Profiles in Corruption Read online

  Other times, the innocent face legal threats because the politician is leveraging their position to extract benefits for themselves. Corruption involving legislation is bad, but the goal of a proposed law might be efficiency, fairness, or some policy goal; it typically involves a group decision. Corruption involving the criminal justice system is potentially far worse. The criminal justice system is supposed to be about equal justice under the law, yet one person can decide the fate of justice by deciding to pursue or ignore a case, or by dropping charges against someone. Prosecutors are given the power to charge or not charge individuals with criminal offenses. Justice that is not blind to a suspect’s political connections, financial ties, or other alliances is abuse of power. These charges can include incredibly troubling cases. Kamala Harris, for example, has taken what by many accounts are politically motivated actions that silenced major criminal investigations into child abuse. She also dropped charges against a politically connected contractor whose fraud potentially endangered thousands of people. Under Harris, the corporate clients of her husband’s law firm avoid legal scrutiny. To a lesser extent, Amy Klobuchar also has been accused of using her position in office to protect political patrons and legally extract money from corporations.

  Another avenue for corruption is legislation. This is all about shaking down donors with the threat of punitive laws, or passing new rules or laws that benefit those closest to you. Often this involves powerful corporations. Progressives speak of the dangers of corporate power, but they can and often do the bidding of those who happen to be financially backing them. Senator Amy Klobuchar has mastered the art of soliciting large campaign contributions from corporations in exchange for sponsoring legislation that they favor. The pattern and timing of contributions—as it relates to legislation she has introduced—make it hard not to conclude that it is a sophisticated form of extraction. Even Senator Bernie Sanders has staked out positions that benefit the corporate interests of his backers and wealthy friends. Often crony corporatism does not involve a broad-based policy issue such as lower corporate taxes that would benefit all corporations, but rather niche projects that involve special benefits specifically for them or their narrow industry. Cory Booker has used his political power for the benefit of patrons, friends, and political aides.

  Finally, there is publicity, the use of your power and office to promote the commercial interests of your family. Joe Biden has mastered this technique, touting businesses that are owned by family members without revealing that fact to the public. And Elizabeth Warren has seen her political rise intertwined with the commercial and corporate activities of her daughter.

  So let us begin first by exploring the immense power and opportunities for abuse present when a prosecutor is prepared to distort their responsibilities to uphold the law for their own political benefit.

  2

  Kamala Harris

  President Barack Obama stood in front of an array of well-heeled donors in a private home in super-rich Atherton, California. Having just been reelected five months earlier, he was touting his White House accomplishments. After a few comments, he praised California attorney general Kamala Harris, who was also in the room, and highlighted her “dedication and brilliance.” He added: “She also happens to be by far the best-looking attorney general in the country.”1

  While the comments struck some observers as inappropriately personal and unprofessional, they revealed the close and long history that Obama and Harris shared. Harris had first supported Obama while he was running for the Senate in Illinois back in 2004. After he was elected, Obama flew out to San Francisco and held a fund-raiser for Harris. She had just been elected San Francisco district attorney and needed to retire some campaign debt. The newly minted senator from Illinois showed up at San Francisco’s famed Bimbo’s on Broadway to help. In 2007, when Obama announced his plans to run for president in Springfield, Illinois, she was again by his side. Harris and several members of her family joined the campaign. Harris, her sister Maya, and brother-in-law Tony West would labor over the next year to help Obama’s ambition become a reality. Kamala walked the snowbound precincts of Iowa, visited New Hampshire, and traveled to Nevada and Pennsylvania to campaign for him. Harris took the helm of his California campaign, serving as cochair. When Obama won, she was with him in Chicago’s Grant Park to celebrate the victory.2

  Harris is widely admired in progressive circles as the “female Obama.”3 Smooth, polished, and confident, she has worked hard to “cultivate a celebrity mystique while fiercely guarding her privacy.”4 This rising star in the Democratic Party also has a taste for expensive Manolo Blahnik shoes and Chanel handbags.5

  Harris paints herself as a gritty lawyer who is climbing the ladder of power by her own strength and determination. She has also positioned herself as “smart on crime,” even publishing a book by that same title.6

  The reality of her rise to prominence is far more complicated—and how she has leveraged her power along the way is troubling. Harris’s elevation to national politics is closely tied to one of California’s most allegedly corrupt political machines and investigations into her tenure as a prosecutor raise disturbing questions about her use of criminal statutes in a highly selective manner, presumably to protect her friends, financial partners, and supporters.

