Judge Huvelle Was Not Amused

by emptywheel

I did some coverage of the cynical games Steve Griles played to try to get the 5 months prison time turned into a bunch of community service for his own fake non-profit. I suspected such games would not go over well with Judge Huvelle--who, after all, is the one who tacked 3 months on top of Bob Ney's plea agreement because of his violation of the trust of public service.

So I'm not surprised she went tough on the cynical Griles, doubling the prison time in his plea agreement.

"You held a position of trust as number two in the Department of Interior and I will hold you to the highest standard," she told Griles. "I find that even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct and the nature of your misstatements."

Good for Huvelle--Griles not only lied to the Senate, but he sold away our nation's resources to his closest friends, the resource industry.

I'm curious whether getting a harsh sentence might make Griles think seriously about cooperating on the other, more serious side of the affairs he's involved in. He is surely a subject of interest in the investigation into the royalties games that DOI played, not least since he and his current wife got a house of the deal. In the Abramoff side, Griles refused to cooperate--perhaps this will make him more cooperative.

Comments

[TexasHippie]

Thanks, this made me smile!

[Tom in AZ]

The thought of new charges after about 90 days inside may have the effect of him becoming more cooperative. He's probably squirreled enough away to make those house payments for 10 months, but maybe not 3-5 years.

[emptywheel]

Plus, his kids are/are about to be in college. COllege tuition, thanks partly to the GOP running the country, is a bitch.

[AZ Matt]

Griles, I hope they forget where they put him for 10 years. Misplaced by the Bushies. They are good at misplacing stuff especially requests for information.

[joejoejoe]

Bush visiting Arizona wildfires, 6/25/02:
"We got people down here from the Interior Department. A fellow named Stephen Griles is the number two man in the Interior Department. I want to thank Steve for being on site here, for spending a lot of time in this area -- again, to make sure that whatever we can do to help, we really, we'd like to try to do so."

Thanks Steve!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020625-4.html#

[freepatriot]

that's why I always try to avoid pissing off the Judge

flies and honey, don't cha know

if the Judge is laughing, he ain't gonna throw the book at you

I could provide details, but I'm pitching that story for Fox Network next week ...

[MB Williams]

I'm not sure if Griles will crack, especially since I think all that "support" he got in the form of leniency letters was really nothing but a reminder that 1) if he behaves, the GOP and his corporate clients will take care of him when he gets out, and 2) should he break down and cooperate, a whole new game is on the table, one which Abramoff is just a fringe player. Federici, on the other hand, was neck deep in all of it, and could make things very uncomfortable for Griles, Norton, Norquist, Sansonetti, Finley, and a whole bunch more.

I suspect that the DoJ were pushing Griles to cooperate on the evil-doings in Interior, and he figured his connections with Sansonetti et al. would pay off, allowing little punishment and the ability to claim to his overlords that, see, he didn't rat them out.

But will he crack? Griles in a well-known coward - he once used a ninety-some year old woman as human shield when Bill Moyers showed up at an event with a film crew, asking questions. We'll see how he does heading through the gates at Club Fed.

[tekel]

ew: minor edit. "house of the deal" should be "house out of the deal." And re: his kids being in college, damn I wish I had a class with one of them, so I could try to force them to publicly admit that they were ashamed of their father. And then tape it and put it on youtube, so we could play it for him later.

[ab initio]

If Griles comes to realize that there may be other charges coming down and if gets Judge Huvelle again the sentence could triple - so it could wind up being many years in the slammer and no time to enjoy the fruits of the largesse from his buddies in the resource industry.

The question is how hard will the AbuG DoJ investigate and prosecute their fellow Repub travelers after all many of the prosecutors were purged. However, there still seem to be a few who are making a go of the rule of law - Ted Stevens and Doolittle come to mind and of course the "Freezer" Jefferson.

[emptywheel]

ab initio

Keep in mind that Ney, Abramoff, and Griles were all DC public corruption prosecutors (as well as Safavian, whom Libby team member Zeidenberg prosecuted. So the question has more to do with removing the Abramoff plants WITHIN main DOJ than the USAs.

[emptywheel]

Btw

I know some of you are on Libby Bond watch.

Not me--I'm going to bed. I've got to go to the farmers market in the early AM, but after that, I'll resume Libby Bond watch--when folks in the courthouse come on duty...

G'night!!

[bmaz]

Naw, it isn't happening this late. 9am EST would be likely the earliest; 8am if the clerk is excited.

[Frank Probst]

Ask your doctor about Immunity!

[Sparkles the Iguana]

Barton Gellman on Charlie Rose: "Cheney doesn't care about any verdict but history's."

Um, it really seems like he doesn't care about that, either....

[Basharov]

The only verdict he ought to care about is the one that says "Guilty on All Counts."

[MB Williams]

So I've been thinking about where to begin, connecting the Griles/Abramoff dots to the Griles/Resource Extraction Lobbyists dots. I think the place to start is the Sept. 24th, 2001 dinner at Julie Finley's house. The dinner was attended by all Interior Senior staff, Jack Abramoff and a couple of his clients and GT Associates, and various corporate execs from major energy and mining interests. Oh, and Tom Sansonetti, and his spouse, CoS for Senator Enzi.

Think about this. It's less than two weeks after Washington was attacked, and yet they go on like nothing happened. Clearly, this dinner was improtant. It's up to us to figure out how so.