Nation's first openly gay House speaker in 2010 to resign after FBI raid

[Synthaholic]

The question is: why was a full on raid necessary? Some are speculating this was about finances. Surely those could be tapped online and spare such a spectacle of a high ranking public official. Iinstead, the officers felt it necessary to force their way into his home and remove "items in boxes and bags".

Anyone want to speculate what those items were?

Because police these days are raging pussies. They send in the SWAT team to serve a warrant.

 

[Howey]

Good he'll have to pay for his crimes.

Tell me though, would you have posted this if he wasn't gay? Would you have cared at all if he wasn't gay?

Of course. They'd just mention he was half-black.

 

[Silhouette]

He declined to disclose why the authorities are investigating Fox, and whether Fox is the target of the investigation or merely someone with evidence of crimes committed by others. But he said the former speaker is not in the dark.

“Fox knows what’s going on,” O’Donnell said. “He’s certainly aware of what happened” Friday and why it happened.

O’Donnell explained the timing of the raid, including the search of Fox’s State House office during business hours during the legislative session. He said investigators searched as soon as they had established enough probable cause to obtain a warrant. Delaying would not be wise, he said. “If we didn’t go in, we might lose it.”

The search of the speaker’s office may be unprecedented, according to the colonel.

“I don’t remember ever seeing the state police execute a search warrant” there, he said.

O’Donnell would not specify what investigators were looking for or what they found.

Fox, a lawyer and former member of the Providence Board of Licenses, who has recently represented clients in licensing cases and worked on loans related to a city agency called the Providence Economic Development Partnership, would not address the probe. Gordon Fox resigns as House speaker day after investigators raid home, office | Breaking News | providencejournal.com | The Providence Journal

Notable in this scenario is:

1. That this type of raid was unprecedented and

2. One of the officers noted that the crime suspected was "Serious and sad".

3. Fox resigned immediately even though past bumps with the law left him nonplussed and insistent on holding his post as Speaker in Rhode Island.

Anyone have any new information? The fact that nobody does is significant. And making me really suspect what this is all about. What topic might be one that every person involved would be doing back flips to sweep under the rug and hope the public forgets about it?

 

[Silhouette]

Hmm... Remember Pope Benedict being forced to step down because of allegations of the internal catholic gay cabal bringing shame upon the Vatican?

First Pope to be unseated in 7 centuries...remember that?

And Fox, who is gay, provided crucial leadership in legalizing same-sex marriage — a remarkable victory in part because the Catholic Church fought the same-sex marriage bill, and this is one of the two most Catholic states in the country (along with Massachusetts). Edward Fitzpatrick: House shakeup raises question ? How blue is Rhode Island? | Edward Fitzpatrick - Writers | Providence Journal

And it makes me wonder...

 

[Silhouette]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Providence home of ex-Rhode Island House Speaker Gordon Fox was put up for sale Monday, a month after federal authorities raided the residence and his Statehouse office as part of a criminal investigation...

...Law enforcement contacted the state Board of Elections about the ex-speaker on the day of the raids, the board's campaign finance director, Richard Thornton, has said. But Thornton declined to specify the nature of the contact.

David Ortiz, a spokesman for Mayor Angel Taveras, also said federal law enforcement officials subpoenaed records last week, but he would not say what authorities were looking for. He said the city is fully cooperating. http://hosted2.ap.org/RIPRJ/3762489...tion-Home/id-5ea1b29d478d4c78a48b64e4b0e19fb0

I think I heard it was campaign finance records. I just keep mulling over what one of the officials raiding his house said, that it was sick and sad...or words to that effect.. So sick and sad that this one politician is being strangely guarded from the press as to what his issues are? All the others they run out of town on a rail and tar and feather the first day of any raid. Officials always put it out there why they're making such a conspicuous raid on such a high-ranking official. What documents at his home would they have needed so badly? I can't think of any other ranking official who had his house raided while he was away. Can you?

 

[TheOldSchool]

Good he'll have to pay for his crimes.

Tell me though, would you have posted this if he wasn't gay? Would you have cared at all if he wasn't gay?

Of course. They'd just mention he was half-black.

Well played sir