The Washington Examiner
written by Liz Farmer
Thursday September 15, 2011
After months of waiting, city officials will finally get to examine financial documents that could shed new light on a scandal in which Mayor Vincent Gray's political team has been accused of offering city jobs and money in exchange for corrupting last year's mayoral election.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Macaluso ruled Thursday that former mayoral candidate Sulaimon Brown must hand over the records, which include any money orders and personal checks from Gray's campaign, by Monday afternoon. Brown says Gray for Mayor campaign members gave him cash and money orders so he could afford to stay on the campaign trail and continue verbal attacks on then-Mayor Adrian Fenty.
A special committee that investigated the mayor's hiring practices had asked for the documents months ago, but Brown maintained he didn't have them because they had been turned over to the FBI under a grand jury subpoena. But the FBI returned those documents to Brown and his attorney on Monday.
Reached by phone after Thursday's hearing, Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh said obtaining Brown's records now was about the integrity of the council.
"People cannot just cannot play rope-a-dope and hide and play games with us," said Cheh, who chairs the special committee. "Those documents may establish payments to Brown -- they also may tell us more than we know now about who's making payments."
She said the committee may issue an addendum to its August report that concluded Gray's administration violated nepotism laws. The U.S. Attorney's Office is also investigating the Gray campaign.
At the hearing, Brown, through attorney James Rudasill, again questioned the council's reasoning for obtaining the documents, saying he believed they were "not for committee review but so that they are [to be] provided to the mayor." Additionally, Brown believes that Cheh and Gray are "in collusion."
But Rudasill also set the stage for another battle, noting that Brown may have "a Fifth Amendment issue."
Brown has until the end of this week to select and remove any items that may incriminate him before handing it over to D.C. Council attorneys for photocopying.
A hearing to address the evidence is scheduled for Sept. 21.
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