James Comey and Getting to Know the DC Council Vol 5: Vince Gray and the Committee on Health

Dear Runners,

Has it been a whole week already since the last newsletter? Oh, it’s been two weeks you say? Whaaaat? Surely not! Well, I just, ummm, gave you guys the week off last week. Yep, that’s right. My motivations? Totally altruistic. It’s all about you guys.

Okay so I might have gotten a little behind last week and didn’t get the issue out. But I’ve got lots of great stuff for you this week so let’s move ahead. Definitely check out the small acts of resistance because they are very important and very easy to do! I’ve done some rearranging this week, so the weekly events are towards the top of the letter now. Feel free to let me know if you like (or don’t like) the changes.

Small Immediate Acts of Resistance

That are never calling your Senator or Representative

• Make your weekly calls for Paid Family Leave and the DC Budget. Last week (and the week before that and the week before that…I am going to keep doing it!) I asked you guys to sign up to make calls alongside Jews United for Justice every Friday in May for Paid Family Leave, and every Thursday in May for other budget priorities like fair housing. Don’t forget to make your calls this week! They only take a minute and if you look at those JUFJ pages, they provide the script for you. This week we are calling Chairman Mendelson and about the estate tax again. As I mentioned before, the threshold for the estate tax is set to be raised from $3 million to $5 million under the FY18 budget. This means that people inheriting $4 million estates will not have to pay any taxes on them…those poor multimillionaires. Call Chairman Mendelson and ask him to make sure priorities like the NEAR Act, Paid Family Leave, Education, and Fair Housing are funded before considering a change to the estate tax. Numbers and scripts are in the Thursday link above.
• Read about the Democratic candidates for the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017. Flippable.org is an organization working to flip red seats blue all the way down to the state legislature level. The state of Virginia has all 100 of its House of Delegates seats and the governorship up for reelection in 2017, not 2018. Right now. Flippable has put together a list of 5 “priority” seats in Virginia (aka those that they think are the most flippable based on past voting), 31 “potential” seats, and 3 seats that Dems need to hold. This is their combined Virginia state level strategy. Read about the democratic candidates running in the five priority districts, remember their names. And if you can, donate to the flippable Virginia fund or sign up to volunteer in Virginia. Let’s turn Virginia blue.
• Save Net Neutrality (again!). This is pretty simple guys. Watch John Oliver’s piece from this week on the new FCC threat to Net Neutrality, then take his advice and go comment on the FCC’s website and tell them to leave the internet alone. Your comment can be super short. Here is a sample one to get you started: “I am in support of Strong Net Neutrality backed by Title 2 oversight of ISP’s!”. That’s it! (Note, if you click the link above, you will have to click “Express” to file a comment, not “New Filing” which is for filing legal documents.) Watch a fun, informative video, then write a comment. Save the open internet. Call it a day.

• Call the Attorney General’s Office and tell them you want an Independent Investigation into the Trump/Russia ties. Call 202–514–2101. If it’s after hours, you press 4 to reach the public comment line and leave a message. Not sure what happens during business hours. Tell them you want an independent investigation into the Trump Russia story and that you are outraged that it is not being investigated thoroughly and non-partisanly. Keep it short and sweet. This is our moment people, these calls should be priority one. Call. Do it.

Resistance Events this Week:

Local to DC unless otherwise noted

May 11: Donation Drive for Thrive DC. hosted by WIN (the Women’s Information Network), RSVP required
May 12: Thank You EPA Rally at EPA HQ, hosted by Humans
May 13: Science Outside the White House Rally for Kids in STEM
May 13: Montgomery County Democrats Annual Spring Ball, hosted by Montgomery County Democratic Party, costs $, ticket required
May 14: Solidarity Sundays May Meeting, hosted by yours truly and the rest of the Solidarity Sundays NE DC group
May 14: March for Moms on the National Mall, hosted by RISE Stronger
May 16: Black Lives Matter DC Open House, hosted by BLM DC
May 17 (Arlington, VA): Monthly Meeting: What You Need to Know About Redistricting, hosted by Arlington Young Democrats
May 18: ICE Accompaniment Volunteer Training, hosted by Sanctuary DMV, registration required

