Smoking Guns Left Lying Around

Bill Hobbs highlights an investigation by (Nashville's) NewsChannel 5 and Phil Williams (who is the kind of reporter Memphis could use some more of) that shows some astonishing lapses by the FBI when they made arrests of legislators on Tennessee Waltz Day.

Yet, despite images of agents roaming the halls of the state Capitol, the Senate's clerk confirms that agents never executed any search warrants on the very offices that the lawmakers are accused of abusing.

"It's hard to believe that they didn't search here in the chambers where all the action goes on," says activist Ben Cunningham of the Tennessee Tax Revolt group.

Williams asks retired FBI supervisor Ray Eganey, "Is it possible that they missed something?"

"It's possible," Eganey replies.

In fact, while agents did search Ford's personal office in Memphis on the day of the round-up, the Senate's clerk says Ford's employees were allowed to clean out his legislative office for him.

Williams shares what they missed thanks to PDF, including a memo from uber-lobbyist Better Anderson (Mrs Jimmy Naifeh to most folks.) that seems a pretty clear-cut invitation to disgraced former State Senator John Ford to sidestep the State's open meeting laws.

(Strictly speaking, I think that memo would have been for the State Senate Ethics Committee investigation of Ford, and not for the Federal prosecution on bribery, to use. But with Ford gone, it's a moot point now. I hope it will become prima facie evidence of what needs changing when the Assembly reconvenes to reconsider its now-embarrassing, half-assed "ethics reform" of earlier this year.)

There's also a request from an OmniCare representative that's sad reading.

Go check this out. I hope that the FBI and the Federal District Attorney are better at prosecuting this case than they were in executing arrests, or Ford may get his walk.