Thursday, July 13, 2006

Whistle Blowing Attorney Rich Means Comments on Mike Tristano’s Sentence

When I learned that Mike Tristano had been sentenced to a year and a day in jail (his request, so he can qualify for a 15% good conduct reduction in sentence), I asked Rich Means, the man who started the ball rolling downhill that has now pretty much crushed ex-House Republican Leader Lee Daniels’ top aide.

Means was handed time sheets by a member of Daniels’ staff when Daniels refused to release them himself. Those time sheets showed that some of his House employees were working in McHenry County for non-incumbent House candidates in 2000 on state time.

Means gave his analysis of that information to then-Illinois Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan, who, in turn, passed them on the U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

The result was Lee Daniels’ resignation—at Jim Ryan’s request—from the chairmanship of the Illinois State Central Committee and deciding not to run for re-election as Republican House Leader.

Here are the comments that whistle-blower Means sent me:

I'm pleased that the law has finally caught up to Tristano. I'm particularly pleased that he got significant jail time and had to pay back $125,000 in restitution because those are important signals to both the seriousness of the crime and the fact that significant amounts of public money was stolen. Together with the Sorich convictions, public employees should now be clearly on notice that government offices can not be used for political advantage.

However, Tristano was only the hands-on staff operator of this longstanding theft of public funds to subsidize State Representative campaigns. He clearly did it for and with the knowledge of and with the participation of his boss Lee Daniels who, at the time, was the House Republican leader and the State Chairman of the Republican Party. It appears that Tristano will be a Government witness against Daniels who is clearly the "big fish" to be caught here.

When Daniels finally goes down, maybe the system will finally reform; not because the political leaders finally figure out that this kind of theft is wrong, but because they figure out this kind of theft just may be too darned expensive to them. I don't expect them to really embrace common ethics, only to recognize what is in their self-interest.
And, if you would like to know what role the House Republican Campaign Committee-financed mailing about my ex-wife's divorce charges, laundered through Roger Stanley, go to McHenry County Blog.

Previously, I have written "Tristano's Promise," in which I speculate where his information might lead law enforcement officials. You can read the heated "you can't be right" rebuttals here.

8 comments:

Anonymous,  9:09 AM  

Tristano was always a liar and a sleazy scumbag. He was a jerk when he was doing the U of I thing too. He also had the Industrial Commission plum. Piece of garbage nothing redeeming.

Daniels was a selfish arrogant jerk too, he did a lot of damage to the Republican party.

Anonymous,  12:07 PM  

Rich Means is a great attorney and does a lot of good

Anonymous,  1:14 PM  

boo-hoo Cal.

Anonymous,  10:38 PM  

Keep fighting Cal. We deserve to know exactly which State Reps benefitted and how. The taxpayers also deserve a refund of any state resources that were used in a fraudulent way.

steve schnorf 12:35 AM  

Lots of brave citizens out there today, raving and ranting anonymously, flaying away at a guy but not willing to sign their names. If no one liked Tristano, then what do you have to worry about? Sign your names and dance on the grave openly.

Anonymous,  2:29 PM  

Aren't you a crusader, Steve Schnorf? Sucking off the public tit for all those years garnering a lucrative salary and retirement and now that you are "retired" you can use your name openly and righteously.

Give it a rest, will you?

As for Tristano, what goes around comes around.

Anonymous,  9:25 AM  

besides Daniels, it appears that Tristano is pointing the finger at "republican leaders" in both the caucas and HRCC, campaign committee, but no names yet?
Who was on Daniel's leadership team in both the house and campaign committee?

Anonymous,  7:22 PM  

looks like Cal is still trying to lay his "issues" off on someone else. Won't work
And let's all be honest. Means is about six or eight years late with his big report. In 1994 House GOPs emptied out their 3rd floor office o put in mailing equipment. Tons of mail left the statehouse every night. Media was asleep and whoi knows about the G.
The AntiChist stole tons for the GOPs or himself, the Hog, Dr. Don. et al so 365x24 ain't too bad.

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