Grand jury to hear case against Mollohan

This is another one that has received very little media coverage.

Grand jury to hear case against Mollohan

An ethics watchdog says he's not surprised that a District of Columbia grand jury is slated to hear evidence related to a Justice Department investigation into the financial dealings of U.S. Representative Allan B. Mollohan (D - W.Va.). The congressman, who is suspected of profiting by channeling federal funds to his business partners and to non-profit groups he helped start, has been the subject of an FBI probe for more than a year.

The investigation into Mollohan's finances centers on whether the Democratic lawmaker benefited from directing at least $202 million in federal funding to five non-profit groups in his district, with much of the money going to organizations run by Mollohan campaign supporters.

There is "absolutely no contradiction that [Representative Mollohan] earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars to groups associated with his business partners and his financial supporters," says Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC). He believes the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a strong case against the congressman.

"If they looked into allegations and there was nothing there, especially in this era where the FBI is really stretched in terms of resources, they'd have walked away from the case," Boehm reasons. "The fact that they're still there and they're still digging kind of signals to everybody that they're onto something, and I truly believe that's the case," he says.

Mollohan has denied any wrongdoing and told The Dominion Post (Morgantown) he was unaware of the grand jury investigation and had not been subpoenaed. Nevertheless, Boehm believes the congressman is in serious trouble.

"Everybody, obviously, is entitled to a presumption of innocence," the NLPC official says, "but [Mollohan] has done things in the open that no other member of Congress, living or dead, has done -- earmarked money to their business partners and, coincidentally, at the same time went from to being worth a couple hundred thousand in the year 2000, to being worth millions of dollars just four years later."

Members of Congress work fulltime jobs, Boehm adds. "They can't moonlight."

Mollohan chairs the sub-committee that oversees the budget of the FBI; Boehm doubts the Bureau would still be pursing a case against the congressmen if its agents did not have compelling evidence. Witnesses have been subpoenaed by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to appear before a grand jury on April 3 to testify in the matter.