Credit Reportgate: What Did Schumer Know, and When Did He Know It?

I for one hope that Michael Steele isn’t blowing smoke, and that the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee doesn’t try to talk him out of this (HT Michelle Malkin):

Democrat Pleads Guilty in Steele Case
Researcher Falsely Got Credit Report; Charge Could Be Dropped in Year

By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 25, 2006; Page B02

A Democratic researcher pleaded guilty yesterday to misrepresenting herself on a Web site as Michael S. Steele, Maryland’s lieutenant governor and a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, and fraudulently obtaining his credit report last summer.

Under a plea agreement reached with prosecutors, the misdemeanor charge against Lauren B. Weiner, a former staff member of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), could be dropped in a year if she completes 150 hours of community service and commits no other offenses.

….. An attorney for Steele said the lieutenant governor is considering a civil suit against Weiner, 25, and the Democratic committee to learn more about what he called “a dirty trick.”

E. Mark Braden, who attended the hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, said a “statement of the offense” released yesterday contains several troubling details about the episode, including Weiner’s use of a committee credit card to access Steele’s report over the Internet.

The discovery process of a civil suit would allow Steele to learn more about what happened, Braden said. “I don’t think the story is necessarily over,” he said.

Prosecutors appear to have done a pre-emptive sentence reduction. This would be appropriate if the woman had cooperated and told all. I see no indication that this occurred; it should have.

So that leaves the civil route. Let’s find out what Chuck Schumer and other higher-ups at the DSCC knew, and when they knew it.

And be on the lookout in mid-October for information about Michael Steele that could only be known by someone with knowledge of his personal financial situation — say, someone who “somehow” managed to see or copy what was in that supposedly destroyed credit report.
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Original Post: September 22, 2005 — One of the Potentially Dirtiest of Political Tricks Deserves Major Jail Time