HARRISBURG PATRIOT NEWS
Seized files ruled relevant
BY CHARLES THOMPSON / Of The Patriot-NewsOctober 16, 2007Confidential campaign plans.Opponent profiles.Analyses of political attitudes in House districts.All were recovered by state attorney general’s agents executing what investigators termed a “surgical”eight-minute search Aug., 23 of the state House Democrats’ Office of Legislative Research.The judge supervising a state grand jury said all are relevant to the attorney general’s effort todetermine whether taxpayer-funded bonuses paid to legislative staffers were actually rewards for political work.Using the bonuses in that manner would be illegal.Judge Barry Feudale, in a 51-page explanation of his Sept. 26 order upholding the legitimacy of theAug. 23 search, largely rejected Democrats’ claims of legislative protection for the seized materials.Feudale ruled after examining the 20 boxes in private, according to the report issued Tuesday.Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office in February launched an investigation into $3.6 million in bonus payments to hundreds of legislative staffers through the 2005-06 General Assembly session.The bonuses were first reported by The Patriot-News in January.Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate all awarded bonuses, but the House Democrats’ program was the largest: $435,000 in bonuses in 2005 and more than $1.8 million last year, when the party regained control of the House.House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Greene, has said the bonuses were not tied to work oncampaigns. No criminal charges have been filed, and Corbett’s office, in keeping with its policy regarding grand jury investigations, has not commented on the probe.But, according to Feudale’s finding, Corbett’s agents in taking the case before the grand jury noted that potential crimes under investigation include theft, misapplication of government property andviolations of ethics and election codes.The grand jury, sitting in Harrisburg, is expected to hear testimony from House Democratic staffers thisweek.Feudale stated in his finding that most of the seized material, including dossiers on legislators servingthrough the 1990s and into the early part of this decade, were innocuous enough, containingPennsylvania Manual biographies, old press releases and memos seeking co-sponsorships to newlyintroduced bills.
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