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Dataset card Data Studio Files
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Following are excerpts from the findings of the Senate Ethics Committee's report on Sen. Robert G. Torricelli's dealings with David Chang:
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Your acceptance of a television and stereo CD player upon payment from David Chang of an amount you understood to be the cost to Mr. Chang, rather than fair market retail value, evidenced poor judgment, displayed a lack of due regard for Senate rules and resulted in a violation of the Senate Gifts Rules (35) and, consequently, a violation of your public disclosure obligations under Senate rules.
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The Ethics Committee was unconvinced.
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In its letter, which was signed by all six members, the panel wrote that it was "troubled by incongruities, inconsistencies and conflicts, particularly concerning actions taken by you which were or could have been of potential benefit to Chang."
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Continuation of a personal and official relationship with Mr. Chang under circumstances where you knew that he was attempting to ingratiate himself, in part through a pattern of attempts to provide you and those around you with gifts over a period of several years when you and your Senate Office were taking official actions of benefit to Mr. Chang (contacting United States Government officials, writing letters to foreign government officials and involving Mr. Chang of his representatives in situations where you were meeting with officials of foreign governments) evidenced poor judgment.
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"troubled by incongruities, inconsistencies and conflicts, particularly concerning actions taken by you which were or could have been of potential benefit to Chang."
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The committee has also considered that the principal source of the allegations against you is David Chang, a witness whose credibility has been called into question by the Department of Justice, a United States district judge and his own conduct.
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In court documents, the government noted that Chang could not be trusted.
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On May 23, 2002, Mr. Chang was convicted of attempting to corruptly persuade a witness to give false testimony, a conspiracy to violate the federal election law and four violations of the federal election law.
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After evaluating the extensive body of evidence before it and your testimony, the committee is troubled by incongruities, inconsistencies and conflicts, particularly concerning actions taken by you which were or could have been of potential benefit to Mr. Chang.
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Therefore, the committee . . . expresses its determination that your actions and failure to act led to violations of Senate rules (and related statutes) and created at least the appearance of impropriety, and you are hereby severely admonished.
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Further, the committee notes section 1(c)(1) of the Senate Gift Rule (35) concerning anything which is paid for at market value or returned . . . as well as your commitment to pay for any item which the committee might conclude were in violation of the rules, and has further concluded that you must pay Chang an amount sufficient to bring the total to fair market retail value of the TV and CD player, as well as the fair market retail value of the earrings given to the three individuals at your home, with appropriate interest.
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The committee criticized Torricelli for maintaining a "personal and official relationship with Chang under circumstances where you knew that he was attempting to ingratiate himself, in part through a pattern of attempts to provide you and those around you with gifts over a period of several years."
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The committee understands that you have previously delivered the bronze statues to the Department of Justice, from whence they should be returned to Chang.
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"personal and official relationship with Chang under circumstances where you knew that he was attempting to ingratiate himself, in part through a pattern of attempts to provide you and those around you with gifts over a period of several years."
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This 30-second commercial is the first in H. Carl McCall's campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor and will be broadcast upstate in major broadcast markets, and on cable in New York City, starting today.
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The words "His resume is an American dream," a quotation from Time magazine, appear on the screen.
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"His resume is an American dream,"
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A series of snapshots and images are then a visual resume for McCall.
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They show him as an Army lieutenant, at his swearing-in as a state senator, as ambassador to the United Nations, surrounded by children as New York City school board president, and at other jobs, leading up to his current position, state comptroller.
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The action then shifts to him in an office, speaking to the camera, as the words "Experience.
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"Experience. Excellence. Carl McCall"
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Excellence.
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Carl McCall" appear on the screen.
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A male voice says, "Time Magazine called his life an American dream.
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Carl McCall, Army lieutenant, state senator, ambassador to the United Nations, school board president, Citibank vice president, and one of the most effective comptrollers in New York history."
