VIA THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:

Attorney General Peter Nickles is lashing out at Councilman Marion Barry, accusing D.C.’s ex-mayor of race baiting in comments about city hiring practices.

Barry, D-Ward 8, is raising questions about the city’s health care finance agency, which he says is excluding blacks from top jobs.

At a hearing earlier this week, Barry accused agency director Julie Hudman of running an “all white department,” which the former mayor said smacked of “apartheid.”

Nickles didn’t appreciate the comments.

“You owe Dr. Hudman an apology and you must cease immediately your constant harassment of the director and her staff,” Nickles said in a Wednesday letter to Barry. “I also understand that you intend tomorrow to visit the department … to do your own head count and ‘see for yourself’ the racial and ethnic breakdown of the department’s employees and to bring the press with you. This action is completely inappropriate.”

Nickles said Barry was “going to make a fool of himself” if he persisted in his crusade.

“This is over the line,” Nickles told the Washington Examiner. “That’s not the way we do things in the nation’s capital.”

Barry told the Examiner that he stood by his comments and his conduct.

“I’ve been fighting against injustice my whole life,” he said. “When I see it, I’m going to call. I don’t care who gets upset by it.”

Barry has spent much of his career on the fault lines of D.C.’s race relations. A former civil rights activist, he once told white residents who didn’t like him to “get over it.”

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VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

The Internal Revenue Service claims that D.C. Council member Marion Barry owes $15,000 in unpaid taxes for 2005 through 2008, so it has issued a lien to try to collect the money, according to records filed with the city.

“We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid,” the lien states. “Therefore, there is a lien in favor of the United States on all property and rights to property belonging to this taxpayer for the amount of these taxes.”

According to a copy of the lien, Barry (D-Ward owes $649 for 2005; $4,907 for 2006; $8,679 for 2007; and $1,022 for 2008.

The lien, filed with the D.C. Office of Tax Revenue Recorder of Deeds, appears unrelated to Barry’s early troubles with the IRS and federal authorities over his failure to pay his taxes.

Barry, 74, is on probation after his conviction in 2006 for failing to file tax returns. At the time, Barry admitted that he had not paid the bulk of the taxes on $500,000 he earned from 1999 through 2004.

To repay that debt, the IRS has been taking $1,350 every two weeks from Barry’s salary since late 2006.

In May, Barry’s probation was extended by two years after a judge found he had failed to file his 2007 tax returns.

Fred Cooke, Barry’s attorney, said Thursday that the latest IRS lien “isn’t a new thing.”

“This is an administrative thing that the agency does to lots and lots of people to evidence the fact he owes them money,” Cooke said. “It’s an assessment of an amount that is owed. . . . He paid the tax that he had the money to pay.”

Cooke said he thinks that Barry has already paid his 2008 taxes in full. But Cooke said he plans to review the lien, which was first reported on by the Washington Times. Cooke stressed that Barry will continue to make payments to try to clear his IRS debts.

“We are meeting our obligations,” he said.

The IRS did not return a call seeking comment.

Earlier this month, the D.C. Council censured Barry,who was also stripped of a committee chairmanship, after an independent investigation found that he took a cut of a $15,000 personal-services contract he had secured for an on-again, off-again girlfriend. He was also stripped of a committee chairmanship. The allegations of public corruption against Barry have been referred to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible prosecution.

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VIA DC FAB:

May 3rd Films, an independent production company led by Kirk Frasier shot a pilot and went on the daunting task of depicting the life of D.C. City Councilman Marion Barry also known as D.C.’s “Mayor for Life”. He’s not stranger to controversy from drug and corruption allegations along with his problems with women. There’s no word if this reality show has been picked up by a cable television station or network but I’ll be anxiously waiting to see.

Kirk Frasier is the same man who filmed “Party Boyz”, a reality series about D.C. nightlife gurus Marc Barnes and Taz Wube. He also produced “Without Bias”, a story about basketball player Len Bias.

Still, here are some controversial clips of the upcoming show, including when the D.C. Council voted to censure Barry on March 2, 2010 in response to corruption accusations.

