F.B.I. Agent stuns court: "many who received a check from BLUEWATER never appeared on an ELEC report"
F.B.I. AGENT TESTIFIES
You know, GA (or anyone) can scour ELECs until the cows come home, but if a campaign intentionally fails to report contributions and/or expenditures, then what?
According to prosecution witness F.B.I. Agent Jacqueline Matthews, who took the stand yesterday afternoon, that's exactly what Raia's 2013 campaigns did; they failed to report disbursements for an unspecified number of paid "campaign workers". Hudson County View reported that Mathews testified:
"...378 of the 398 people paid by either the Let the People Decide PAC or Bluewater Operations LLC received a vote by mail ballot in 2013 [95%]....only 15 of the 378 that received a VBM ballot did not live in subsidized housing, according to Matthews, who also said that many who received a check from Bluewater never appeared on a report filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission."
So, what happened? HCV reported:
"On October 29th, 2013, Bluewater received a $15,000 check from Let the People Decide. When Farrell asked what it was for, Yacco has happy to provide a succinct explanation.“That was a deposit in order to write checks to a list of people they provided to us,” Yacco stated."
A "list" of people huh. How come there were more names on the "list" than there were on the ELEC report?
It took the awesome investigative powers of the Department of Justice to subpoena records either from Bluewater or their bank to discover the actual names and total number of Raia 'workers' allegedly paid for votes.
It is likely the F.B.I. has done a similar investigation into Hoboken's 2015, 2017 and 2018 elections ('run-off' ballot referendum.) We shall see.
THE NEXUS OF 2013 AND 2019: DEFUSCO FOR COUNCIL
It is uncertain whether the D.O.J. will monitor Hoboken's 2019 election. And the trial has revealed this disturbing fact: a central figure in this corrupt operation, the owner of Bluewater Operations, is working for Mike DeFusco's re-election campaign.
In fact the Ramos-DeFusco slate is laden with heavy baggage, bursting with mail-in-ballots from 2015 and 2017 election cycles.... perhaps even 2018, since Matt Calicchio testified to secretly taping Anthony Romano, Perry Belefiore, and Eduardo Gonzalez.
In my opinion, Pupie's trial has just scratched the surface of coming federal prosecutions for voter fraud here in Hoboken.
Who's next?
Who's next?
Looks like Defusco severed ties with Yacco for this round.
ReplyDeleteToo little, too late.
The blue waters of 2017 won't wash off so easily. Except for Tiff and co. who don't really care about that stuff unless they can somehow tie it to Bhalla.
For instance when Ruben does it... It's not really a cause for alarm.
I'd just remind everyone that this illegal apparatus which was only undone in the last few weeks (in its current form only) was just sitting there waiting to be used when these tools all fought so hard to bring back December runoffs. And when none of them bothered to wonder aloud why such a fine democratic institution as voting on one of the shortest days of the year had the financial backing of a secretive, untraceable 527.
Don't be gas-lit by people who have decided it's better to have a majority than have principles.
Had he a shred of integrity, Yacco never would have been hired to begin with.
DeleteBingo. That's why dropping him now is just a matter of optics. Unfortunately, it solves nothing for that team. They are finally going to have to come to terms with their role in lowering standards enough to include Defusco and Ramos. Or start watching CC meetings on TV.
Deleteoh I'm sorry to say I don't think this will change the DeDumbo plan - he will just go full Kavanaugh and during the debates just yell (he loves a good yell), claim he doesn't remember, and that it doesn't matter. I mean the dude is still claiming he invented wi-fi on the Path!
DeleteDe Fusco and Ramos will never change. The question is whether the rest of their governing majority tries to pretend from now until November that they aren't united with 2 of the 3 dirtiest members of the council. That's a long time to pretend especially when you'r running for office.
DeleteThey will ignore.....and Tiff will keep engaging with the bad scooter twitter account to make it look like she is doing something.....
DeleteMore pointed questions from the Good Government Council of Fisher, Giattino and Cunningham as they DEMAND to know what Defusco knew and when he knew it!
ReplyDeleteAfter the verdict we should demand that every single Hoboken elected official or candidate for office answer one simple question with a one word answers.
ReplyDeleteShould Frank Raia go to jail for his crimes?
I have no doubt that Mayor Bhalla and his team will have no trouble saying yes - clearly and unambiguously.
Will Russo? Will DeFusco? Will Ramos?
Will the faux "good government trio"?
I genuinely don't know what any of these folks will say. But it's impossible to actually believe election fraud is a real and serious crime and not be able to say that those who engage in it should be jailed.
Anyone who actually believes election fraud is a serious matter will unambiguously answer yes.
I have no doubt
There's a clear pattern with Michael DeFusco:
ReplyDelete- He aligned with and endorsed Peter Cammarano, he when to jail.
- He aligned with and hired Yacco, he escaped prosecution by turning state's witness.
- He worked with and received the max from Frank Rai, he will be in jail.
He has 325 shady VBMs from 2017. He openly flaunted Hoboken's pay to play law. He aligned himself with a shady, quickly disappearing entity "Vote Yes Hoboken." No one know who they are but they had an opinion and funding to influence our elections.
Michael is trouble. Michael will be in trouble. It's only a matter of time.
Last, thanks Tiff, Jen, Peter for putting this low life on our town's planning board and knocking off a public servant like Jim Doyle. Completely icky and disgusting.
Oh hey, remember when Fisher had a problem with DeFusco's violation of Pay to Play laws?
ReplyDeletehttps://hudsonreporter.com/2017/10/18/fisher-files-complaint-against-defusco-for-alleged-law-violation/
https://grafixavenger.blogspot.com/2018/07/hoboken-citizens-blast-ramos-fisher.html
But DeFusco believes in transparency afforded by ELEC reports - and filing all forms - especially when those he's fighting against haven't yet:
https://hudsoncountyview.com/defusco-calls-out-romano-giattino-over-lack-of-hoboken-elec-filings/
...And they've been bed fellows ever since.