Micah Morrison

Judicial Watch & the Fight Against Corruption in New York

On October 4, I had the pleasure of speaking to the Queens Village Republican Club about Judicial Watch’s fight against corruption in New York. We’ve been fielding requests for copies of the speech ever since, so we’re reprinting an edited version here:

Judicial Watch takes a lot of heat in the public arena, but in fact we are not a partisan group. Our mission is public education. We educate through investigations, litigation, journalism and public outreach. Increasingly, our public education efforts include the rapidly expanding world of social media.

We use national and state transparency laws to fight corruption and malfeasance in public office. Our weapon of choice is the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. We lead the nation—including all the major news organizations—in filing and litigating freedom of information actions. These are powerful tools for holding public officials accountable.

New York is the financial and media capital of the world and deserves special attention in the fight against corruption. New Yorkers take corruption seriously. Poll after poll shows that corruption ranks among the top concerns of New Yorkers.

For instance, in a July 2018 Zogby poll, New Yorkers ranked corruption concerns second, after high taxes.

That same month, a Quinnipiac poll showed that 45% percent of New Yorkers ranked corruption as a “very serious” concern.

In 2015, in a Sienna College poll, 92% of New Yorkers ranked corruption as a “serious issue.”

Corruption has a long history in New York. It includes the notorious Tammany Hall, a corrupt political machine that dominated city politics for more than a century. Judicial Watch has raised questions about whether the city has entered an era of a new, more sophisticated Tammany Hall, with sketchy financing from international players, power brokers in Albany ruling with an iron fist, and influential non-profit entities like the Clinton Foundation making an end run around the law.

With a new generation of corrupt enterprises, new challengers have begun to emerge as well.

But who are the corruption fighters of tomorrow and how will they do?

In this regard, the case of an obscure corruption expert with the wonderfully musical name Zephyr Teachout is worth considering.

Teachout put the fear of political death into New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the 2014 gubernatorial primary, gathering 34% of the vote. She ran on an anti-corruption platform. She went on later to lose to Republican John Faso for a seat in the House of Representatives. Earlier this year, she lost again, this time to Democratic machine favorite Letitia James in a race for New York attorney general.

But in each case, Teachout did surprisingly well.

The anti-corruption message resonates.

Teachout is a Democrat, but when it comes to corruption, conservatives and Republicans in New York often find themselves cheering her on.

New York City is a Democratic stronghold, and so much of the corruption we see comes at the hands of Democrats. The list of corrupt Democrats is long. It includes:

Sheldon Silver, the powerful former speaker of the New York State Assembly, who went down on corruption charges earlier this year.

Joseph Percoco, one of Gov. Cuomo’s closest allies, sentenced last month to six years in prison for accepting bribes in a sweeping corruption case that also netted other Cuomo associates.

The governor himself, lest we forget, disbanded his own corruption inquiry, the Moreland Commission, in 2014.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is mired in allegations of improper campaign donations and dealings with corrupt associates like Long Island restaurateur Harendra Singh.

Former state senator Malcolm Smith of Queens was convicted on bribery charges related to election scheming.

Former state assemblyman William Scarborough of Queens was convicted of abusing over $70,000 in state and campaign funds.

Former state assemblyman William Boyland Jr. of Brooklyn was convicted of taking bribes.

Former state assemblyman Eric Stevenson of the Bronx was convicted of taking bribes.

Former state senator Shirley Huntley of Queens admitted to embezzling more than $80,000 from an educational non-profit she controlled.

Former state senator Pedro Espada of the Bronx pleaded guilty to tax fraud and looting health clinics.

The list goes on. And Republicans are no angels either. The Republican Hall of Shame includes:

Former state senate majority leader Dean Skelos, convicted on corruption charges.

New York City Council member Dan Halloran of Queens, convicted on corruption charges.

Former state senator Thomas Libous of Binghamton pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

Former state senator Nicholas Spano of Yonkers admitted to cheating on his income tax.

Former state senator Vincent Leibell was convicted on kickbacks and tax evasion.