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VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

A defiant D.C. Council Member Marion Barry told a packed Baptist church in Southeast Washington on Tuesday night that despite the decision of the City Council to censure him and strip him of his committee chairmanship, he doesn’t plan to fade away.

“I have no intentions of going anywhere,” said Barry, speaking to a crowd of several hundred who were there for his State of the Ward address, which he said had been scheduled long in advance.

“I want to fight for you, still. … I want to uplift you, still. … More importantly, I want to do all I can to put some money in your pockets,” Barry said to applause. “They may take my committee chair. They can’t take my dignity.”

Barry’s remarks were a departure from the subdued tone he exhibited earlier Tuesday, when he pleaded with Council members to spare him the latest in an infamous string of political embarrassments.

The Council also referred allegations of public corruption to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible prosecution. Those allegations stem from an investigation by Washington lawyer Robert S. Bennett, who concluded that Barry took a cut of a $15,000 contract he awarded to his then-girlfriend, Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. Barry violated conflict-of-interest rules and impeded the investigation, the report said.

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VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

The D.C. Council is likely to vote Tuesday on censuring Marion Barry, stripping him of his committee chairmanship and referring public corruption allegations against him to the U.S. attorney’s office — actions that could severely reduce his authority and extend his legal troubles, several council sources said Monday.

Barry (D-Ward 8), whose political career has been defined by setbacks and comebacks, apologized last week for using “poor judgment” in securing a $15,000 contract for an on-again-off-again girlfriend. The apology came a week after Washington attorney Robert S. Bennett reported the findings of an investigation into council earmarks, concluding that Barry misused public funds and violated conflict-of-interest rules in awarding the contract to Donna Watts-Brighthaupt and earmarks to organizations in Ward 8. The report also said Barry personally benefited from the contract and impeded the investigation.

Though he maintains that he broke no laws, Barry acknowledged he later received “several thousand dollars” from Watts-Brighthaupt for loans he made to her, according to a supplemental report Bennett filed with the council on Monday. Council members also received written responses to Bennett’s initial report from Barry and Rev. Anthony J. Motley, a Barry confidant who received $54,000 in payments from the earmarks.

Frederick D. Cooke Jr., Barry’s attorney, said the council should not sanction his client because policies regulating earmarks and personal-service contracts are nonexistent, and a code on conflict of interest does not apply to “romantic relationships.”

Most council members do not appear to have been persuaded by Barry’s position. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) worked most of the day Monday crafting a resolution that would address sanctions against Barry and reform the earmarks system. He had contacted council members over the weekend but said he did not want to be rushed into a decision Tuesday.

The resolution is expected to include approval of Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) as the new chairman of the Committee on Housing and Workforce Development, now headed by Barry, council sources said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the case. Several council members have endorsed stripping Barry of the chairmanship, said the sources, who added that he would remain a member of the housing committee.

Brown, a freshman with the least seniority, does not chair a standing committee. He heads special committees on statehood and the taxicab industry. He took the lead on taxis after council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) voluntarily relinquished oversight after the arrest last year of his chief of staff, Ted G. Loza, for allegedly taking bribes on taxi issues.

“Clearly, he has a historical perspective I don’t have,” Brown said of Barry. “The thing about politics is you never know what’s going to happen until you get on the dais.”

Brown, who said he would consider “bringing one or two people” from Barry’s staff “for transitional purposes and continuity,” served as interim chairman while Barry recovered from a kidney transplant in February 2009.

At that time, federal prosecutors were making their second request in two years to revoke Barry’s three-year probation on misdemeanor tax charges because he failed to file a timely 2007 tax return. They wanted him placed in jail or in a halfway house but backed off after learning that those sites could not handle someone in Barry’s medical condition. In May, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson extended his probation by two more years.

Federal prosecutors have already been looking into the recent council probe, sources have told The Washington Post.

According to Bennett’s report, Barry personally delivered a check to Watts-Brighthaupt, drove her to the bank and waited for her to cash it. Barry maintains, however, that he received no “personal gain.”

But Bennett’s supplemental report included a harsh retort: “This claim does not withstand scrutiny. It disregards evidence that Council member Barry used his office to secure a public contract for his financially-distressed girlfriend, thereby making it possible for her to repay the several thousand dollars he testified he loaned her. He thus used his office to obtain personal gain.”