  Most disturbing, she has covered up information concerning major allegations of criminal conduct, including some involving child molestation.

  Kamala Devi Harris was born to Donald Harris, her Jamaican-born father and Dr. Shyamala Gopalan, her Tamil Brahmin mother from India. Her father is a Marxist economist who taught at Stanford University; at one point, he advised the Jamaican government. Her mother was a highly regarded research scientist who worked in the field of breast cancer.7 Her parents were divorced when Kamala was five, and her mother’s family had a defining influence on her childhood. “One of the most influential people in my life, in addition to my mother, was my grandfather T. V. Gopalan, who actually held a post in India that was like the Secretary of State position in this country,” Harris recalled. “My grandfather was one of the original Independence fighters in India, and some of my fondest memories from childhood were walking along the beach with him after he retired and lived in Besant Nagar, in what was then called Madras.” Harris draws on those Indian roots to define herself. “When we think about it, India is the oldest democracy in the world—so that is part of my background, and without question has had a great deal of influence on what I do today and who I am.”8

  Harris recounts regular visits as a child to her mother’s homeland. After she was elected district attorney of San Francisco in 2003, she traveled to India and found that her grandmother had organized a party and press conference for her. Her grandfather was still a government official in Chennai. “One by one people came to pay homage. ‘It was like a scene out of The Godfather,’ ” Kamala said.9 Harris was close to her grandfather, who was “a joint secretary in the central government,” and “instilled in her a thirst for service.”10

  While Harris attended Howard University, a traditionally black college, and served as president of the Black Law Students Association at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, many saw her leaning more toward her mother’s culture than her father’s. According to her mother Shyamala, Kamala knows “all the Hindu mythology and traditions,” and that “Kamala will be equally at ease in a temple or a church.” Harris was born during Dusshera, a major Hindu celebration. “So I gave her the name thinking of Goddess Lakshmi.”11 Shyamala insisted that giving her daughters names derived from the Indian pantheon was important to her children’s development. “A culture that worships goddesses produces strong women,” she says.12 Adds her mother, “Kamala is a frequent visitor to the Shiva Vishnu temple in Livermore [California]. She performs all rituals and says all prayers at the temple. My family always wanted the children to learn the traditions, irrespective of their place of birth.”13

  * * *

  Kamala Harris’s entrée into
the corridors of political power largely began with a date. In 1994, she met Willie Brown, who at the time was the second-most-powerful man in California politics. As Speaker of the State Assembly, Brown was a legend in Sacramento and around the state. He represented a district in the Bay Area and was well known in San Francisco social circles. In addition to running the California Assembly, Brown ran a legal practice on the side, which meant taking fees from lobbyists and industries that may have wanted favorable treatment in Sacramento. Brown was under investigation several times, by the State Bar of California, the Fair Political Practices Commission, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.14 In 1986, for example, as California Assembly Speaker, he “received at least $124,000 in income and gifts . . . from special interests that had business before the Legislature.”15

  Despite a lifetime in politics and public service, Brown was known for his expensive Brioni suits, Borsalino hats, Ferraris, and Porsches.16 Later he downgraded to a Jaguar. “My body would reject a Plymouth,” he said.17 Along the way he played a version of himself in The Godfather Part III. Brown finally retired from political office in 2004. He purchased a $1.8 million condo in the St. Regis in San Francisco two years later.18

