Grand Jury Investigating HUD Chief Alphonso Jackson

It looks like another top Bush official may be on his way out, one way or another. One of Bush's favorite puppets and top cheerleaders is in hot water over shady deals involving the New Orleans Housing Authority (post Katrina).

Jackson is being investigated by a Federal Grand Jury on possible corruption charges and for lying to Congress. Jackson is accused of providing a no bid contract to one of his buddies, William Hairston, and then paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars under the table... effectively siphoning money away from Katrina victims in New Orleans who need the money. He told Congress earlier this year that he was not involved in any contracts. But evidence is pointing the other way.
This (if true) is the worst kind of corruption.

If he's indicted and convicted... I fully expect George W. to pardon him. But then again, the Bush crew doesn't have much time left in office... This case may not be decided until after another figurehead gets elected (possibly a Democrat). But it wouldn't surprise me if Jackson got a pardon anyway under that scenario.

Following from The New York Times

The Justice Department is investigating ties between Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso R. Jackson and a friend of Mr. Jackson’s who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by him for rebuilding work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, federal officials said Thursday.

The investigation, they said, centers in part on whether Mr. Jackson was fully truthful in Congressional testimony and in interviews with federal investigators when he said he had not steered housing contracts to friends and administration supporters.

Mr. Jackson was the subject of a similar investigation by the inspector general of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The inspector general found last year that Mr. Jackson had urged his staff to consider contractors’ political leanings when awarding contracts, though there was no proof that staff members had complied.

The new inquiry was first reported by The National Journal magazine, which identified Mr. Jackson’s friend as William Hairston and said he had been paid more than $485,000 for his work in New Orleans on behalf of the housing department. The magazine said Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hairston were golfing partners in Hilton Head Island, S.C., where Mr. Hairston lives.

Mr. Jackson’s spokesmen at the housing department refused to answer detailed questions about the inquiry but released a statement from the secretary saying, “My commitment to helping the American people find decent, safe and affordable housing is unwavering, and I intend to fully cooperate with any possible investigation and to clear my name."

Mr. Hairston, who is identified in documents issued by the New Orleans Housing Authority as a consultant to the authority, did not return phone messages left at his home.

Mr. Jackson, former president of the Dallas housing authority, drew attention to the potential for political abuses in federal housing contracts with a speech in April 2006 in which he said he had canceled a federal contract for a company after its president had told him that he did not like President Bush. Mr. Jackson later said he had lied in the speech. “I deeply regret making up the story,” he said.

Complaints about the speech prompted the inspector general’s investigation. The inspector general’s report quoted former aides to Mr. Jackson as saying he had urged them to give special consideration to contractors who supported President Bush.

The former chief procurement officer of the housing agency was quoted as telling investigators that Mr. Jackson had told her that “it drives him nuts” when contractors made clear that they were critics of Mr. Bush but expected to be considered for government housing contracts.

Excerpt from the National Journal

Federal investigators are once again on Jackson's trail. And this time, the investigation seems more serious. Donohue's investigators are now working with the FBI, a federal grand jury in Washington, and prosecutors from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section. The investigation appears to focus, in part, on whether Jackson misled Congress when he testified earlier this year that he had never intervened in awarding HUD contracts. "I don't touch contracts," the HUD boss told a Senate panel on May 3.

Investigators are exploring whether Jackson, despite that testimony, had actually lined up a contract at the HUD-controlled Housing Authority of New Orleans, or HANO, for a golfing buddy and social friend from Hilton Head Island, S.C. The friend, William Hairston, was paid more than $485,000 for working at HANO during an 18-month period, according to figures provided by HUD and a former HANO official. The work was not competitively bid.

See Full Report from the National Journal

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However, Hairston denies the above National Journal statements in this Times-Picayune report. But there are still other details that cannot be explained away...