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Convicted House speaker can serve as a State House lobbyist because he was convicted of federal crimes, not state ones, court rules

The Supreme Judicial Court today overruled Secretary of State Bill Galvin's refusal to let disgraced Speaker Sal DiMasi try his hand at lobbying, saying the state law that lets Galvin bar certain reprobates from the job applies only to people convicted of specifically state crimes and DiMasi was convicted just under federal laws against conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and extortion.

The state's highest court ruled that Galvin erred in concluding state law was ambiguous enough that he could rightly bar DiMasi from lobbying for at least ten years for doing things that would have resulted in his conviction under state law, had he been tried and convicted in Pemberton Square rather than down on the waterfront.

We conclude that the language of the disqualification provision is unambiguous, and that the Secretary's interpretation contravenes the plain statutory language and the Legislature's intent in enacting the provision. General Laws c. 3, § 45 (m), does not afford the Secretary discretion to consider what other offenses might require automatic disqualification, even if the underlying conduct that resulted in a conviction could support a felony conviction pursuant to G. L. c. 3, 55, or 268A. Rather, the disqualification provision limits automatic disqualification to individuals who have been convicted of a felony set forth in G. L. c. 3, 55, or 268A.

Following his 2011 conviction on seven federal counts, a federal judge sentenced DiMasi to eight years; he served five years, then was released for medical reasons. In 2019, he was well enough to try to register as a lobbyist in Massachusetts, at which point Galvin said no.

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Comments

What a crock.

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What a Magoo. Magoo.

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I actually have to agree with Magoo.

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he's recovered from cancer. He deserves a chance to make some money, state revoked his pension.

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Was it not related to the legal wrongdoing in the service that earned him that pension?

Was this the only job he could possibly be doing right now? Has he been barred from other forms of employment?

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That was not the worst corruption case ever seen in Massachusetts and the evidence was underwhelming. Like the Buddy Cianci case, a situation where a superior got roped in by corrupt subordinates.

He's, like, 75 now and not in good health. What's he supposed to do, work for Amazon?

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He was convicted of using his position as speaker to line his own pockets at the expense of state taxpayers. For the safety of our system, he should be banned from further involvement in state legislation for the same reason we don't let convicted sex criminals near schools after their release. http://archive.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/06/16/f...

AND he didn't even serve half his sentence because he was supposedly deathly ill of cancer, but I guess he rallied. Luckily, the one group of people that are relatively well covered in this country are those eligible for Medicare and Social Security, so he should be ok as far as further medical bills goes.

But if he didn't save enough money to pay his country club dues during his years of corrupt double-dealing...why don't you start a GoFundMe?

...the thought of Buddy Cianci getting unwittingly "roped" into crimes? You gotta be kidding me?

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He was indeed found guilty for being the boss

One of the counts was for allegedly attempting to "extort" a club membership he never got

Best mayor ever

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"he was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy, running a corrupt criminal enterprise"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Cianci#:~:text=Cianci%20was%20indict....

Not to mention he kidnapped and tortured a guy for sleeping with his wife.

But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...

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to be rotting in the can where he belongs. Goes away for selling influence, lies about dying to get out of the can then gets to make more money doing what? Selling influence. Fuck him.

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