  Willie Brown was married in 1958 (and remains so today) but that did not matter: Brown was sixty at the time he began dating Kamala, who was twenty-nine. Brown was actually two years older than her father. Their affair was the talk of San Francisco in 1994.19 Kamala’s mother defends her daughter’s decision—and offered choice comments about Brown. “Why shouldn’t she have gone out with Willie Brown? He was a player. And what could Willie Brown expect from her in the future? He has not much life left.”20

  Brown began pulling levers for Harris that both boosted her career and put money in her pocket, rewarding Kamala with appointments to state commissions that paid handsomely and did not require confirmation by the legislature. He put Kamala on the State Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later the California Medical Assistance Commission. The Medical Assistance Commission paid $99,000 a year in 2002.21 The Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board paid around $114,000 a year. Both posts were part-time. At the time, she was working as a county employee making around $100,000.22

  Along the way, Brown also bought young Kamala a new BMW.23

  Perhaps the most important thing Brown gave Harris was access to his vast network of political supporters, donors, and sponsors. Soon she was publicly arm in arm with Brown in the most elite circles of San Francisco, including lavish parties and celebrity galas.24

  By 1995, Willie Brown was running for mayor of San Francisco and Harris was regularly by his side. On election night, Willie Brown stood before his guests at the Longshoremen’s Union Hall. He was all smiles as the election results rolled in. Harris was in front of the crowd with him, smiling, and handed him a blue baseball cap emblazoned with “Da Mayor.” Brown placed the cap on his head and then Rev. Cecil Williams, a local fixture and longtime Brown friend, handed him a piece of paper.25

  “It’s over!” he proclaimed.26

  The election wasn’t the only thing that was over that night. Many had speculated that Brown would divorce his wife and marry Harris, but that didn’t happen. Shortly after Brown’s electoral victory, he and Harris split up. There are conflicting reports as to who actually left whom. Most accounts report that Brown broke up with Harris.27

  After the split, Kamala Harris started dating another prominent man: television talk-show host Montel Williams.28

  The romance with Brown might have been over, but Harris had political ambitions of her own, and the two remained allies. Brown, as mayor, would prove to be enormously helpful in her rise to political power.

  Willie Brown possessed the most powerful political machine in Northern California. As mayor, he leveraged that power to enrich his friends and allies. During his tenure, Brown came under FBI investigation twice for corruption involving lucrative contracts flowing from the city to his political friends. His operation was soon dubbed “Willie Brown Inc.” Even local Democrats who might agree with Brown’s political views were turned off by the cronyism and corruption that was rampant under “Da Mayor.” “I thought it was only in Third World countries that people were forced to pay bribes to get services they’re entitled to from their government,” said U.S. district judge Charles Legge about the rampant corruption under Brown. “But we find it right here in San Francisco.”29

  Three years or so after Brown’s election, San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan hired Kamala Harris to head up his office’s Career Criminal Unit.30 Hallinan, nicknamed “K.O.” for his boxing skills, was a tough progressive who had little problem taking on the most powerful forces in San Francisco, whether it be the police or the new mayor.31 Hallinan insisted that Harris’s connection to Willie Brown had nothing to do with the hiring. Whether it did or not, Hallinan would soon regret his decision.

  Shortly after she joined Hallinan’s office, the number two slot in the prosecutor’s office opened up. Harris wanted the job, but Hallinan chose someone else.32 Brown seemed furious at Hallinan, ostensibly for other matters. The mayor was publicly attacking Hallinan for failing to do his job. An insider had a different take. “This whole thing is about Kamala Harris,” one Brown friend told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Cross one of Willie’s friends and there will be hell to pay.”33

  The relationship between Willie Brown and Terence Hallinan had always been a complicated one. Hallinan had publicly embraced one of Brown’s rivals, Tom Ammiano. Hallinan had also been investigating Brown allies for corruption.34

  Passed over by Hallinan, Harris abruptly left the district attorney’s office and went to work at the city attorney’s office, which was run by a close Brown ally. Soon the Brown machine was cranking up to help Kamala Harris run against Hallinan.35