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The candidate says: "I grew up poor with a single mother.
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"I grew up poor with a single mother. She said education's a sledgehammer. It can open doors to opportunity. That's what education did for me. As governor, I'll make sure that every kid in New York has the same opportunity I had, to get a good education."
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She said education's a sledgehammer.
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It can open doors to opportunity.
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That's what education did for me.
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As governor, I'll make sure that every kid in New York has the same opportunity I had, to get a good education."
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This advertisement is long on introductions and short on claims of merit.
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Thus, most of the facts presented are a matter of record.
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And Time magazine actually called his resume, not his life, an American dream, but it also followed that up with a reference to his life, saying he was one of six children and raised on welfare.
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As for the claim about his success as comptroller, where he controls the state pension funds, there is no disputing the funds' growth during his terms, but some critics say it had more to do with the buoyancy of the stock market in the 1990s than skilled management.
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During that time, the panel said, Torricelli and members of his Senate staff took a series of actions to help Chang, contacting U.S. government officials, writing letters to foreign government officials and bringing Chang or his business representatives into meetings with foreign officials.
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The advertisement attempts to make several points and reach several different constituencies.
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For one, it counters the high name recognition of Andrew M. Cuomo, McCall's opponent, by offering voters a straightforward introduction to the candidate, emphasizing his long list of high-level jobs in both the public and private sector.
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It also emphasizes leadership, an important campaign issue after Sept. 11.
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At the same time it gives McCall a chance to intertwine his boot-straps story with the broader issue of children and education, a priority of many Democratic voters.
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The court, vacating Nelson's death sentence for the second time, ruled on two grounds: that the jury could have been confused by instructions on the verdict sheet and that the prosecutor made improper accusations in his closing argument.
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Nelson, 44, had been the only woman of 14 people on New Jersey's death row.
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The ruling, which does not affect Nelson's guilty plea, sends the case back to the trial court for resentencing.
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The state attorney general's office has not decided whether to seek the death penalty again, a spokesman, Peter Aseltine, said Tuesday.
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The court upheld the sentence of another death row inmate, Robert O. Marshall, convicted of arranging the murder of his wife at a picnic area on the Garden State Parkway.
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In its 5-to-0 decision in the Nelson case, the court showed continuing uneasiness with the death penalty, as it has done even since adopting a voluminous set of review procedures in 1999 to govern capital cases.
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New Jersey has not had an execution since 1963.
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Zazzali and Long had expressed similar reservations in June 2001 when the court overturned the death sentence of Thomas J. Koskovich, who was 18 when he killed two pizza deliverymen in an ambush.
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The majority opinion Tuesday said the court would impose higher standards in capital cases when reviewing prosecutors' conduct and possibly ambiguous jury instructions.
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While all five members of the majority found the instructions to the jury on weighing aggravating and mitigating factors to be confusing, two of those justices wrote in a partial dissent that the prosecutor's statements in his summation about the defense's expert witnesses were within the bounds of acceptable argument.
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The committee did not confirm some of the most serious allegations, including Chang's claim that he gave Torricelli tens of thousands of dollars in cash.
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Two of the court's members, Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz and Justice Peter G. Verniero, did not participate in the Nelson case because both are former attorneys general.
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Nelson, born Glenn Nelson, had severe psychological problems and a history of reclusive behavior into adulthood, and was convicted on a weapons charge in 1988.
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After undergoing sex change surgery in 1992, she pursued a career as an exotic dancer.
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During a 14-hour standoff, she killed a patrolman and an investigator from the Camden County prosecutor's office.
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She pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to death by a jury in 1997.
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The Supreme Court overturned that sentence in July 1998, ruling that the prosecution had failed to disclose important information to the jury.
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A second jury sentenced Nelson to death in March 2001.
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In Marshall's case, the 5-1 decision upheld a lower court's dismissal of his petition for further review of his 1986 murder conviction.
