Word: smaltz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...indictment itself showed a prosecutor pushing the envelope. Smaltz said Espy illegally took $35,000 in gifts--but Smaltz valued at $6,000 four tickets to an inaugural ball that Espy could have had free, and he chalked up against Espy $3,200 given to Espy's girlfriend for a plane ticket. Smaltz even hit Espy with criminal charges for mailing reimbursement for some gifts he acknowledged he shouldn't have accepted...
...Smaltz's case was so weak that Espy's lawyers decided not to put on a defense. Douglas, an old friend of Espy's who was meant to be the prosecution's strongest witness, turned on Smaltz on the stand and said he'd agreed to become his "puppet" only after three years of "storm-trooper" tactics by the independent counsel. "God knows, if I had $30 million, I could find dirt on you, sir," Douglas told Smaltz in front of the jury. (The amount Smaltz actually spent, through March, was $17.5 million...
...course of his investigation, Smaltz did gain 15 convictions or guilty pleas from individuals and companies, including Tyson Foods, which agreed to pony up $6 million for giving Espy things like two football play-off tickets, a couple of limo rides and a $1,200 scholarship for his girlfriend. Smaltz uncovered evidence that at least one of the firms that provided benefits to Espy did so hoping to curry favor with him. And there is no doubt that Espy shouldn't have taken some of the gifts. But Smaltz's critics maintain that Espy's misguided behavior hardly warranted such...
...million Cost of independent counsel Smaltz's investigation of Espy...
...pursuit of the trivial." Espy's transgressions were of the sort better judged in the court of public opinion than in a court of law. In that venue, he has already been punished. Despite the bravado he flashed on the courthouse steps when he denounced independent counsel Donald C. Smaltz as a "schoolyard bully," Espy knows he blew a historic opportunity by losing sight of age-old black moral traditions...