Tuesday, October 16, 2007

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

_________________________________

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

8 comments:

rikyrah said...

After how he treated those folks in New Orleans...

IF he did anything wrong...I hope they get him but good.

Constructive Feedback said...

Angry:

Can you point to any blog entries in which you go after DEMOCRATIC US Rep William Jefferson in the same manner as you are going hard ball against Alphonzo Jackson?

Brian said...

CF,

lol Go to the top of the page and do a search for William Jefferson.

Brian said...

And I removed the Rhodes story...

You are correct.. the story was bogus.

I left a comment, but I guess you can't read it since I deleted the story.

But thanks for the heads-up.

Unfortunately I don't have a paid editorial staff.

I do the best I can as a blogger with zero budget... & a full-time job.

But apparently, a lot of newspapers fell for it as well.

Constructive Feedback said...

Angry:

Where as so much discussion on this blog and others that lean your way is focused upon the network of influence that exists in directing legislation and contracts.......could you tell me EXACTLY the problem that you have when this BLACK MAN does the same thing?

Constructive Feedback said...

Hummmm let's see.

William Hairston, a stucco contractor from Hilton Head South Carolina.

I don't know his RACE but he is a participant in the Gullah Celebration (you know the BLACK FOLKS on the sea islands off the cost of SC)

http://www.gullahcelebration.com/africanamericanbusinesses.html

Hairston Construction Services, Inc.
William Hairston, President
95 Mathews Drive, E7-317
Hilton Head Island, SC 29926
843-247-6668
wohairston@aol.com

The web site says:

[quote]Economic development and empowerment of small minority-owned businesses is the key objective in the Native Island Business and Community Affairs Association, Inc. sponsoring and production of the Hilton Head Island Gullah Celebration. While visiting with us, we encourage you to support our African American owned businesses on Hilton Head Island and the surrounding areas. Experience the culture with those who are of the culture.[/quote]

Please note that BLACK SOCIALISTS conspired against the great Marcus Garvey to have him deported. These Blacks worked with the FBI's J. EDGAR HOOVER and offered to get rid of Garvey in whatever way they could.

After 2 years of COMPLAINTS about Black Contractors doing business in New Orleans a BLACK MAN may have insured that another BLACK MAN receives a contract from the Federal government and WHO DO WE HAVE CHEERLEADING for his demise for doing so?

Brian said...

CF wrote:

After 2 years of COMPLAINTS about Black Contractors doing business in New Orleans a BLACK MAN may have insured that another BLACK MAN receives a contract from the Federal government and WHO DO WE HAVE CHEERLEADING for his demise for doing so?

CF,

I don't care what color he is... I can't support corruption.
And if you read the reports... the problem is that THERE IS NO CONTRACT for Hairston to have continued working at HANO (New Orleans Housing Authority) raking in so much money. He was being paid under the table.

Also... there is a complaint that the Secretary used his influence to get the deal for his buddy (against the federal contracting rules). There was reportedly no bidding involved.

Also, Jackson may have committed Perjury when he told the Congress that he had nothing to do with setting up the deal.

Why should I support Alphonso Jackson because he's Black?

I don't support any corrupt Black politicians... whether it's William Jefferson... or Alphonso Jackson.

That's a huge problem for Black folks...

I would think that a Black far right Conservative like yourself would understand something about accountability... isn't that something that your idols in Washington DC are preaching all the time?

Constructive Feedback said...

Interesting Angry.


[quote]In an interview, Hairston, a stucco contractor, said that Jackson had indeed helped him land the job at HANO. He said that the New Orleans housing agency, which HUD manages under receivership, was struggling to repair and rehab its housing units in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and needed a construction manager. "The secretary asked me if I would go to New Orleans and help them out," Hairston told National Journal.

Jackson declined to be interviewed for this story, but his office put together a written response to questions posed by NJ. In the answers, his spokesman, Jerry Brown, did not respond directly to the question of whether Jackson had asked Hairston to assist the New Orleans housing authority.

Instead, Brown responded that Hairston was one of three construction managers whose names Jackson had passed along, through an aide, to HANO. According to Brown, the secretary suggested the names after a HUD-appointed receiver at HANO approached him and said she was in "desperate need of a construction manager."

Brown also said that Jackson was a friend of Hairston's, that HANO hired the contractor on an "emergency" basis, and that the secretary had not misled Congress. "Secretary Jackson," Brown wrote, "has always been forthright with members of Congress." Asked if Jackson had been questioned by investigators or if his or any other HUD records had been subpoenaed, Brown responded, "HUD cannot comment on IG activities."

[/quote]

Hummmm.
Let's see.

According to the BLACK REPUBLICAN, Alphonso Jackson he "passed the names along" to the proper authorities within his organization to address a specific need.

Now the central them of the Affirmative Action/Diversity crowd is that "we need Black people who can GREEN LIGHT" contracts, movies/television shows and new hires. Funny how these are among the people who are trying to take this Black man who has DONE THIS down.

You say "corruption" Angry?
For the record if Jackson or anyone else is documented to have acted with fraud against the system - go after them. I will cheering the prosecutors on.

If, however Jackson fed the names of qualified individuals to people who were doing the contract letting AND this was an EMERGENCY PROCUREMENT during a time when there was a demand AND this shotgun procument was the standard.....please tell me what has this Black man done wrong?

Before you go and accuse me of being an ideological partisan with my judgments - let us establish WHAT THIS MAN HAS PROVABLY DONE WRONG.

Then check yourself and tell me how he has diverged from your personal aspirations of having Black people in power to make decisions on spreading the wealth beyond the White folks who get the contracts?