Former Democratic Whip Mike Veon is now on offense against Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett.A lawyer for Veon, formerly of Beaver Falls, said Thursday that his client is an innocent victim of "political assassination" by a Republican prosecutor.
Defense attorney Joel Sansone tore into Corbett a day after Veon and an aide were charged with misusing state tax money sent to a Beaver County nonprofit that Veon controlled.
Veon and former aide Annamarie Peretta-Rosepink were arraigned yesterday before District Justice Barbara Pianka of Harrisburg. She released them on $50,000 unsecured bonds. They face an April 22 preliminary hearing.
Veon, Peretta-Rosepink and 10 others were first charged in July, accused of doing political work with state resources.
Sansone of Pittsburgh repeatedly referred to Corbett as a Republican, noting that no GOP lawmakers have been charged and claiming that no Republicans have been investigated. Numerous GOP staffers have appeared before a statewide grand jury in Harrisburg.
[OK. So it works! Great!]
Corbett has clearly used this entire thing as his entree to the Governor's mansion... For a rather wussy guy, I'm sure his enablers thought he needed some big time "crime busters" stuff to push him over the top....
Time will tell.
Pilt
That's fair, but Veon might also be corrupt. So where's the line? Should the AG not prosecute criminals when it may make him look political?
If Veon or any PA Rep did something illegal - then I absolutely want to see them convicted.
But I seriously think that we need a Federal Special Prosecutor to investigate Corbett and the PA AG office.
I want to know Who and Why the PA State Republicans and their Staffers - got brand new computers and servers just before Corbett's AG office started the Bonusgate investigation. Were they given a "heads up" from Corbett's AG office - and then had to have all of their emails deleted. Sounds like it.
We know that PA Repubs gave out big bonuses - probably more than the Dems - they pay their staffers higher salaries from what I have read.
Now we have to wonder why Corbett did not go after the Jail-Juveniles-For-Profit Judges? Is it because he is friendly with former PA Chief Justice Stephen Zappala - who is the father of Greg Zappala - an owner of the For-Profit Juvenile Detention Centers.
Some PA legals have stated that State charges would have been more serious than "fraud" and could have given the bribed judges a lot more prison time than a lousy 87 months that they got with their federal deal.
We obviously need a Special Prosecutor in PA - our Justice System appears very tainted.