8-Ball sez: “Signs Point to Yes”.
Now pay attention, kids, this is complicated, as many crimes involving money, corporatese, and coverups are.
First, read this article by DailyKos’ Stephen Laser Haas. In it, he lays out the massive fraud that Bain got entangled in during 2001. Massive fraud that Romney’s law firm at the time, the New York-based law firm, Traub, Bonacquist & Fox, has now admitted guilt for. As most of you know, there is always a Delaware-based law firm engaged in any Delaware litigation. That law firm in the Bain/e-toys matter was Morris, Nichols, Arsht and Tunnell.
What does this have to do with Colm Connolly and Mitt Romney, you might ask. Everything, that’s what, especially including why Mitt Romney is trying so hard to claim that he left Bain in 1999, and not 2001. BTW, please read the linked MNAT deposition from Morris, Nichols, Arsht and Tunnell in Haas article. It’s a PDF file, but it’s one of the worst lawyerly attempts at obfuscation you’ll ever find. Now here’s where Connolly comes in. Romney officially resigned from Bain Capital in August of 2001. And, on August 2, 2001, Colm Connolly, one of the partners in the law firm representing Mitt Romney, was appointed by George W. Bush to become the Delaware United States Attorney. In other words, the person who would be responsible for prosecuting precisely the sort of fraud that Bain Capital committed while being represented by Connolly’s law firm.
Romney and his henchmen were so confident that this fraud would never see the light of day under a Bush Justice Department that:
…Mitt Romney’s attorney (R Bradford Malt) was able to confidently make the remark that Mitt Romney was Bain Capital’s CEO until August 2001. They believed they had gotten away with it all and there was nothing to worry about.
Lest there be any doubt that Connolly was indeed with Morris, Nichols at the time the fraud was perpetrated and misrepresented by Romney’s legal team, here is Connolly’s resume.
So, what Romney is trying to do is, in essence, backdate his exit from Bain to protect himself from the massive fraud that was perpetrated by Bain and not pursued by a sympathetic Federal prosecutor with a blatant conflict-of-interest, and, of course, to try to avoid blame for the job outsourcing issues plaguing his campaign.
To which, I can only quote the Poopetrator himself:
“I was the owner of an entity that is filing that information.”
Sounds to me like he did have some sort of ‘controlling legal authority’ after all. Also seems to me like Connolly’s got some ‘spainin’ to do.
And, if there are any reporters left, the News-Journal has some reporting to do.