According to this story, emails between Christian Marrone and Bruce Castor seem to indicate that the former Moncto DA and current County Commissioner may have used his official email account for political purposes.
When Castor ran for Pennsylvania Attorney General in 2004, Marrone was on his staff. During the campaign, Marrone switched his support from Castor to current AG Tom Crobett. Two days after Castor lost the primary, Marrone was fired.
It's wasn't a good PR move, but Castor can fire any employee he wants. The timing however makes Bruce seem a bit politically vindictive.
Marrone is a key government witness in the trial against his father-in-law, Vince Fumo. Castor was brought in by the defense to discredit Marrone, but may have hurt himself more.
In his testimony, Castor stated he fired Marrone because he was "sneaky". I get it, he didn't trust Marrone after his switch of support. But did Bruce really think the jury would care? Or would they see Castor as being a bitter politician who fired someone because they supported someone else?
Why would Castor offer to help Fumo in the first place? Is it simply to get back at one of his employees because he didn't support him four years ago? Why would he go this far to help a Democrat up to his eyeballs in corruption?
Surely he must have known the emails would have been discovered. Surely he must have known he'd have to admit certain things while trying to discredit Marrone. Surely he knew going after Marrone in court would bring a tough cross-examination by the government's lawyer.
It doesn't seem any law was violated, despite what Joe Hoeffel would have you believe. But Risa Ferman is now in a pickle. Investigate her former boss or perhaps appear partisan by not doing so?
Hoeffel has a lot of nerve calling on the current DA to investigate publicly rather than submit the request to the DA before he went before the cameras. But the Democrat Commissioner is, as Furman put it, "grand standing" again.
The Montco saga continues.
January 27, 2009
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4 comments:
This is astonishing. I saw this on the news yesterday on channel 6. I simply cannot believe that Castor would admit to something so unethical. This is the same thing he has criticized others for publicly in the past, isn't it? At the very least, this is going to seriously hurt his chances at higher political office. It's a shame that he's fallen so far.
So…let me understand this. The Democratic Commissioner is “grandstanding” by asking that an illegal act done by the former County DA be investigated by the current DA?
If the tables were turned, if the Democrat had been accused of breaking the law by using his paid public office to conduct political activity, which is illegal, you don’t think that Castor would have already called a Press Conference demanding that the County DA investigate, press charges, and prosecute??? You don’t know Castor very well if you don’t think that would have happened. He is the king of grandstanding. Do you remember the number of Press Conferences he called during his campaign? If someone was accused of Jaywalking, he was trying to get Press coverage.
Exactly who do you think should be the one to call for an investigation by the Montgomery County DA. Hoeffel is one of the three County Executives. One is the accused; the other is a member of the accused’s political party. If one of the Commissioners had not called for an investigation, the public would have the right to call for an investigation on all three of the Commissioners.
I used to think that Castor was smart, but arrogant. Now, I don’t think the “smart” applies.
Going before the cameras, before notifying the DA via a formal request (going on two days now), IS grandstanding.
Democrat playbook rule #1,107...accuse republicans of breaking the law. It doesn't matter if such a law exists, because the seriousness of the charge (and the complimentary press coverage) will be all voters hear.
And, as I said in my comment, Castor would have done the same thing. That was my point.
By the way, there are laws about doing any political activity using the office, office equipment, office supplies, or anything else that is paid for by the taxpayers.
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