Steve Heimel, APRN – Anchorage
A non-profit organization that goes after government corruption has requested the Justice Department’s records of its investigation of Alaska Representative Don Young. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Executive Director Melanie Sloan says there were multiple investigations and the public deserves to see why there were never any charges, so they have filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the records:
Don Young announced last summer that the Justice Department had dropped its case against him. The Department does not deny that. Young refuses to comment beyond saying the case has been dropped. Sloan says if that’s true, the Department no longer has any reason to deny their request.
Among the matters believed to have been investigated were Young’s relationship with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now in prison for bribery, fund-raising events staged by VECO, Incorporated, and provisions inserted into highway bills while Young was Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. One of Young’s aides has pled guilty and another went on trial this week.
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