Topic 1: James Comey and a Brief History of Special Prosecutors

Tuesday of this week, 45, under recommendation from Attorney Gremlin General Jeff Sessions, fired FBI Director James Comey. I’m sure many of you are already aware that Comey was heading an FBI investigation into 45’s ties with Russia. This is at least the third person 45 and his administration have fired who had the power to investigate the President, the others being Sally Yates and Preet Bharara. It has also already been noted by many that Jeff Sessions has recused himself from the Russia probe, yet apparently is still able to effectively choose who is leading the probe. Doesn’t sound like recusal to me. This topic has been covered extensively in other places, so I’m just going to leave you a brief reading list here if you’d like to dive in:

• “Behind Comey’s firing: An enraged Trump, fuming about Russia”, by Josh Dawsey, Politico
• “This Is Not a Drill”, by David Frum, The Atlantic
• “Days Before Firing, Comey Asked for More Resources for Russia Inquiry”, by Matthew Rosenberg and Matt Apuzzo, The New York Times
• “Acting FBI Boss To Take Comey’s Place At Senate Intel Hearing”, by Philip Ewing, NPR; lists some key questions that will be relevant at today’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing

I would also like to spend a little time today talking about the history of the Special Prosecutor. Many people have been calling for in independent investigation into 45’s ties with Russia and his motivations for firing Comey. I myself am encouraging you to call the Justice Department and ask for exactly that in Small Acts of Resistance number four. I think it’s important at this point that someone without political ties, without loyalty affiliations, be given free reign to look into this matter. That being said, there used to be an Office of Independent Counsel in our government, but by bipartisan agreement there hasn’t been one since 1999.

According to Think Progress,

“From 1978 until 1999, a more formal process existed for independent prosecutors. The Ethics in Government Act created an Office of Independent Counsel. Under this law, independent prosecutors would be appointed by a three-judge panel — although generally only after the attorney general or acting attorney general asked the panel to do so.

Both the majority party and the minority party on the Senate Judiciary Committee could petition the attorney general to seek an independent counsel, and these petitions imposed significant disclosure obligations upon the head of the Justice Department.”

So why was the Act that called for the Office of Independent Counsel allowed to lapse? Well, frankly they have a history in recent memory of taking their investigations too far and producing very few results. Both parties have been burned by special prosecutorial investigations in the near past. For Democrats, the holdouts for keeping a special prosecutor around, the last straw was the Whitewater investigation into President Clinton. That investigation cost $70 million and ultimately led to President Clinton’s impeachment. The impeachment was not, however, over the target of the original investigation — a real estate deal in Arkansas. By then, it had expanded to include Clinton’s statements on Monica Lewinsky. Democrats, and Clinton himself, concluded that the office was allowed too much free reign to investigate any tangential matter it saw fit, and allowed the Ethics in Government Act, which allowed for the office as it existed then, to lapse.

Essentially, arguments against the office of independent counsel amounted these:

1. By giving prosecutors unlimited funds, the law encouraged investigations that never ended, running up huge legal bills for targets who rarely ended up getting indicted, much less convicted.
2. The law failed to insulate investigations from politics in spite of the investigators being appointed by three judges. The premise that judges are not politically appointed and therefore politically neutral has proven time and time again to be false, even specifically in special counsel appointment cases.
3. Opposite political parties used the office to insinuate that the other party were crooks. As we have all seen, being “under investigation” — even when no evidence has actually been produced — has huge political consequences for people.

Now, the process of appointing a special counsel is much less formal. Though the Justice Department retains the right to appoint a special counsel (“in cases in which the Attorney General is recused, the Acting Attorney General, will appoint a Special Counsel when he or she determines that criminal investigation of a person or matter is warranted”), this person operates almost entirely under the DOJ’s rules and purview. There are instructions that the special counsel is not to be monitored by DOJ officials on a day-to-day basis, but they can still be fired by the Justice Department or the President really at any time and are more or less a DOJ employee. And their independence is, of course, subject to the opinion of a single person — who is often appointed by the administration set to be investigated — rather than trio of judges.

So at the moment this is what we’d be stuck with if a special counsel was appointed: some who is chosen by the Deputy AG, who is a Trump appointee, and who can be fired by Trump at any time. It was Nixon’s firing of the special counsel who was investigating Watergate that ultimately led to his downfall (several of his senior staff resigned in response to the move; it’s known as the Saturday Night Massacre), so one could argue Trump should tread cautiously here. But it’s still troubling that Trump would have this power over any appointed investigator.

