By Horace Cooper
Last week, Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Warner insisted that he has not consulted with an attorney or been approached by federal investigators looking into corruption allegations related to the recent resignation of Virginia state senator Phil Puckett. If he hasn’t already called his lawyer, he should press the speed dial button now.
While the mainstream media has paid scant attention to festering allegations surrounding Senator Warner, the criminal investigation train has already left the station. Instead of letting the announcement that the US Attorney will convene a federal grand jury be its signal to Warner and the media that things are heating up, that step has been skipped – a federal grand jury has already been convened this past summer to investigate the circumstances of Puckett’s resignation. Considering the evidence that the Grand Jury has already heard in this matter it would be foolhardy for Warner to think that his legal woes are avoidable.
Fact: Warner has already admitted that he was one of several Virginia Democrats who urged Puckett, personally and through surrogates, not to resign from the Virginia senate. Puckett’s resignation ultimately torpedoed key initiatives sought by Democrats.
Fact: Three days before Puckett’s resignation, Warner called Puckett’s son, Joseph, to discuss possible positions for Puckett’s daughter, Martha Ketron, including a federal judgeship and a corporate position with the international IT consulting firm, CGI. Fact: Warner acknowledges the call, but brands it a “brainstorming session” among friends.
It is troubling and unseemly that Warner would even discuss the prospect of Mrs. Ketron—a lawyer with little legal experience—joining the federal judiciary while trying to convince her father not to resign from the state senate. Investigators will undoubtedly continue to probe whether such a conversation violated federal statutes like 18 U.S.C. § 600, which prohibits even an indirect promise for “any special consideration in obtaining” any federal benefit in exchange for “any political activity.” Mr. Warner’s lawyers, once he contacts them, may advise him more fully on the merits of his defense.
But beyond this concern lies Warner’s apparent violation of other criminal laws far more likely to lead to a conviction, including 18 U.S.C. § 227, which prohibits members of Congress from influencing hiring decisions of private organizations, and 18 U.S.C. § 371, outlawing conspiracy or an agreement between two people to commit any federal crime—such as using one’s position in the Senate to influence the hiring decisions of a private firm.
§ 227 targets precisely the sort of untoward influence that a phone call from a sitting Senator to a corporate executive might exert. Indeed, why else would a U.S. Senator reach out to CGI acquaintances on behalf of Mrs. Ketron if not to persuade them to hire her? CGI would surely understand any call from the Senator on Mrs. Ketron’s behalf to mean—however implicitly or indirectly—that the firm should ignore the Senator’s “request” or “recommendation” at its own peril. After all, it is not the habit of U.S. Senators to act as talent scouts for multinational IT firms in their spare time, so why else would the Senator offer his unsolicited “recommendation”?
To “deliver” for his friends in the Virginia state senate, of course.
Fact: In a text message sent the day after his phone call with Warner, Joseph Puckett relayed that Warner could not answer “how Democrats could deliver for Martha except for a potential corporate gig of some kind . . . .” Unable to reach a timely agreement on a seat on the federal bench, it seems that Warner offered to “deliver a potential corporate gig” for Mrs. Ketron. Such a “delivery” would be a federal felony, a straightforward violation the U.S. criminal code, and any agreement between Senator Warner and anyone else to attempt such a “delivery” would constitute—under the most basic understanding of the term—conspiracy to commit a felony, which is a felony in its own right punishable by fine and imprisonment.
And then there is always the looming specter that Warner’s admitted “brainstorming” by phone and (perhaps by email) about how he might help land a “gig” for the daughter of his political ally could even lead to wire fraud and honest services fraud charges.
The media may not have turned its cycloptic eye on Senator Warner’s criminal situation, but the facts in this case make his legal jeopardy quite clear. Senator Warner, here’s the good news: Washington has a slew of good criminal defense lawyers.
Horace Cooper is a writer and legal commentator. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News as well as in a variety of print publications. He is also a research fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, a senior fellow with the Heartland Institute and the Director of Law and Regulation at the Institute for Liberty. This commentary is his own.
