The Associated Press:

U.S. attorneys are pursuing allegations of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud as part of an investigation into former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton, according to court documents received by a former lawmaker summoned before the grand jury Tuesday.

Former Republican Rep. Bob Johnson, of Lee's Summit, said U.S. attorneys quizzed him about whether he knew of a $35,000 political contribution by the adult entertainment industry, and whether that money played a role in Jetton's decision to assign a 2005 bill regulating sexually oriented businesses to a committee Johnson led.

The same article notes that Jackson County Circuit Judge David Byrn and Chris Benjamin spoke to the grand jury in February. 

Bryrn was treasurer of the Committee for Honest Campaigns PAC that received the $35,000 from the People of Private Enterprise PAC in April 2005. The Star reported in January that Rep. Doug Ervin (R-Kearney) said Don Lograsso "told him that the Committee for Honest Campaigns was organized specifically to discreetly funnel donations that could be politically damaging to fellow Republican candidates."

Charles Evans Whittaker Courthouse
in Kansas City

The Star's Steve Kraske:

The water is always cloudy, too, when it comes to federal probes. G-Men don’t talk to us media types.

But given the stakes, and being an inquisitive sort, you press on and talk to people who may or may not have been interviewed by FBI agents. And you eventually come to a conclusion:

Things are about to get very, very interesting.

We know this: The FBI has been extremely active. At least a handful of lawmakers in the state Capitol began talking to agents about a year ago in connection with “pay to play,” or the allegation of special interests forking over campaign contributions in exchange for action on legislation they care about.

The Star has the fascinating story of what happened when Rep. Doug Ervin (R-Kearney) and former Rep. Brian Baker (R-Belton) asked pointed questions about the receipt of strip club contributions by a campaign committee with strong ties to (former?) House Counsel Don Lograsso, and the prompt actions by former Speaker Rod Jetton to make sure anti-strip club legislation went nowhere.

According to Erving and Baker, Jetton blackballed them:

Ervin and Baker said they initially raised questions about the contribution with Jetton and Lograsso in 2005, shortly after the strip club bill was killed in committee.

“They obviously knew who that (campaign) committee represented,” Baker said.

But when they approached Lograsso, Ervin said he dismissed their concerns. Ervin said Lograsso also told him that the Committee for Honest Campaigns was organized specifically to discreetly funnel donations that could be politically damaging to fellow Republican candidates...

Ervin and Baker said that, following a Star story in 2006 about the donation, they held a tense meeting with Jetton and asked Lograsso to address the situation before the entire Republican caucus, which was worried that adult-entertainment money might find its way into their campaigns...

Baker and Ervin...said they were “blackballed” by the speaker’s office until Jetton left the post in early 2009. Baker was stripped of a committee chairmanship and Ervin said he nearly lost his.

Who replaces House General Counsel Don Lograsso in the inner circle of Republican leadership?  Is he replaceable?

House General Counsel Don Lograsso doesn't want to talk about a reported federal inquiry about a 2005 bill regulating strip clubs, but Ron Richard is publicly acknowledging that Lograsso has had "some conversations" about "all that grand-jury-in-Kansas-City-talk.”  The Star:

Lograsso’s job as general counsel to the Republican-led House included advising [then-speaker Rod] Jetton on bill referrals. The campaign committee receiving the $35,000 donation also paid Lograsso for consulting work. Jetton has denied wrongdoing.

Lograsso declined to comment Friday when asked if he’d been contacted by federal authorities. “Is there some part of ‘We’re not going to talk about that’ that you don’t understand?” he said.

Current House Speaker Ron Richard said that he asked Lograsso if he was involved in any of the issues believed to be under scrutiny by the FBI.

“(I asked) is there anything I need to know with all that grand-jury-in-Kansas-City-talk,” Richard recalled. “He said, ‘I’ve had some conversations, but everything’s fine.’ ”

Don Lograsso, the Missouri House's general counsel and top advisor to disgraced former Speaker Rod Jetton, has been placed on unpaid leave.

According to the Associated Press, Lograsso is on unpaid leave because his eyesight is deteriorating and he might need surgery, and this development has absolutely nothing to do with FBI questions or potential grand jury testimony in the news this week.

UPDATE: The Star reports that current Speaker Ron Richard said he had no idea why Lograsso is taking "an unexpected and indefinite leave of absence." 

House Speaker Ron Richard, a Joplin Republican, said he talked to Lograsso but still doesn’t know exactly why he needs time away.

“It beats me,” Richard said. “You can have that conversation with him, I don’t know.” 

Richard’s staff, however, told The Star that Lograsso was taking leave for medical reasons.

“He has some eye issues,” said Jeff Brooks, Richard’s chief of staff. “He is going to take a leave of absence to take care of medical issues.”

But Richard said nothing about a medical reason for the leave.

How does Richard not know why Lograsso is taking an unpaid leave of absence, even after they talked about his departure?  What did they talk about, bowling?

As first alluded to here yesterday, a federal investigation appears to be looking at the alleged pay-to-play leadership of former Speaker Rod Jetton -- especially his role in killing a 2005 bill sponsored by Sen. Matt Bartle (R-Lee's Summit) that tried to crack down on strip clubs. In today's Star:

Former state lawmaker Bob Johnson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, said three FBI agents last week interviewed him about the bill and Jetton’s role.

“No question there’s interest in Rod Jetton,” Johnson told The Kansas City Star. “That’s all they wanted to talk about.”...

The word out of Jefferson City today is that a federal grand jury in the Western District is actively looking at pay-to-play allegations pertaining to a 2005 bill to crack down on the adult entertainment industry.

Current and former officials have apparently been asked to speak to the grand jury in early February.

