July 12, 2007

Wonderful and Crooked

There's an amazing bit of information in today's Chattanooga Times-Free Press story regarding state Sen. Ward Crutchfield's decision to plead guilty on the eve of his trial on federal bribery and extortion charges stemming from the FBI's Operation Tennessee Waltz probe: The trial may have revealed evidence of a "crooked" method of fundraising used by the Tennessee Democratic Party.

Both sides had been filing motions to limit or exclude certain testimony in the case as late as Monday. Among other things, Sen. Crutchfield's attorneys wanted to exclude a secretly recorded tape in which his administrative assistant, Linda Johnson, told an undercover FBI operative about a "wonderful and crooked" way to get money into state political campaigns.

In the filing, Mr. Farmer said Ms. Johnson's opinion as "to the propriety of Democratic fundraising methodologies is not an issue in this case."

Chattanooga attorney Jerry Summers said of Ms. Johnson that "I represent her, but we don't have any comments at this time. I think it would be inappropriate for me to comment at this time on the eve of Senator Crutchfield's trial."

The motion said use of the sound clip "will serve no purpose other (than) to inflame and mislead the jury regarding Democratic Party fundraising."

Will the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, the Tennessee Ethics Commission, or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation now demand to hear the whole recording, and probe to find out the details?

Here's hoping the federal prosecutors in the Crutchfield case release the recording. The public has the right to know all there is to know about this "wonderful and crooked" fund-raising scheme.

Hat tip: Tennessee Politics Blog.