Former telemarketer negotiating plea in GOP phone jamming case

[MaineDem]

CONCORD, N.H. — The former owner of the telemarketing company that carried out a GOP phone jamming plot against New Hampshire Democrats is negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

Shaun Hansen, 34, is charged with conspiring to commit and aiding the commission of telephone harassment. His trial had been scheduled to begin Oct. 3. However, documents filed Friday indicate the trial would be postponed until Dec. 3 while lawyers work out a possible plea deal.

If no deal is reached, lawyers agreed to use the time to review depositions obtained in a related civil case Democrats have filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

...

Raymond and McGee both testified against James Tobin, the former New England chairman of President Bush´s re-election campaign, who was convicted on telephone harassment charges last December and sentenced to 10 months in prison. Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, remains free while his appeal is decided.


http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D8KA5G8G1-264.shtml

[Lerkfish]

1. cool! I wonder how far up the deal can take us?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Raw Story:...."will argue Administration approved election scheme"

Man indicted in phone jamming case will argue Administration approved election scheme

John Byrne
Published: Friday July 7, 2006


Print This | Email This

The fourth man indicted in a New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme -- in which Republican operatives jammed the phone lines of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts in a 2002 Senate race -- will argue at trial that the Bush Administration and the national Republican Party gave their approval to the plan, according to a motion filed by his attorney Thursday.

Shaun Hansen, the former owner of the company that placed hang-up calls to jam Democratic phone lines, was indicted in March for conspiring to commit and aiding and abetting the commission of interstate telephone harassment relating to a scheme to thwart get out the vote efforts on Election Day, 2002.

His lawyer's motion signals that Hansen intends to argue that he was entrapped because the Administration allegedly told his superiors the calls were legal. The filing indicates, however, that Hansen does not have firsthand knowledge of Administration intervention.

Hansen’s lawyer offered an inside look of his defense strategy in yesterday's filing: his client will assert that he believed he was acting on behalf of the government and the Republican Party through his work with GOP Marketplace, the company which subcontracted the phone jamming efforts.
(snip/...)

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Man_indicted_in_election_day_phone_0707.html

[BrotherBuzz]

3. Rove, under oath and on the stand could clear this mess up in a flash

I liked the 03 October trial date and hoped it would last about a month (I can dream, can't I) :rofl:.

Were the White House telephone records ever released?

[Judi Lynn]

4. That would be the day, wouldn't it?

It'd be real decent of them if they DID release those phone records.

[skids]

5. Wait... what? Entrapment? That's TOOO FUNNY! n/t