Now, two of these felons are worthy of particular note: Sheldon Silver, the former assembly speaker, and Dean Skelos, the former senate majority leader.

In Albany, the assembly speaker and the senate majority leader, along with the governor, are known as the “three men in a room.”

“Three men in a room” is New York political shorthand for how ultimate power is wielded in the state capital.

The three men in a room control the levers of power in state politics. It’s one of the reasons that corruption is such a problem in New York.

Following the conviction of Silver, then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “If you’re one of the three men in a room, and you have all the power, and you always have, and everyone knows it, you don’t tolerate dissent because you don’t have to. You don’t allow debate because you don’t have to.”

No dissent, no debate, power concentrated at the top. Corruption flows down from the top. The fish rots from the head.

What is to be done?

Let me tell you what Judicial Watch does.

We’re lately famous for several investigations: the Hillary Clinton emails case; the Benghazi affair; and most recently, inquiries into the controversial activities of President Trump’s opponents inside and outside government. But we are an equal-opportunity offender. We’ve gone after Republican and Democratic presidents and a long line of public officials from both parties.

We wage our campaigns through a combination of investigations, freedom of information litigation in federal and state courts, and raising public awareness through media appearances and our own social media efforts.

For example, in the controversy over allegations of a Russian connection to the 2016 election, Judicial Watch continues to raise questions about the conduct of Justice Department officials. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records of FBI interviews—so-called “302 reports”—of a key Justice Department official, Bruce Ohr.

Ohr is a Russian organized crime expert and an associate of Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence official who compiled a salacious dossier on Mr. Trump. Our investigative team recognized that there could be valuable information in those 302s. We filed a FOIA request with the Justice Department. They turned us down. We sued them.

In another recent Judicial Watch case, we sued the Secret Service after they denied us records related to the costs of president travel. The president is a public servant. When he spends our money, we have a right to know how much he spends. Judicial Watch calculates that President Trump has spent more than $17 million for travel to his Mar-a-Lago estate and elsewhere. But the Secret Service is withholding some travel records.

Litigation is one of the secrets of Judicial Watch’s success. Thanks to our devoted donors, we have the financial and legal firepower to take on the government through complex and often expensive litigation.

But how does this apply to the fight against corruption in New York? How can New Yorkers fight corruption?

I think four key points can be gleaned from the Judicial Watch experience.

Point One: Invest in Investigations. Because New York City is the financial and media capital of the world, it always will deserve special attention. In Judicial Watch’s case, they invested in an on-site investigative reporter (me) and provided resources to investigate credible allegations of corruption. Investing in investigations, when it comes to freedom of information laws, also means investing in litigation: if you can’t sue, you need to find someone who will do it on your behalf.

Point Two: Watchdog Journalism Is Not Just for Journalists. Investigations, FOIA, and social media can be adapted to fit many forms of anti-corruption activism. Not every group can file federal and state freedom of information actions on some sketchy outfit or program, but some can. Not every group can watchdog a suspect politician, but some can. Not every individual can mount a successful social media campaign, but some can. Individuals matter.

Point Three: Be Open to the Other Side. Right here in Queens, the Democratic Party has just imploded. Party boss Joe Crowley was unseated in a primary by a 28-year-old activist. The Democrats in New York are in turmoil. What can conservative and Republicans learn from the tumult in the Democratic Party? Do liberals feel the same way about corruption as we do?

I can tell you, the answer to that last question is yes.

Point Four: Be Open to New Ideas. Earlier, I mentioned the New York anti-corruption crusader Zephyr Teachout. Sure, she’s a lefty Democrat, but she has some really good ideas. Her positions include re-opening the anti-corruption Moreland Commission, strengthening legal units prosecuting public-corruption, taking on lawmakers and lobbyists, and being tougher on powerful interests abusing their positions. Those are ideas conservatives can agree with.

Investing in investigations. Litigating FOIA. Making the media, particularly social media, your friend. Practicing watchdog journalism even if you’re not a journalist. Being curious about the other side and open to new ideas. That’s a recipe for fighting corruption in New York and elsewhere.

Shake well. Repeat.