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Marshall, an insurance agent from Toms River, was convicted of hiring a man to kill his wife while the couple were going home after an evening of dining and gambling in Atlantic City.
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The case was the subject of Joe McGinniss' best-selling book "Blind Faith."
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"Blind Faith."
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The New York Times said in an editorial for Wednesday, July 31:
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The committee said it had weighed the fact that Torricelli's principal accuser in the case had been Chang, "a witness whose credibility has been called into question by the Department of Justice, a United States District judge and his own conduct."
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President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt describes himself as America's leading Arab ally.
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Yet his anti-democratic behavior is an embarrassment to Washington and an affront to his own people.
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The latest example is Monday's re-sentencing of Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a sociologist and human rights activist, to seven years in prison for his efforts to register voters, monitor elections and report attacks on Egypt's Coptic Christians.
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Ibrahim, who holds dual United States and Egyptian citizenship, is 63 years old and ailing.
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The verdict should be annulled, not just on humanitarian grounds but because his prosecution is an abrogation of the most basic standards of justice.
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Ibrahim's harsh punishment sends a chilling message to Egyptians yearning for a more accountable and tolerant society.
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Egyptian courts are neither fair nor independent.
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That is especially true of the State Security Court that ruled in this case.
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Nor is it likely his sentence would have been reaffirmed if Mubarak believed that convicting an American citizen for promoting democracy and human rights might jeopardize his own standing with the Bush administration and the $2 billion annual American subsidy that keeps his government afloat.
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That aid bonanza was granted to reward Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat, for signing a peace treaty with Israel.
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Washington has never demanded good governance and democracy from Cairo in return.
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In recent months President Bush has spoken of the need to promote democracy in the Arab world.
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But so far he has pushed the point only with the Palestinians.
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It is time to extend this policy to Egypt.
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It is a country with a long and glorious history, a substantial middle class, a peace treaty with Israel and large quantities of American aid.
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Under Mubarak it has squandered economic and diplomatic opportunities and relentlessly stifled political debate.
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Its official media are awash in anti-American and anti-Semitic propaganda.
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The State Department and American officials in Cairo have issued diplomatically phrased protests of Ibrahim's trial and sentence.
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This is entirely insufficient.
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What is needed is a message delivered personally by Bush and other top officials not only about the inexcusable treatment of Ibrahim but of the contemptuous approach to democratic values.
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In May, that judge sentenced sentenced Chang to 18 months' imprisonment for obstructing justice and making $53,700 in illegal campaign contributions to Torricelli's 1996 Senate campaign.
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The New York Times said in an editorial for Wednesday, July 31:
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Responding to a wave of public dismay over the first designs for rebuilding Lower Manhattan, Gov. George Pataki has sent word that it's time to go back to the drawing board.
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It is the right message, sent while it is still early enough to do something constructive about the disappointing quality of the work so far.
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The governor, like Mayor Michael Bloomberg, now seems committed to creating a better mix of uses for ground zero, and a 24-hour community in Manhattan's downtown.
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While rethinking the plans will delay the original rebuilding schedule slightly, it does not need to stall progress if the governor keeps the pressure on the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
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and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
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New York cannot afford to have a gaping hole that mocks the city and its process for rebuilding what was destroyed.
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Renegotiating that issue with the World Trade Center leaseholders should begin immediately.
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Opening the process to other designers, both here and internationally, will help separate this urban plan from the ordinary.
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The city also needs to begin openly discussing what happens underground, in particular with the transportation network.
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At this point, planners have focused on short-term repair of PATH and subway lines, with medium-range proposals being shopped in Washington that could untangle the disorganized web of subway lines downtown.
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But at the time of Chang's sentencing, the judge, Alfred M. Wolin, also said the businessman had cooperated closely with federal investigators, providing them with information that was "material and credible."
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Within the next few weeks the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
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and the Port Authority should offer some bigger ideas about how to connect the downtown area better to the rest of the region.
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