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Here’s a name that’s something of a blast from the past. Those
of you who have been following political corruption stories for
a while will likely recall the tale of former Pennsylvania
Congressman Chaka Fattah. It’s been a while since his name has
been in the news. In fact, the last time I wrote about him was
back in December of 2016 when he was sentenced to the longest
stretch in prison of any member of Congress in the history of
the country. Fattah was given a ten-year sentence for stealing
millions of dollars in both taxpayer money and funds designated
for charitable causes. He was only halfway through his time in
the crowbar motel, but this week he was quietly released from
the slammer with no explanation being given for this generous
maneuver by the federal Bureau of Prisons. (Free Beacon)

The United States Bureau of Prisons released a disgraced
Democratic ex-congressman Thursday without explaining why he
should not be out of prison with more than five years left on
his sentence.

Former Pennsylvania representative Chaka Fattah was convicted on
charges of bribery and corruption connected to his failed
Philadelphia mayoral campaign, in which he accepted an illegal
$1 million loan. But the Bureau of Prisons has not offered an
explanation for the release, according to the Philadelphia
Inquirer.

Fattah’s time in Congress came to an end in 2016 when he, along
with several associates, was indicted on federal racketeering
and influence peddling charges.

The most obvious guess is that the threat of spreading the novel
coronavirus in the prison was the rationale used to justify
releasing Fattah. As much as it may rankle people, if we assume
that was the reason for knocking half of his sentence off, it
was at least consistent with the policies being pushed in
Philadelphia. They’re supposedly keeping the more violent and
dangerous prisoners behind bars, while booting out those who
were guilty of less physically dangerous offenses. Since
Fattah’s crimes were strictly of the white-collar variety, I
suppose one could make an argument in his favor.

But that doesn’t make it any easier of a pill to swallow. Keep
in mind that when Chaka Fattah finally resigned from Congress,
it was only to avoid becoming the sixth member in history to be
forcibly ejected from the House of Representatives.

And given the laundry list of crimes he was convicted of,
particularly considering the nature of the crimes, his removal
would have been unavoidable. You’ll recall that Fattah stole
more than half a million dollars from public education funds to
pay off some of his personal loans. He helped a friend land a
position as an ambassador, leading to another $23K mysteriously
winding up in his pocket. He also filched tens of thousands of
dollars from a non-profit charitable fund to pay for his kid’s
college loans.

This guy was shameless, and he never even apologized for all of
the grifting and theft. The most he said on that subject at his
sentencing hearing was that he had been “found on the wrong side
of these questions by a jury.” He never once even suggested that
there was any problem with him raiding the public piggy bank for
his own benefit. It was as if he simply assumed that, having
been elected to Congress, the store was open for business and he
planned to cash in as much as possible.

Chaka Fattah will go down in history as one of the most corrupt,
self-serving people to ever hold office. And now he’s managed to
land himself a release from prison after only serving barely
half of the sentence he was given. Some people simply have a
charmed life, I suppose. And I guess this means Billy Joel was
right when he said only the good die young.

https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2020/07/18/disgraced- democrat-sprung-prison-without-explanation/
 

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