Jim McElhatton

Fraud draws longer sentence

Duane McKinney could have expected a sentence of eight to 10 years in prison under federal guidelines as he awaited punishment Thursday for stealing properties in the names of dead people.

January 9, 2009

Climate czar left no electronic trail

Don't bother looking for any electronic records of Carol Browner's first stint as a federal government executive. The soon-to-be Obama administration climate czar intentionally didn't keep many.

December 24, 2008

Rosenbaum case pegged to clemency bid

Before pleading guilty in what authorities called the biggest personal tax evasion case in U.S. history, telecommunications executive Walter C. Anderson found himself in solitary confinement in a part of the D.C. Jail that inmates call "the hole."

December 15, 2008

Standing on ‘the shoulders of Bob Ming’

Nearly five years to the day after his son was fatally shot, Martin Luther King Sr. sent a letter to the U.S. Parole Board in hopes of freeing a friend from prison.

December 7, 2008

EXCLUSIVE: Cash flows to Rep. Jefferson despite bribery trial

Despite his looming trial on federal bribery charges, Louisiana Democratic Rep. William J. Jefferson hasn't had any trouble raising money from his allies in Congress.

November 27, 2008

Clinton campaign continued after backing Obama

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's team has told the Federal Election Commission that she continued her campaign even after endorsing Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama on June 7, a claim that lets her transfer millions of dollars from her presidential bid to her Senate campaign.

November 24, 2008

Obama adviser lobbied to protect Fannie

A transition adviser to President-elect Barack Obama earned millions of dollars overseeing an office that led a lobbying effort to prevent increased oversight of mortgage giant Fannie Mae, public records show.

November 18, 2008

Allies rush cash to debilitated Murtha

Democratic Rep. John P. Murtha seemed in jeopardy of losing his job last month until his political friends in Congress and the defense industry came to the rescue.

November 12, 2008

Big-time Obama fundraisers to aid transition

President-elect Barack Obama has tapped some of the same big-time fundraisers who helped him collect more than a half-billion dollars for his presidential campaign to a new panel that will form the face of his administration.

November 6, 2008

No joke: Franken still in the race

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman has claimed a win over Democrat Al Franken to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate, but the race is still too close call with just 571 votes separating the pair out of 2.7 million ballots cast.

November 5, 2008

McCain labels Obama ‘the redistributor’

Sen. John McCain on Monday labeled his Democratic presidential opponent "the redistributor," saying a newly revealed Chicago radio interview from 2001 exposes Mr. Obama's plan for the nation.

October 27, 2008

Lawmakers in safe seats raise huge sums

EXCLUSIVE: If you believe the polls, plenty of lawmakers are in jeopardy of losing their seats on Election Day. But some of the biggest raisers of campaign cash are members of Congress whose re-elections are considered a safe bet.

October 22, 2008

Biden routes campaign cash to family, their firms

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. has paid more than $2 million in campaign cash to his family members, their businesses and employers over the years, a practice that watchdogs criticize as rife with potential conflicts of interest.

October 15, 2008

Obama sought HUD grant for donor’s project

EXCLUSIVE -- Sen. Barack Obama wrote the Bush administration seeking a multimillion-dollar federal grant for a housing project that is behind schedule and partly run by a longtime political supporter.

October 6, 2008

Fundraisers for McCain bring in pork

Sen. John McCain vows to hold members of Congress accountable for requesting money for pork-barrel projects, but that hasn't stopped him from enlisting fundraising help from several lawmakers who sponsored tens of millions of dollars in "earmarks" in this year's federal spending bills.

September 25, 2008

Financial lobbyists wooed negotiators

Key House members weighing a $700 billion Wall Street bailout have filled their campaign coffers this year at more than 250 fundraising parties hosted by financial-sector lobbyists, including a beer tasting and a Washington Redskins game, according to a watchdog group.

September 25, 2008

GOP pushes for Biden’s earmarks list

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. is requesting more than a quarter-billion dollars in earmarks to pay for projects in his home state of Delaware in fiscal 2009, but Republicans want to know when he will release the wish lists from the rest of his 35-year Senate career.

September 16, 2008

Obama tried to nab earmarks for fundraiser

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama tried to direct more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to a Chicago museum whose chairman is one of the Illinois senator's largest campaign fundraisers.

September 11, 2008

Palin yet to say ‘no thanks’ to other big earmarks

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has said repeatedly that she told Congress "thanks but no thanks" to the notorious bridge-to-nowhere project derided nationally as an example of pork-barrel spending. But some are waiting to see whether she'll also pull the plug on another big earmark dubbed "Don Young Way" that could benefit her hometown.

September 5, 2008

‘Rainmaker’ lobbyist aids Biden

When Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. started a new political fundraising committee three years ago, he turned to a longtime Washington insider for help - the partner of a lobbying firm co-founded by his son.

August 29, 2008