I encourage all of you, despite being in this weirdo situation where there seems to be no good options for independently investigating the President of the United States, to call DOJ and ask for an independent investigation anyway (number is up top). This is a watershed moment for the resistance. James Comey was a terrible FBI Director, and I do not like him, but his firing needs to be investigated. This is the moment to literally be the loudest we’ve ever been. The system isn’t perfect, but the President does not just get to fire people who are investigating him without political consequences. Make that clear.

(Also random fact I couldn’t fit in anywhere else: James Comey, who was Deputy Attorney General at the time, appointed the special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, who investigated the Bush White House for leaking CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name (thus blowing her cover). That investigation led to the conviction of Scooter Libby. (I’m not implying this is connected with his firing, but it’s pretty relevant to a discussion on Comey and special prosecutors.)

Topic 2: Vincent Gray, Ward 7, and the Committee on Health

Vincent Gray is basically at the level of local political legend at this point. Councilmember Gray was Mayor of DC from 2010–2014, and his administration was involved in several scandals. One large scandal involved the hiring and subsequent firing (and escorting out of the Wilson building by security) of Sulaimon Brown. Brown was one of the other candidates in the 2010 mayoral race, and was given a position in the Gray administration and a pretty high salary. In February of 2011, Brown was fired from his position and forcibly removed from the Wilson building amid a discovery of several past criminal records, including a restraining order put in place against him by a 13-year-old girl. Mr. Brown claimed after his firing that Mr. Gray promised Mr. Brown a position in his administration if Mr. Brown stayed in the mayoral race and badmouthed then-Mayor Adrian Fenty. Mayor Gray denied the allegations, but several other instances of cronyism and other suspect hiring practices within his administration came up during his tenure.

Then in October of 2011, the Washington Post reported that Mayor Gray was under investigation by the US Attorney’s Office for possibly accepting donations in the 2010 Mayoral campaign in excess of DC donation regulations. As the investigation continued, the evidence became more damning. In 2012, a Gray campaign official named Eugenia Clarke-Harris pleaded guilty to campaign corruption charges.

In admitting to the charges, Harris disclosed that Gray’s official 2010 campaign had been aided by a secret shadow campaign, using $650,000 in illegally obtained financing from wealthy D.C. contractor Jeff Thompson — a third of the total expenditures by the Gray campaign. Gray was not charged with any wrongdoing and no evidence was presented that he had any knowledge of the shadow campaign; however, U.S. Attorney Ron Machen said that the mayor was still under investigation. (emphasis added, because secret shadow campaign is the best phrase ever)

Though Mayor Gray admitted that his campaign was “not what they had intended it to be”, he refused to resign despite a majority of DC residents and several members of his inner circle advising that he should. In late 2015, the investigation into the finance scandal was dropped due to — it was later revealed by the Post — feelings that the main witness against Gray was unreliable.

Mr. Gray did not let these many scandals deter him from a 2014 re-election campaign for Mayor. That is definitely persistence. At that time, he was still actively under investigation in the campaign finance case. He was defeated in the primary by our current Mayor, Muriel Bowser. Still undeterred, Mr. Gray launched a run in 2016 to reclaim his former seat on the Council in Ward 7. Mr. Gray had previously held this seat in 2004.

Phew, well that was all kind of a lot to process. I personally was only aware of (most of) the campaign finance scandal. I did not know about the scandal leading up to it with Sulaimon Brown and Mayor Gray’s other shady hiring practices. It’s kind of astounding to me that this man is still on his feet in the DC political scene. He won the election for the Ward 7 Council seat handily against the former Councilmember, his one-time protege Yvette Alexander, and has already mentioned future mayoral aspirations.

I admit I’m pretty new to the DC political scene, so I would love to hear any feedback from readers, even on an anecdotal level, as to how long-time Washingtonians view Councilmember Gray. I found this piece, even though it’s quite brief, to reflect what I think is the general attitude toward Gray in this city; namely, that people’s opinions are pretty split. People who support him seem to cite his longtime work for Ward 7 residents in particular, and are willing to overlook his political issues if he accomplishes their priorities. I think this is an understandable point of view, but wish we could get someone less corrupt to speak up for DC residents in Ward 7. I think this article from the Daily Beast points to a changing attitude related to political scandal in DC since Marion Barry that explains Gray’s loss in the 2014 Mayoral primary — though not his subsequent win in Ward 7. It also mentioned some of the positive things Gray did for the city as Mayor that might give some people mixed feelings.

