Tuesday, October 24th, 2006...7:31 pm
Renzi Hires Defense Attorney
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Okay, the story I put up about Rick Renzi the other day that a bunch of you said I was wrong about? Well…I was wrong about one thing, it is not an indictment, but an “inquiry.”
Apparently, the AP has the story now. I couldn’t find where it has been posted, but Renzi has apparently hired former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods as his defense attorney. And, of course, Renzi is carefully following his attorney’s instructions and not saying anything.
3 Comments
October 25th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Rick is a dirty bird…
October 25th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
U.S. Attorney Charlton is susceptible to Republican political pressure. The key point to understanding his conduct is that his ambition is to be a federal judge, and his goal absolutely requires the strong support of Senator Jon Kyl, a key member of the judiciary committee. It should not be a surprise that Charlton is slowing the Renzi investigation to help the Republicans in the election, since he has a history of such conduct at Kyl’s request.
Charlton’s handling of the District 20 investigation is one example. Individuals associated with AG Goddard asked Charlton to investigate the suspicious District 20 recount. As a result, Charlton’s office began an investigation, which included seizing the ballots with a grand jury subpoena. Remember how Skip Rimza began a campaign for Secretary of State against Brewer? The reason was that Charlton’s office told Rimza’s circle that it expected the investigation would bring down Brewer. Brewer panicked over Rimza’s primary challenge and Charlton’s seizure of the ballots, and she asked Kyl to intervene on her behalf. Kyl asked Charlton to hold off on an investigation to shut down the fever pitch surrounding voting practices in Arizona and her mishandling of that recount. After Kyl’s intervention, Charlton’s office told Rimza that there would be no investigation, and Rimza stopped his campaign for Secretary of State. That’s why Rimza didn’t run even though he had already collected petition signatures and, even more, put up his signs. (My source on this is someone in the Rimza inner circle.)
The bottom line is that pursuing Renzi at this point could cost the Republicans a Congressional seat in a tight election year, and Kyl used his influence with Charlton to protect his fellow member of Congress, Renzi. It wouldn’t be the first time Republicans played politics with criminal justice.
October 25th, 2006 at 5:13 pm
There’s an irony. Wasn’t Grant Woods one of those Republicans who endorsed Harry Mitchell a couple of months back because they are tired of the antics of J.D. Hayworth, Renzi’s predecessor representing NE Arizona?
word verification: wwcubs
Maybe it means Renzi is going to go down as a loser.
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