Sunday’s Boston Globe story on Michael McLaughlin reminds me again of the oddity of the proceedings against him. Usually prosecutors offer a soft deal to a lesser criminal figure so he’ll turn on a bigger fish. In McLaughlin’s case US Attorney Carmen Ortiz seems willing to go soft on the whale to reel in a few guppies.
Recall that Ortiz seems ready to trade a light sentence or not prison time at all for McLaughlin in return for his giving up Lt. Governor Tim Murray for campaign finance violations. Yesterday’s Globe article indicates that McLaughlin may also be giving up HUD officials he allegedly bribed to warn him of housing inspections, so that he could arrange to have the targeted apartments fixed and thus “earn” high management ratings from HUD.
Naughty, naughty Mike. But how big a fish is he giving up at HUD? Not very big, probably. So the big catch remains Tim Murray. Not to cheer for Murray, but what one can accomplish with political money in a legal fashion these days dwarfs anything you can do illegally.
Are campaign finance violations more blameworthy than stealing from the poor? Because that is what McLaughlin did at Chelsea — he stole money intended to help support the living conditions of some of the poorest among us. Here’s the takeaway from yesterday’s Globe: “Residents of Chelsea housing complained that their apartments were cold, leaky, and poorly maintained and often infested with roaches or rats while federal money that was supposed to go toward improvements was being diverted.”
Campaign finance violations and bribing HUD officials are crimes, but stealing from the poor is a sin.
How long has McLaughlin been tying prosecutors like Ortiz in knots? There have been up to five separate investigations of him. John Kerry tried to indict him — before he was lt. governor, before he was US Senator, before he was Secretary of State — back when Kerry was first assistant in the Middlesex DA’s Office.
You have to wonder if federal prosecutors are just more shocked by process crimes like campaign finance violations; or perhaps the lure of bringing down a major political figure like the lt. governor is the key to a prosecutor’s own political future — see Bill Weld, Rudy Giuliani, Chris Christie, etc. Or maybe we just don’t know that Ortiz has a really big fish on the line (McLaughlin ought to make a terrific witness; impeachment of him could last a week).
Mike McLaughlin is one charmed Democrat.