Micah Morrison is chief investigative reporter for Judicial Watch. Follow him on Twitter @micah_morrison. Tips: mmorrison@judicialwatch.org

Investigative Bulletin is published by Judicial Watch. Reprints and media inquiries: jfarrell@judicialwatch.org

It’s September and New York City’s 1.1 million school kids are back to class and Randy Jurgensen is back to worrying about them getting killed.

A Korean War veteran and former New York City homicide detective, Jurgensen has seen a lot of shooting deaths. He investigated over 200 murders during his twenty years as a detective, including the killings of children, police officers and civilians. After that, he was a consultant to national and international police organizations. Jurgensen is a famous figure in law-enforcement. Investigative Bulletin has written about his pursuit of justice in the murder of NYPD Patrolman Phillip Cardillo—the so-called “Harlem Mosque Incident.”

A grandfather many times over, Jurgensen is obsessed with school shootings. He says that experience has taught him that “two things matter most in preventing shootings: training and information.”

He’s had a plan to make schools safer. In the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School cataclysm, he wrote Vice President Joe Biden with the plan. Biden had been appointed by the president to lead a gun-violence task force. Jurgensen pointed out that across the country, dozens of law-enforcement personnel retire every day. These highly-trained professionals have been vetted their entire careers, retire with pensions and health insurance, and are licensed to carry firearms. He recommended that retired law-enforcement professionals be hired to help protect school kids.

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Congress gets another shot at killing that swampiest of swamp creatures, the EB-5 visa program, at the end of September. EB-5 is a cash-for-visas program beloved of Democrats and Republicans, real estate developers, and a not insignificant number of crooks and hustlers. Cause of Action has been documenting mounting EB-5 scams at a new website. It’s an eye-opener.

Under EB-5, foreigners—mainly Chinese citizens—get a green card and a path to citizenship by paying $500,000 into the program, the money designated for job creation in economically distressed “targeted unemployment areas” in the U.S. The payments are brokered by politically connected EB-5 Regional Centers, which often rake off hefty fees.

As for those targeted unemployment areas? Critics charge that they are often nothing more than elaborately gerrymandered maps drawn from census tracts to create fictional qualifying districts.

The program is a magnet for fraud. Estimates vary, but the best guess is that around $15 billion in EB-5 cash has come into the country in the last decade. Part of the problem is that EB-5 is so loosely regulated, it’s difficult to follow the money. Real estate developers love EB-5’s lax guidelines and easy financing opportunities.

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A hurricane is about to descend on the tiny nation of Guyana—a hurricane of money.

Guyana is a country of about 750,000 tucked between Suriname and Venezuela on the Atlantic Coast, with a vast interior and unspoiled rain forests. Another 500,000 Guyanese live abroad, many having fled the country’s endemic violence and corruption. The CIA says Guyana is a transshipment point for narcotics and a center of money laundering, sex trafficking and forced labor. Intelligence sources tell me that for decades, it was a clandestine battleground of the Cold War, and later, the War on Terror. A former British colony, it gained independence in 1966. But Britain did Guyana no favors on the way out by installing strongman Forbes Burnham to run the country. Burnham unleashed far-reaching waves of strife between his largely Afro-Guyanese followers and the other major demographic group, the Indo-Guyanese. Britain and the U.S. backed the authoritarian Burnham, fearing a communist-controlled government from his opponent, Indo-Guyanese leader Cheddi Jagan. Burnham and Jagan are long gone, but rivalry and tensions between Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese persist to this day, including in the National Assembly.

Guyana is a poor country. Skilled workers and much of the educated class emigrated in the Burnham years and after. The country went into steep economic decline. Now, the average per capita income in Guyana is about $4,000, making it one of the poorest countries in the region. The unemployment rate is about 12%. Youth unemployment is around 25%. About 30% of the Guyanese population live below the poverty line. Infrastructure development, health care and education struggle for limited government funds.

