he had to get back to the Senate. Several pleasantries were exchanged, and Pressler and Silvestri left the Townhouse. Pressler's presidential campaign was short-lived. He withdrew from the race in early January, before any primary or caucus had even taken place. Less than a month later, on the night of February 2nd, 1980, Abscam went public, and Pressler quickly realized that he'd been taped. 

On February 4th, he approached all three TV news networks, and told Walter Cronkite of CBS what he would soon tell the rest of the press about the meeting at the townhouse three months earlier (which actually lasted about 25 minutes). "After two or three minutes, I stood up and said the purpose of the meeting was different than what I was led to believe. I repeated three times the word 'illegal' and stormed out of the house." 

That night, Cronkite led off the broadcast with Pressler's portrait on the screen behind him saying, "Good evening. Listen to the words of South Dakota Republican Senator Larry Pressler commenting on the attention he's getting because he avoided the tentacles of the FBI sting operation called Abscam. Said Senator Pressler, 'I turned down an illegal contribution. Whatever have we come to if that's considered heroic.'" 

The next day, Pressler spoke with the late Jim Lehrer of PBS. "Somebody said, 'why didn't you report it?' Because there was nothing offered to me." Pressler also spoke to the New York Times that day and said he did not report the meeting to anyone because no formal bribe offer was made. The FBI and Agent John Good, who were busy covering up for illegal actions by Mel Weinberg, went along with Pressler's charade.

In 1982, when Congress was investigating Abscam, the House asked Pressler to testify, but he sent a letter instead. On his own letterhead, he wrote that "an additional question arises, is why my meeting was not reported. In fact, there was nothing to report, because no bribe offer was made to me. There was nothing suggested about any money for me personally; nothing suggested about anything that they wanted; and nothing suggested that they would in any way suggest doing anything wrong."

But back in 1980, Pressler would quickly become the celebrated hero of Abscam, and soon would turn Cronkite's quote that Pressler had given to him into Cronkite himself having called him a hero. But six months after Abscam went public, famed investigative reported Jack Anderson wrote in the Washington Post about what was really on the tape. "Pressler did a pretty classy job of conning the American public about his supposed Sir Galahad role." Anderson added that after Abscam went public in February that Pressler had, "leaped on his snow-white charger," and had "righteously rejected" the bribe offer. 

"Unfortunately for the Senator", Anderson wrote, "the secret FBI videotapes of the meeting leaves a little tarnish on the shining armor in which he has decked himself." Anderson added that Pressler chatted amicably for about a half an hour both before and after an offer of money was made, but even though he said he could not take a campaign contribution Pressler had "never reacted angrily to the hints of a bribe; he did not use the word "illegal" once, let alone three times; and he did not storm out of the room after two or three minutes."

Summing up, Anderson said about Pressler that "apparently, he couldn't resist the temptation to work out his own Abscam on the public."

Four years later, in the book "Capital Corruption," noted sociologist Amitai Etzioni wrote about Pressler and the tape, which he had seen, and sarcastically noted that, "you must be a 'hero' not to take money,"  He added that "sadly, I must report, heroes are rare in Congress, and those who are quick to tout themselves would be better off silent." Etzioni said Pressler, "did not storm out of that meeting any more than you 'storm' out of a dinner party after you have finished dessert and bidden farewell to your host." 

Pressler ignored and never acknowledged anyone who wrote about what was really on the tape. He was reelected to the Senate in 1984 and 1990, but was finally defeated in 1996, losing to Democrat Tim Johnson, but would remain in Washington for the most part, even considering at one point running for Mayor, and later setting up a lobbying firm. In 2008 and 2012, Pressler publicly endorsed Obama. In early 2013, Tim Johnson, who had suffered a stroke years earlier, but had made a nearly complete recovery, decided not to run for reelection the following year.

Then in December of 2013, the movie American Hustle was released. It bore little resemblance to the truth and did not involve Pressler's misleading story, but several members of the press were contacting Abscam's self-proclaimed hero. It was then that Pressler decided to run again, but added a new flourish to his story: He had contacted the FBI in 1980 after the bribe offer was made. On December 26, the Bergen (NJ) Record, in a story about Abscam, reported that on his undercover video Pressler had said that, "wait a minute, what you are suggesting may be illegal," and that, "Pressler reported the incident to the FBI." Also, on the 26th he told the Washington Post that, "I've still got the tape somewhere."

Two months later, on March 2, 2014, American Hustle was up for several Academy Awards (but would win none) and Pressler's campaign ran a nationwide ad twice during the Oscar broadcast. It began with Pressler looking into the camera. "American Hustle shows the FBI making real life bribes to Washington politicians. I know because, as your U. S. Senator, I turned them down." Then the camera cuts to Amososo at the townhouse. "Fifty thousand is no-is no problem." Then there is a flawless jump cut about 10 minutes later from the 1979 videotape, with Pressler saying, "in any event, it wouldn't be proper for me to promise to do anything in return for campaign contributions." The ad cuts back to Pressler looking at camera in 2014: "This is the type of honest leadership I will bring to Washington, D.C."

What is the missing from those ten minutes is where Pressler said how difficult it was to get a bill passed in the Senate and that his staff prepare a memo and get together with the sheik's people. In the portion after the jump cut, Pressler again brought up how difficult it is to pass a bill "because now there are people who check and it's not easy to do," and that Pressler would be back in touch. 

As for Pressler's statement about campaign contributions, Silvestri had noted before the meeting that the rich Arabs were interested in making campaign donations, which Pressler would have to have known would been a crime if given from a foreign national. Some have suggested, and even Weinberg himself, that Pressler wanted the money just based on faith. 

