Photo Courtesy of Queens Justice Center
The Queens Justice Center compared the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton to the agency’s 2010 probe of Richmond Hill activist and attorney Albert Baldeo.
By Michael V. Cusenza
A south Queens civic group this week ripped the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice prosecutors for what it deemed “glaring and despicable overreach” regarding the renewed investigation into Hillary Clinton and her email usage, and compared the Democratic presidential nominee’s case to that of borough activist and attorney Albert Baldeo.
“We condemn the unprecedented actions of the FBI’s actions in injecting itself by reopening Hillary Clinton’s investigation on speculation, mere days before the most significant election in the world. The FBI’s job is to investigate confidentially, not to influence the outcome of an election. The Hatch Act bars the use of an official position to influence any election,” Anthony Persaud of the Queens Justice Center wrote in a paper titled “Voters, not the FBI, Must Decide our Next President!” and released on Sunday.
Baldeo was convicted in August 2014 of six counts of obstructing justice and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice for tampering with witnesses during the FBI’s probe of alleged campaign fraud by Baldeo. He was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison; two years of supervised release, including three months’ home confinement; and was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine. The Richmond Hill resident was acquitted of three mail and wire fraud charges.
In the fall of 2010, according to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, Baldeo, then a borough Democratic district leader, allegedly participated in a scheme to defraud the City that involved the funneling of multiple illegal campaign contributions to his ultimately unsuccessful campaign for City Council.
“As voters, we are entitled to a democratic process,” Persaud continued. “Voters in the Richmond Hill community, a microcosm of New York and the USA, had our hopes similarly crushed when the same FBI, who ironically are part of the ‘US Department of Justice,’ upended our efforts to attain recognition and empowerment when civil rights and community activist attorney Albert Baldeo ran for public office in 2010. Rogue FBI agents and US prosecutors fabricated a bogus theory that Baldeo’s use of his own money in a City Council election was a mail and wire fraud scheme – which the jury rejected. By inserting themselves in a routine City Council campaign administrative civil proceeding, they big footed the campaign’s compliance efforts into a major federal investigation that ruined our painstaking efforts to gain a seat in government. Baldeo was convicted of obstructing crimes the jury found him innocent of, an illogical conundrum.”
Persaud went on to say the “DOJ must convene a special team to independently review whether [FBI Director James] Comey, Bharara and other prosecutors who violate their powers with impunity, are culpable under the Hatch Act, and the over-federalization of our laws. This is an abuse of power, and a dangerous precedent.”