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VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D) apologized Tuesday for causing “great embarrassment to the city and City Council” for improperly awarding a city contract to a woman he had been dating.

Barry’s apology comes a week after lawyer Robert S. Bennett concluded in a report to the council that the former mayor might have violated numerous laws when he hired Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. The report said Barry personally benefited from the $15,000 contract he obtained for Watts-Brighthaupt in 2008.

Bennett, who was retained by the council last year to conduct an investigation into earmarks, recommended that the council submit the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for possible criminal prosecution.

Speaking Tuesday in the vestibule of Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast, Barry denied he did anything illegal but said he was sorry for his “very, very poor judgment.”

“Even though there was no violation of conflict of interest, there was a violation of the law of good and sound judgment,” Barry said. “I should have known that even though there was no law against it, it didn’t look good. It raises many questions.”

Barry, who indicated he plans to remain in office, added he should have ended his relationship with Watts-Brighthaupt earlier than he did.

In July, Barry was arrested for stalking Watts-Brighthaupt, but the charges were quickly dropped. He has said the relationship ended, but the two continue to be seen in public together. According to Bennett’s report, he stayed at Watts-Brighthaupt’s house in November.

“I should have given up much earlier on trying to repair a relationship that wasn’t repairable,” Barry said while standing in the church.

Barry declined to answer questions from the media after he read his statement. His attorney, Fred Cooke, said he will deliver a formal rebuttal to Bennett’s report Tuesday afternoon. He refused to make the response public, saying that will be up to Bennett.

“We continue to maintain Mr. Barry broke no laws,” said Cooke, who declined further comment.

The D.C. Council is expected to consider censuring Barry next week because of the conclusions in the Bennett report.

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A team of investigators hired by the D.C. City Council accused council member Marion Barry of public corruption Tuesday for securing a $15,000 contract for his ex-girlfriend and taking a cut for himself.

Although Barry has run into legal trouble in the past — including convictions for drug possession and failure to pay local and federal taxes — Tuesday’s allegations marked the first time the former mayor has been accused of pocketing taxpayer money.

Barry obtained a contract for Donna Watts-Brighthaupt after lending her money to help pay her bills, according to a report delivered to the council by Washington lawyer Robert S. Bennett. To get some of his money back, Barry at one point delivered a city check to Watts-Brighthaupt, drove her to a bank and waited in the car until she came back with the cash.

Barry, 73, denied the allegations leveled against him. “I have been in office 55 years, and even my public enemies, my political enemies, my other enemies have never implied that I ever took a penny that wasn’t owed to me,” Barry said from the council dais in reaction to Bennett’s report.

The report also says Barry “provided substantial financial benefits to some of his close friends and supporters” and called for the case to be referred to federal prosecutors.

“We conclude Mr. Barry breached the highest ethical standards expected of him,” Bennett told the council during the public hearing. “We find his conduct not only appeared to be improper, but was improper. We find Mr. Barry breached the public trust and violated the conflict-of-interest laws of the District of Columbia.”

The report also found that Barry (D-Ward “mounted a concerted effort” to interfere with the investigation by attempting to dissuade Watts-Brighthaupt from fully cooperating with her subpoena.

Barry’s colleagues stopped short of calling for his resignation Tuesday, but several indicated that they support Bennett’s recommendation to submit the matter to the U.S. attorney’s office for investigation. Benjamin Friedman, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney, declined to comment.

However, two law enforcement sources familiar with the matter said FBI agents and prosecutors have been examining the allegations since they became public in July. Barry might have violated the law, they said, but prosecutors are not sure they could have proved the allegations in court and will cull information from the report, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not permitted to discuss such matters in public.

Absent a criminal probe, however, council members said the District charter has no mechanism for impeachment. But they have begun discussing a possible censure resolution.

With his colleagues looking on, Barry told Bennett, who is best known for representing President Bill Clinton during the Paula Jones lawsuit, that he “resented” being publicly accused of misusing taxpayer dollars.