The most likely way to know would be viewing the full tape to provide an answer, and Pressler has the full copy as he had told the Washington Post, and which he used in the highly edited campaign ad.

A month after the ad was shown during the Academy Awards, he wrote a column for the Huffington Post. He mentioned his current Senate campaign as well as the Abscam tape. "Wait a minute!" he quoted himself saying, "what you are suggesting may be illegal, and I would never do anything in exchange for a campaign contribution." Pressler then wrote "and with that, I stormed out of the house." 

As the campaign moved into August, another ad was produced, this time from the newscast of Cronkite back in 1980, where he had used the words that Pressler had fed to him.

On October 20, with the election only two weeks away, Pressler did a talk radio interview in South Dakota. I called to ask two questions. One, did he contact the FBI after the bribe offer. At the time I only had the New York Times interview just after Abscam broke, and would later find the 1980 Jim Lehrer interview and Pressler's letter to the House in 1982.

Second, I wanted to mention that what he was saying that had happened on the tape was far different then what the transcript showed, which I had a copy of, but would never get to ask him that question.

I did ask Pressler if he reported the bribe offer to the FBI. "Yes," he responded. I mentioned other recent articles saying that he did, but that he had told the New York Times three days after Abscam broke that he never reported it because he didn't consider it a bribe offer. At that point, he began talking over my question, and my connection was gone.

Pressler then gave a stuttering, stammering response that he had contacted Howell Heflin, then Chair of the Senate Ethics Committee (and who had died in 2005) and that Heflin would have contacted the FBI. However, I would soon find that Heflin had written a letter to Pressler in 1980 six months after Abscam had gone public and wrote him that the Ethics Committee recently reviewed his videotape, and "that the circumstances were insufficient to obligate you to report the matter."

Then as the radio interview in 2014 continued, Pressler mentioned that he had been favorably recognized by Walter Cronkite. After a commercial break he addressed the issue again, saying that he was made into a sort of character hero nationally and internationally because of Abscam, and referenced me as a nitpicker, and that "nitpickers out there, 'alert', you're not gonna get away with this one."

Three days after the interview, he appeared at a press conference in Sioux Falls, but according to an article by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, Pressler said that he didn't want to brag about Abscam before he starting bragging about Abscam, and again took Walter Cronkite out of context.

Pressler was locked in a three-way race but eventually finished a distant third. The next year, Pressler published a book, "An Independent Mission" about the campaign, and that he had been inundated with media requests for his self-proclaimed role as Abscam's hero. The back cover states that after turning down the bribe, "he immediately reported it to the FBI," and that "Walter Cronkite referred to him as a hero."

In 2016, now again as a Republican, Pressler campaigned for Hillary Clinton for president, even appearing at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, and kept boasting to anyone that he was Abscam's hero. He made a number of disparaging comments on TV and elsewhere about Trump.

When Hillary lost, Pressler, now living in Washington, started to associate with people close to Trump, in an obvious move to join the new administration. After failing to do so, he wrote columns for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City until last year, including one puffing up his role in Abscam.  

Pressler has gone from Democrat to Republican to Independent and once again to a Republican, showing that not only is he an opportunist, but his behavior and false and misleading comments about Abscam as well as claims that he had reported the bribe offer shows he lacks any kind of moral compass as well.

Much the same can be said about the media in South Dakota who continue to enable him, and who are in reality a miniature version of today's mainstream press. And now, if his current attempt to be enshrined at the South Dakota Hall of Fame succeeds, he will stain the reputation of the Hall forever. I recontacted the Hall earlier this year after Pressler was listed as a future inductee, and the current staff was unfamiliar with the info I sent last year. I resent it to CEO Greta Chapman who forwarded all the info to the Board of Directors. 

I recently spoke with Michelle LaVallee, chair of the board, and she said that all of the members were aware of Pressler's false account of Abscam and the factual account by Jack Anderson, but made the choice to accept him into the Hall based on his history as an elected official. I pointed out that Pressler was last elected in 1990 and has been living primarily in Washington, DC and not South Dakota since then.

I also noted that when he unsuccessfully ran for the Senate just six years ago, he again pushed his false narrative of Abscam, and then added the new element that he had contacted the FBI back at that time, which he did not. I also asked if she would request a full copy of the Abscam tape from Pressler, which he has, but she stated she would not. 

Still LaVallee held firm, and I pointed out that there seem to be no heroes in South Dakota, except for the four presidents on Mount Rushmore, and she added that many do not think that they are heroes. So apparently the Board thinks Pressler is, whom their website calls a man of "high moral character." A person who would qualify as a lifetime charlatan, hustler, liar and con artist is due to be inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, and permanently stain that institution, and the State of South Dakota as well.



Afterword 8/8/20: I contacted a few of the members of the Board of Directors. One told me she was a personal friend of Pressler and then alluded to his only noteworthy bill in the Senate, the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

The bill allowed for cross ownership in media markets and helped conglomerates to form, therefore raising prices, and helped to defeat Pressler later that year. She did not contest the fact when I asked if he was a fraud and a charlatan.

Another member told me there was now no way to stop Pressler from being inducted next month. A third member said that I wouldn't like how he voted, even though he agreed Pressler was dishonest and agreed to read the article. 

One other item not noted in the article: when Pressler failed in his attempt to become DC mayor in 1998, he claimed without proof that he attended the Martin Luther King, Jr, "I have a dream" speech in 1963. However, 20 years later, Senator Pressler voted against making King's birthday a holiday.