  By 2003, Harris threw her hat in the ring and announced her decision to challenge Hallinan for his position as San Francisco district attorney. Less known in San Francisco than her opposition, she regularly came a distant third in opinion polls, often registering in the single digits.36 But she could count on the Willie Brown Machine, which at the time ran so much of San Francisco. Rebecca Prozan, a former Willie Brown aide, was brought on as Harris’s campaign manager to give her a boost.37 Harris’s finance chair was Mark Buell, a major Democratic Party fund-raiser. A political consultant named Philip Muller set up an independent expenditure committee called the California Voter Project. Armed with a letter from Brown, he raised money to help boost her campaign. Muller had worked on both of Brown’s mayoral races.38 Beyond Muller’s independent efforts, the flow of money directly into her campaign was unlike anything the district attorney’s race had ever seen. “She’s hauling in campaign cash like there’s no tomorrow,” said the San Francisco Weekly.39

  Much of the money came from the super-wealthy of San Francisco who were close to Brown. The mayor himself gave the maximum contribution—$500—and penned a letter that Philip Muller, his close aide, took around to wealthy donors to raise cash. The letter asked the San Francisco elite to cough up five hundred dollars each to “help Kamala win.”40

  While Kamala Harris would later cast the campaign as a grassroots operation, it was a much more exclusive affair. The San Francisco elite embraced her, which meant all-white fund-raisers in Pacific Heights. Frances Bowes, heir to the fortune made from Hula-Hoops and Frisbees, hosted an event and brought friends like romance novelist Danielle Steel to write large checks. Bowes had originally met Harris through a “longtime Willie Brown crony” while Brown and Harris were still dating. The Brown endorsement of her campaign also opened doors—and wallets. “Why, Willie Brown just wrote us a letter on her behalf,” Bowes said.41

  Friends and alliances with the San Francisco elite she had formed while dating Willie Brown also came to her aid. The Getty clan, heirs to the vast J. Paul Getty fortune, were “strongly behind Harris,” and Vanessa and Billy Getty became “good friends.”42

  Harris denied that there was
an effort by Brown to help her, but as the San Francisco Chronicle noted, “a large number of her contributors also have been donors to Harris’ onetime boyfriend and political sponsor, Mayor Willie Brown.” Darolyn Davis, who worked as Brown’s communications director during his days in Sacramento as the Assembly Speaker, threw a fund-raiser that netted nearly $15,000.43

  Very quickly, the upstart challenger was dramatically outraising the incumbent. Indeed, Harris raised double what Hallinan did. The money flow was so great that it led Hallinan to allege that Harris broke a law by surpassing a voluntary spending cap that she had pledged in writing to honor. In January 2003, shortly after announcing her campaign, Harris had signed a form saying that she would stick to the city’s $211,000 voluntary spending cap for the campaign. An official handbook put out by the city’s Department of Elections identified candidates that had signed the pledge.44 The voter’s guide is designed to let voters know which candidates agreed to abide by the law.

  Harris signed the pledge—and then blew right past the spending limit. By the end of November, she had raised $621,000—almost three times more than the cap she had pledged to honor.45 The San Francisco Ethics Commission vote to fine Harris was unanimous. Her campaign had to pay a $34,000 fine, a record in city elections.46

  Blowing past the financial cap was not the only ethical issue raised about her campaign. Critics questioned the donations she accepted from individuals with matters sitting before her at her office in the city attorney’s office. In particular, she was taking “campaign contributions from slumlords with cases before” her office.47 According to Harris’s campaign donor filings, more than 10 percent of her donors were owners or operators of single-room-occupancy hotels identified as “problematic” by city officials. Donors included hotel owners cited by city officials as a “city nuisance” because of numerous arrests for “drug activity, assault, rape, robbery and burglary.” Another donor was the son of a hotel owner who verbally harassed a deputy city attorney and at one point threatened to shoot the attorney over code enforcement.