Word: bramblett
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1954-1954
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...21st District, Jacob Javits was the one Republican who could win. Now Javits is running for state attorney general, and Republican Candidate Floyd Cramer has little chance. The Republicans may drop a seat in California's 13th District because of the aroma left behind by G.O.P. Representative Ernest Bramblett, whose salary kickback case is still in the courts.* Pennsylvania's Representative Hugh Scott has won by an eyelash for years, all the time watching helplessly while more and more Democrats move into his district...
...Bramblett put his wife, Lois, On the Government payroll as a $4,700-a-year secretary because, he explained. "You don't know who can be entrusted with confidential data." Another secretary might blabber to Communists, he feared. Critics in California charged nepotism. They doubted that Bramblett, as a member of the House Agriculture Committee, handled state secrets. Worried about this political sniping, Bramblett discussed his problem with House Republican Clerk Irving Swanson...
Swanson agreed to an easy solution. In Lois Bramblett's place on the payroll, they decided to substitute Swanson's wife, Margaret, who would then turn the money over to Bramblett. Result: for 16 months Margaret Swanson was carried on Bramblett's payroll, though she did not work for him. She kept only enough of her salary to cover income tax, kicked back to her "employer" at the rate of $3,300 a year...
Meanwhile, Lois Bramblett was off her husband's payroll for only four months before being rehired, this time at $3,400, and without telling the Swansons...
...When Bramblett's manipulations came to light, Clerk Irving Swanson lost his job and Congressman Bramblett was brought to trial on seven counts of making false statements to the House Disbursing Office. Last week in Washington a Federal Court jury found Ernest Bramblett guilty. Maximum penalty on each count: $10,000 and five years...