Bruno Inditement Echos McDonough

Bruno Indictment
The recent indictment of former Senate Majority Leader and the defacto head of the Rensselaer County Republican organization draws striking comparisons to the indictment and conviction of former Democratic Party Chairman Edward McDonough back in the early 1990's.

We thought we would make available the Federal Appeal of the McDonough conviction so that our readers can see the striking coincidences and similarities of the charges and circumstances which led to them. Ironically, Bruno began his questionable financial dealings using his public position and authority shortly after the conviction in the insurance scandal.

From meetings in government offices involving these top officials, setting up companies which would receive the income, to performing no work for the the money received, this has to be a case of deja vu for attorney William Dryer, who coincidentally, represented McDonough and now Bruno.

Edward F McDonough Appeal ...
Laced throughout the Federal Appeal of McDonough are references to findings that McDonough performed no service or work for the money received, a poultry $435,000 compared to the more than 3 million Bruno is accused of earning without honest services in his indictment.

You will find references in each document that alleged that each created a business entity for the purpose of receiving the money. Each used government offices to facilitate transactions. Neither man informed others at business meetings of their financial interest in a particular suggested transaction and only one man, McDonough, reported the income to a State agency (State Insurance Commission) which provides oversight while Bruno chose to keep his dealings secret from relevant State agencies such as the State Ethics Commission.

While McDonough filed the disclosures of his earnings on the co brokering of the county insurance, this was generally unknown in public circles, especially the news media, making the story much larger than it might have been otherwise.

You have to ask yourself after all is said and done, why Joe Bruno would not have learned from the lessons of McDonough and opted for full disclosure of this 3 million in outside earnings? Ironically, the Federal Indictment of Bruno alleges he began his illegal activity just as the McDonough case concluded. We guess Joe was right when he said last evening in an exclusive interview with anchor Brian Taft of Capital News 9 that "everybody does it".

We're left with a big question. How is this different than what McDonough was convicted of and what did Joe really do for all that money? Our bet is that those who paid it already answered that last question in front of a Federal Grand Jury which listened and issued an eight count indictment.