The Chicago Tribune reports:
The glossy campaign fliers arrived in time to help Harvey's besieged mayor.You'll want to read the entire long article. No word yet on when Eric Holder found out about this. Also, no word yet on whether the FBI has decide to get involved in other American elections.
Eric Kellogg's police department was mired in scandal, reports of violent crime were rising and challengers were calling him corrupt.
But the fliers showed a different picture: Kellogg smiling with officers and shoveling dirt at groundbreaking ceremonies, as well as skewed statistics declaring that Harvey was on the mend.
The rescue came from an odd backer, the Tribune has learned: an undercover FBI agent.
The agent had been placed in a local strip club to investigate corruption. And for reasons federal officials won't discuss, records show the agent formed a special political committee and primed it with about $140,000. The committee then flooded the crucial 2007 mayoral race with money that helped Kellogg to victory, even as federal agents were probing the mayor's police department.
The FBI's involvement — uncovered in this Tribune investigation — set the stage for a series of actions by state and federal agencies that preserved the status quo and masked problems in Harvey.
The Tribune documented earlier this week how Harvey has the stark combination of high violent crime and few arrests — with police officers facing a smorgasbord of allegations that often go unchecked.
The latest investigation has found that outside agencies ignored and enabled Harvey's leaders in ways that may have made things worse. The revelations are based on a review of numerous civil and criminal court cases as well as local, state and federal records.
After the undercover federal agent aided Kellogg's campaign, another powerful federal agency came in to document systemic problems in his police department — only to leave without forcing reforms.
And all along, state officials have neglected to take key steps to stop the city and Kellogg from repeatedly breaking disclosure laws, helping the mayor maintain power with money from secret backers while also obscuring the city's dire financial state.