All this may be about to change. In 2015, ExxonMobil discovered huge oil reserves off the Guyanese coast. The numbers are staggering. ExxonMobil estimatesat least four billion barrels of recoverable oil are at stake. The New York Times reported that the oil may generate “enough bounty to lift the lives of almost every Guyanese.” Energy analysts calculate Guyana could be taking in between $5 billion and $6 billion per year in oil revenues by the end of the next decade. For perspective, the current annual government budget is around $1.2 billion.

The big money is set to start flowing by 2020. For Guyana, it seems like a dream come true. What could go wrong?

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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and the NYPD held a press conference July 10^th to announce that crime in the city has gone down. “New York City achieved a reduction of 853 crime reports, or -1.8% year-to-date, compared to the same period in 2017,” the NYPD said, citing the latest figures from its CompStat crime-fighting program.

Crime in general in New York City is at historic lows. That’s the good news. The bad news? Violent crimes—murder and rape—are trending upward.

147 murders were committed in New York from January 1 to June 30, 2018, according to NYPD statistics. Last year in the same period, it was 136. That’s an 8% rise.

NYPD officials blamed the Bronx. “The Bronx is driving the murder year to-date,” said NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan. He said much of the bloodshed in the Bronx was “gang-related.” The borough had 51 murders to June 30, a 64% increase from last year.

Blame the Bronx? Wait a New York minute. Northern Queens saw a 33% rise in murders; in southern Queens, the increase was 23%.

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What happened when the swampiest of swamp cats met the man from the FBI?

Every student of American politics knows that Terry McAuliffe is that swampiest of swamp creatures, the cool cat with the big bucks. Al Gore called him “the greatest fundraiser in the history of the universe.” In 1996 alone, as national finance chairman of the Clinton-Gore re-election team, McAuliffe raised $50 million, but plunged the Democratic Party into a sweeping campaign-finance scandal involving the sale of sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom, coffee klatches at the White House, a vast cast of sketchy characters and rivers of money. The Clintons loved the ebullient money man and he loved them back. By 1999, McAuliffe claimed to have raised nearly $275 million for the Arkansas couple—and that’s before he joined forces with the Clinton’s 21st century money machine, the Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative. In 2000, he was named chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In 2008, he chaired Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In 2013, with enthusiastic support from the Clintons, he ran for governor of Virginia and won.

By 2015, Governor McAuliffe already was “shaping a significant role for himself” in Mrs. Clinton’s second try at the presidency, Politico reported. A “consummate political animal, [McAuliffe] just can’t keep his fingers away from the flame. Despite the daily demands of running the state…he’s emerging as Hillary’s informal liaison to governors and the party’s biggest donors, while also keeping a finger on the pulse of the camp’s central operations in Brooklyn.”

By contrast, even today, in the wake of hundreds of media stories and last week’s Office of Inspector General report on alleged wrongdoing in the 2016 election, few people will recognize the name Andrew McCabe. He’s a swamp inhabitant too, though many would put him on the right side of the swamp, on dry land, chasing the bad guys. Except that’s not quite how it turned out.

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“The leopard does not change his spots” is a favorite saying of prosecutors and the rise and fall of Clinton-era conspirator Ng Lap Seng proves the point. Ng cut a colorful swath through the 1996 Clinton campaign finance scandal. At the time, he was a mere millionaire with connections to the Chinese government and Asian organized crime. Now he is a billionaire. Last month, more than twenty years after he first appeared on the U.S. scene, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York nailed him in a bribery scheme and put him away for four years.

In the bribery case, Ng showered two United Nations ambassadors—Francis Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic and John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda—with cash. He needed their support for a multi-billion-dollar UN conference center he wanted to build in Macau. Ng envisioned the conference center as the cornerstone of a grandiose plan to turn the obscure gambling enclave into the “Geneva of Asia,” prosecutors said. Ng spent $1.5 million in the illegal effort. He set up a phony NGO and funneled $30,000 a month to Ambassador Lorenzo. More payments flowed to Lorenzo’s brother, to Ambassador Ashe, and to Ashe’s wife. In return, the ambassadors put a UN imprimatur on Ng’s construction plan. They drafted and circulated official UN documents in support of Ng and the Macau conference center.

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