From AP’s Washington office:
…Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the [NH phone-jamming] case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 – as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.
The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was “preposterous” to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.
Such details came to light only because the NH Democrats have filed civil charges, finally bypassing a snail-slow prosecution by the US Attorney’s office that the AP story kindly calls “narrow.” Just a few examples of things the Feds let slide as the case progressed:
- Federal prosecutors were very slow to start gathering evidence.
- Federal prosecutors failed to tape their interviews with suspect Allen Raymond, enabling Tobin’s defense lawyer to claim that evidence against his client had flourished and grown “like Pinocchio’s nose.”
- The Justice Department replaced prosecutor Todd Hinnen in August, 2005, handing the Tobin prosecution to US Attorney Andrew Levchuk, who was also handling ongoing responsibility for several other cases. By comparison, Tobin’s defense was handled by partner-level staff from two major law firms.
- The US Attorney never introduced evidence at Tobin’s trial about the suspicious timing of Tobin’s contributions to Tom DeLay (among many others) or the fact that Tobin’s legal bills were being paid by the RNC–strong evidence that James Tobin had something to hide.
- The US Attorney let Tobin’s defense make the case that Tobin had no way of knowing that the planned phone-jamming would affect rides to the polls, despite Chuck McGee’s clear testimony that this was his plan from the start. As a result, the jury acquitted Tobin of “depriving citizens of their right to vote.”
AlterNet and TPM Muckraker Paul Kiel seem to be on this story.
April 11 update from the Union Leader.
Update #2: Howard Dean’s on the case.
Update #3: The Senate Majority Project is hosting pdfs of the phone evidence and sworn affadavit that set this story in motion.