June 19, 2024
(When I originally wrote this journal entry back in late
2013, I assumed the story that had started with RR supplying our poet with
inside information about the arrest of the Virgin Mayor had concluded. There
was no way to know that the U.S. Senator would go on to piss of President
Obama, and that Obama would send to Justice Department after him. The Senator
opposed Obama’s socialistic agenda especially in regards to Obama’s policies in
normalizing relations with the dictatorship in Cuba and the terrorist nation of
Iran. This resulted in two criminal trials, one of which ended up with a hung
jury, the second of which is currently taken place – Obama having Biden use the
Justice Department to make sure the Senator could not escape “justice.” The fact
is that our poet’s original story – and her access to details nobody else had
at the time – set the stage for one of the most significant stories of
political intrigue, no one at the time could have foreseen.)
Dec. 20, 2013
The renaming of the school after the U.S. Senator is the
final chapter in a tale our poet wrote about in late May 2012 when she broke
the story about the Virgin Mayor’s arrest for allegedly hacking into his
political opponent’s website.
As pointed out in my journal from back then, she scrambled
to find sources to verify the information she had, and even briefly asked for
my help, even though she was still angry with me for leaving her at the Hometown
bar a week or so prior to all this.
She didn’t need my help. She had two very powerful people
helping her to craft what turned out to be the best story written about the
event at the time: RR and our former temporary boss.
She seemed attracted to strong domineering men. The
temporary boss actually treated her like shit when he first took over, pushing
her to do more hard news (which she hated) and yet she seem to find him
attractive and he became her mentor.
RR and her hooked up early on (perhaps even prior) to her
taking a job at our office, and he apparently wanted to use her to get his job
back as a cop (as well as push his own agenda on other issues such as the
naming of the county prosecutor).
Despite RR’s intentions, he became a valuable source because
of his connections with the FBI and the local police, and his contributions to
the story allowed her to print information other media outlets did not have.
Although the story had all the earmarks of her brilliant
writing, it also had the former temporary boss’ fingerprints all over it, as he
clearly helped shape it into a powerful news story she might not have been able
to write with him.
The story opened with the concept that the Virgin Mayor and
his son faced 11 years in prions and up to $600,000 in fines for hacking, she
quoting the town attorney at the time.
She went on to detail the mayor’s arrest and later
arraignment in federal court, and the release of mayor and son on $100,000
bail, surrendering their passports to federal authorities, who also limited
their travel to New York and New Jersey.
At this point, she quotes RR, who gives her a tidbit about
the mayor’s wife passing out in the court house.
And as if to modify
the negative impact she returns to the town attorney who insists the town is
still on the right track as far as conducting municipal business, crediting the
mayor for this.
This is followed up by a quote from the U.S. Attorney’s
office about the nature of the complaints filed against the mayor and his on,
and how the mayor and son hacked into the website of a political opponent just
after taking office, and a campaign of intimidation they waged.
Here, she interviews the local police director, who became her
strong ally over the year, and how he still has faith in the mayor despite the
charges.
Her story went on to refute some claims made in other media
about FBI raids and confiscation of document, though the mayor admitted to her
that he had met with agents. He was not permitted to discuss what was said.
The mayor told her he believed the criminal charges were the
result of the county political machine trying to “ruin him for being a
political maverick.”
He had canceled contracts that his predecessor had put into
place.
Sources told her that the man the mayor defeated in November
(and who was connected to the county machine) had turned over documents to the
feds, much of which had been gathered to discredit the mayor.
At this point, she quotes sources that claim the legal
action came from the U.S. Senator as retaliation for the mayor endorsing the
GOP candidate against him.
The U.S. Senator has a history of such action, and is
believed to have been behind actions that brought down the mayor of the
neighboring down and eventually the county executive, who had conspired to
steal county legal contracts from a firm run by the Senator’s close friend.
Her story diverges from what the virgin mayor told me at the
time. Her story quotes the mayor as defending his endorsement of the GOP
candidate, who was a close friend of his. Later, the mayor told me the
endorsement was an accident. A reporter had called him up asking if he would
endorse the GOP candidate and mayor, off the cuff, said he might.
The mayor told her that his change of mind regarding the
endorsement was the result of wishes of his constituents, who liked the U.S. Senator,
though she quoted sources (most like RR) who said the mayor met with the
senator a night before announcing his change of heart.
This was among a number of stories she did prior to her leaving
our office, after which the virgin mayor hired her as a personal secretary. A year
later, the mayor was vindicated, although his son got a slap on the wrist.
But there were political fires that needed to be extinguished.
While working for us, she tried to bring down the
congressman, one of the mayor’s staunchest political allies, and though the
Small Man knew it was RR that orchestrated the attempt coup, the congressman
blamed the mayor.
To appease the congressman, the mayor made arrangements to
name one of the local schools after him (where as detailed earlier she used the
local cops to try to keep me from covering it). Late last month, the mayor
arranged for a second school to be named after the U.S. Senator, and thus
guaranteed peace, if in fact an uncomfortable one.
It is difficult to know how all this affected her or RR, or
if it is at all connected to her recently looking at my photos of the event.
But it is clear that she is being protected, at least for the moment, but is
also frustrated by her position – the way someone in witness protection might
feel as if in jail.
Soon, I expect her to break out – though I haven’t a clue as
to where she will go when she does.
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