The adult entertainment legislation at the center of the rumors has long been a point of controversy, and was specifically cited in a Star article just last month as an example of allegedly corrupt behavior in the Capitol. Previous Fired Up! coverage of the legislation may be found here.

Talk of grand jury action is squishy by nature, but we'll post any updates or related information as it's available.

As you've probably seen by now:

FBI agents are investigating Missouri lawmakers in connection with several alleged “pay for play” schemes in which legislative favors are bestowed only after campaign donations are made...

The political culture in the state Capitol, those lawmakers talking with agents contend, has become tainted by pay-for-play activities in which virtually any legislative benefit — from committee assignments to gaining a hearing for a bill — comes with a price tag attached.

The price, they alleged, is typically a campaign contribution to a party or an individual lawmaker’s political committee.

Only one party in Jefferson City has been responsible for committee assignments and bill hearings for the last seven years.  

Maybe the chickens are coming home to roost for former GOP Speaker Rod Jetton and his General Counsel, Don Lograsso?  We'll see.

You might think that --after having heaped upon her unwanted sexual advances, a retaliatory firing, and an insensitive and illegal investigation of her claims by the Highway Patrol-- Missouri Republicans were done trying to victimize Heather Elder, the woman who was sexually harassed by former Agriculture Director Fred Ferrell.

Of course, you would be dead wrong. No matter how low our state's GOP powerbrokers get, they can always go one step lower.  

Sources tell Fired Up! Missouri that Heather Elder was recently fired, without cause, from a job as a legislative secretary to a Republican House member on orders of GOP House Counsel Don LoGrasso. 

You've gotta love GOP politics. Don Lograsso owes the porn industry big time for subsidizing his taxpayer salary with consulting fees via one of his PACs.

So when the porn kings asked Lograsso to get involved in the State Senate primary against Senator Matt Bartle, Lograsso had no choice but to oblige. And he did it with great vigor. Here's the letter he sent out just before the primary attacking Bartle and his campaign team.

So now, the entire Senate leadership has retaliated by sending a letter of their own, to all Republican members of the House.

Lucky for longtime Lograsso pal, Senator Luann Ridgeway, only the leadership was asked to sign so she didn't have to make a difficult personal decision.

Earlier today, Speaker Rod Jetton sent an email to GOP candidates for the House urging them not to accept contributions from the PAC, People For Private Enterprise, a front-group for the adult entertainment industry in Missouri.

Certain organizations that you may not intend to accept money from might try to contribute to your campaign. Often these groups have ambiguous names that do not clearly indicate the interests of the organization.

This might seem unremarkable, unless you happen to remember that Speaker Jetton's General Counsel is a consultant to a PAC that was used to launder money from People For Private Enterprise and to get that money into the hands of GOP candidates.

From a March 4, 2006 KC Star story on the topic:

Don Lograsso, the General Counsel to Speaker Rod Jetton and the Missouri House of Representatvies is paid $55,000 a year for part time work, according to a story in today's Columbia Daily Tribune.

A top aide in the Missouri House earned $55,000 last year in five months of work.

As the House's general counsel, Don Lograsso advises the chief clerk and House speaker and provides procedural guidance to legislators.

Lograsso is a former state representative whose term in the House ended in January 2003. That month, he was hired as the House's general counsel at a salary of $50,172.

In an interview today, Lograsso said it was understood at the time he would not be a full-time employee but would work during the legislative session and as needed. Under the arrangement, his salary was to be paid over a 12-month period.

Read More »

Share

• Tweet Widget
• Google Plus One
• Facebook Like

Here is the latest Temple Tantrum on the KC Star's report this weekend that Speaker Rod Jetton and his General Counsel, Don Lagrosso, have been providing special favors for the strip club industry in Missouri.
 

The Kansas City Star has a devastating story today on a kickback scheme devised by Speaker Rod Jetton and his General Counsel, Don Lograsso.

In the scheme, strip club owners donated money to a PAC that pays Lograsso consulting fees, and in return, legislation that threatened their industry was assigned to a hostile committee by Speaker Jetton.

Part of Lograsso's job as General Counsel to the House is to advise the Speaker on the assignment of bills to committee.

This matter needs to go to the Public Integrity Unit at the Justice Department right away. Given the open feud between the Jetton faction of the GOP and the Graves/Blunt factions, it would be a conflict for U.S. Attorney Todd Graves to oversee this investigation.

Speaker Rod Jetton and his staff have been under significant pressure lately. Everyone knows that being a Republican Speaker of the House, or their legal counsel, can cause a lot of stress.

So, while I normally encourage the media to do their job of holding the Republicans in the legislature accountable, I feel obligated to warn my fellow journalists what can happen when GOP leaders and their staffers feel too much pressure.

Here's a Columbus Dispatch story on the former legal counsel to the Ohio Speaker of the House:

In his disciplinary hearing last November, Linnen admitted to
dishonoring his profession but blamed his conduct on the stress of
working for the House.

"I got some relief by taking off my clothes and running around," he said.

More:

 A disciplinary panel yesterday recommended that Stephen P. Linnen, the
Columbus lawyer dubbed the "naked photographer" for taking pictures of
38 women while he was wearing only sneakers and a knit cap, be stripped
of his ability to practice law for at least two years.

And, yet more:

Before he was unmasked as the photographer in late 2003, Linnen gained
notoriety for approaching women throughout Franklin County for 18
months and documenting their startled reaction to his lack of clothing.
At the time, Linnen was working as a lawyer for the Ohio House under
then-Speaker Larry Householder.

So keep your eyes peeled for Don Lograsso. Actually, on second thought, perhaps a better warning might be, "Don't look Ethel!"