I also had a really hard time choosing a Star Trek character that reflected what I know of Councilmember Gray. This was an exercise I started as a complete joke about Councilmember Allen’s beard, but which I thought would be fun to keep doing. I don’t want to paint Councilmember Gray as an out-and-out villain or a caricature. Most non-human characters in Star Trek lean very heavily on stereotypes that I don’t necessarily want to promote in connection to real humans. However, after speaking to some fellow Star Trek fans I did decide to take a risk and go with the Ferengi character of Quark from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Being Ferengi, Quark is constantly involved in financial scheming, which makes him a somewhat obvious fit. But he also deep down really cares about his crewmates. And often when you expect him to do the worst thing, he comes through and surprises you and does the right thing instead. He is constantly scheming, but it never really gets to the point where he either succeeds wildly and gets filthy rich, or fails completely and is booted from the space station. So, here’s to Councilmember Gray, our very own Quark:

Note: this choice is also in no way a comment on Councilmember Gray’s looks, just like I don’t think Councilmember Evans really looks like a Vulcan. Well….okay, maybe a little bit on that last one.

So let’s talk about Ward 7 shall we?

Official Map of Ward 7

Ward 7 is one of two DC Wards east of the Anacostia River. I am pretty confident in my assessment that a fair number of my readers have never been east of the Anacostia, or have been there a single digit number of times. I’m making this sweeping assertion knowing it is also true about myself. I have probably been to Ward 8 three times since moving to DC in 2008, and Ward 7 not at all as far as I remember. I barely know the names of most of the neighborhoods over there. Even reading a list the only ones that sound familiar to me are those with metro stops named after them. Any of these sound familiar to you?

Benning Heights

Benning Ridge

Benning

Burrville

Capitol View

Central Northeast

Civic Betterment

Deanwood

Dupont Park

Eastland Gardens

Fairfax Village

Fairlawn

Fort Davis

Fort Dupont

Good Hope

Greenway

Hillbrook

Hillcrest

Kenilworth

Kingman Park

Lincoln Heights

Marshall Heights

Mayfair

Naylor Gardens

Penn Branch

Randle Highlands

River Terrace

Skyland

This is an embarrassing truth about myself, and one that I am going to work at correcting in the future. I hope those of you in the same boat as me will also try to spend more time east of the river. The Kingman Island Bluegrass and Folk Festival, which is this Saturday, is in Ward 7, as are the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens (though neither of these is east of the Anacostia).

According to the 2010 Census data, Ward 7 at the time was only 1.8% White and 94.9% Black, compared with an overall DC population in 2010 that was 38.5% White and 50.7% Black. In 2010, the median household income in Ward 7 was $34,965 a year, compared to $85,000 a year in DC generally in the same year. These statistics are probably not that surprising if you have even a general knowledge of DC.

At the moment, Coucilmember Gray is chair of the Committee on Health. The other members of this Committee include Councilmembers Nadeau (Ward 1), Cheh (Ward 3), Grosso (at-large), and Todd (Ward 4). The Committee on Health is responsible for mental health planning, social work, the commission on HIV/AIDS, and every single board of every single health professional in the city from optometrists to nurses to physical therapists. Now, if my take on my readership is correct, a lot of us are pretty young and (relatively!) affluent, meaning that healthcare is not always our greatest concern. I have never had to struggle to pay for a doctor’s visit or for health insurance. But many people in DC do. Additionally, DC has a history of high HIV cases, often among the highest in the country. Councilmember Gray is the guy who is going to help decide how much money we put into programs for needy people to get health insurance, how much we spend on hospitals, and how much we spend on HIV/AIDS programs.

I reached out to Councilmember Gray to answer some questions about activism in DC, but as of the time of this writing I had not received a response.

Thanks for fighting with me guys. Keep it up! I know it can be frustrating, but:

Indeed it is not!

You can reply to this newsletter or email me at theforerunnerletter@gmail.com with your thoughts, criticisms, or ideas. Check out my Medium page if you’d prefer a blogged version of this newsletter or would like to read any of my previous issues. Last week’s letter was on Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans and Climate Change.

Follow me on Twitter at @speaknojessica. And get your friends to subscribe to The ForeRunner at http://tinyletter.com/theforerunner because where else will you get someone randomly assigning the personalities of Star Trek characters to DC’s elected officials? Who will your Councilmember be? The suspense is killing you I’m sure.

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