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COURT REPORTER
Trial will offer peek at ‘pay-to-play’ politics in Philadelphia [The Associated Press by David B. Caruso] With a little help from the FBI, a federal jury will get a rare chance this week to eavesdrop on an unseemly side of politics in this famously corrupt city.
in the region,” he complained.
and outright payments.
executive indicted after FBI wiretaps alleg-
White countered by explaining that Carlson
Firms that regularly took Kemp out for din-
edly recorded municipal officials, lawyers
had given heavily to Democrats in the past,
ner, hired White as a consultant, gave the
and businesspeople talking about using cash,
and had only recently joined Janney. Burrell
men tickets to sporting events or contributed
favors and gifts to influence millions of dol-
wasn’t immediately convinced.
money to the mayor’s re-election campaign
Jury selection [was] to begin [last] Tuesday in the trial of a former financial services
lars in government contracts.
were favored, and those who didn’t were shut “All I know, he’s at Janney Montgomery
out, prosecutors claim.
Denis Carlson, formerly a senior vice
Scott, and he can’t give us any money, and
president at Janney Montgomery Scott, is
Janney doesn’t give,” Burrell said. “They
White died in November while he was under
charged with lying to federal agents about
don’t even arrange for us to get money.”
indictment. Kemp is scheduled to go on trial next month, along with two executives from
his attempts to drum up more business for his firm in the city.
The probe of city government was first made
Commerce Bank.
public in 2003, when police discovered an FBI The charges are among the more minor filed
bug inside Street’s office.
Two former executives at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. were scheduled to be tried along
in the sweeping federal probe of alleged corruption in city government, but the trial will
Street has denied any wrongdoing and has
with Carlson, but decided instead to plead
feature the first public airing of FBI record-
not been among those indicted.
guilty. They were accused of trying to curry the administration’s favor by arranging to pay
ings made during the investigation. The mayor has acknowledged repeatedly Prosecutors plan to play dozens of excerpts
White $50,000 for work he never performed.
that political allegiances and campaign giv-
from telephone conversations between city
ing play a role in whom the city chooses to
bureaucrats and Ronald A. White, a top
hire. But he has insisted no one is hired to
clude a city council aide, a Muslim leader and
political fund-raiser for Mayor John F. Street,
perform work that isn’t necessary, and no
a mayoral aide accused of rigging a city debt
who seemed to have extraordinary influence
company gets work that is not qualified.
collection contract.
over which companies got city contracts. Street may be asked to make that explanaIn one recording, White can be heard argu-
tion again at the trial.
ing with Street aide George Burrell about whether Janney Montgomery Scott should
Carlson’s attorney subpoenaed the mayor
get a potentially lucrative job working on an
to appear as a defense witness, and Street
upcoming city financial transaction.
said last week that he is willing to testify and answer any questions that are asked of him.
The company was then known in political circles as a donor to Republicans, not Demo-
The broader focus of the FBI’s case are al-
crats like Street, and Burrell said he couldn’t
legations that White and the city’s treasurer,
swallow hiring them.
Corey Kemp, conspired to create a corrupt system in which companies were selected for
“They get every Republican deal that’s done
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various city jobs based on a system of favors
Other defendants, indicted separately, in-