Bennett said: “Mr. Barry has done some good for this city. . . . I don’t question his motives, but we plain and simple found he has done some wrong.”
City and federal laws

In July, the council retained Bennett, of Hogan & Hartson, to conduct an investigation into how Barry and other council members use earmarks for programs and projects in the District. Bennett was assisted by a dozen associates as well as lawyer Amy R. Sabrin of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, who served as his deputy special counsel in the probe. The pro bono investigation — which drew on more than 1,000 hours of work and included 43 interviews and 46 subpoenas — stemmed from published reports that Barry had hired Watts-Brighthaupt as a contractor in his office.

Bennett concluded that Barry violated conflict-of-interest laws by giving Watts-Brighthaupt the contract. Also, Barry misled council staff about why she was receiving the contract, according to the report. Although he did not review every earmark, Bennett said, he found no evidence that any council member besides Barry violated any laws.

Watts-Brighthaupt was paid $15,000 in city funds to develop a program called “Emerging Leaders of Ward Eight.” And, according to the Bennett report, “significant portions” of the program manual “were copied without attribution from publicly available materials located on the Internet.”

Barry insisted Tuesday that he did nothing wrong because the council had no written procedures outlining to whom a council member could give a contract. “If there are no written procedures for personal service contracts, no written procedures for scope of work . . . no written procedures for how you evaluate a product, then one who engages in that cannot, cannot be held accountable for violating something that did not exist in the first place,” Barry said.

The Bennett report concludes that council members are bound by District law, which says that “no public official shall use his or her official position or office to obtain financial gain for himself or herself or any member of his or her household.” Bennett concluded that the law also covers boyfriends and girlfriends. Barry is also bound, Bennett said, by federal law, which prohibits “bribery, gratuities and conflicts of interest.”

Watts-Brighthaupt made headlines this summer when Barry was arrested on charges that he had been stalking her at Anacostia Park. The U.S. attorney’s office quickly dropped the charges. They both said this summer that they were no longer dating, but the two continue to be seen together in public. The report concluded that Barry stayed at her home as recently as November.

On Tuesday, she attended the council meeting to hear Bennett’s findings and then lingered in the hallway.

“I’ve been waiting for this day,” Watts-Brighthaupt said in a brief interview with reporters.

When asked by The Washington Post whether she gave Barry “kickbacks,” she said no. But when asked whether the lawyers might have interpreted any money exchanges as kickbacks, she said, “No comment.”
Millions in earmarks

Bennett’s review of council spending concluded that the members have diverted about $143 million to health, charitable, arts and nonprofit social organizations since 2005 through earmarks that bypass the traditional budgeting process.

Barry directed about $8.5 million to 41 organizations in fiscal 2009, Bennett said. Part of that money, about $450,000, was diverted to six Ward 8 nonprofit organizations that “were conceived by Barry and implemented at his direction by Brenda Richardson, a longtime supporter who managed his Constituent Services Office,” the report says.

“Although Ms. Richardson asserts the [organizations] acted independently of Mr. Barry, there is substantial evidence that the council member oversaw the management of the [organizations] through her,” the Bennett report concludes. “This effectively permitted Mr. Barry . . . to avoid legal limits on the amount and kinds of funds that may be expended on constituent service activities.”

To get the organizations operational, Barry and his staff had to make sure they were legally registered nonprofit groups. Some of the incorporation papers were forged, according to the report.

A. Scott Bolden, Richardson’s attorney, said his client “continues to maintain that she did nothing illegal, unlawful or wrong in connection to these grants.”

The Rev. Anthony Motley, a longtime Barry confidant, paid the filing fees with a check from the Marion Barry Scholarship Fund, which was designed to provide scholarships to District residents.

Once the organizations were incorporated, the report says, several of Barry’s friends drew paychecks from them. Richardson, for example, was paid $101,363 combined from three of them.

Motley, who received $54,000 from several organizations that had received an earmark from Barry, did not return calls seeking comment.

Barry, who was instructed by his attorney not to comment further about the report, told his colleagues that he has no regrets about trying to divert money to residents of Ward 8.

“I am a different kind of council member,” Barry said. “I ran to get resources, to uplift the people of Ward 8, to do everything I can to empower them.”

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