Not sure if anyone outside of New England is following this, but Billy Bulger is just one more crook many of us would like to see in jail. Cardinal Law is also on that list.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/340/metro/Bulger_to_appear_but_may_not_talk+.shtml

Bulger to appear - but may not talk

Legal bids fail; he seeks delay to pursue appeal

By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe Staff, 12/6/2002

After a flurry of unsuccessful legal moves on the eve of his required appearance before a congressional committee investigating FBI wrongdoing, University of Massachusetts president William Bulger yesterday agreed to attend the hearing this morning, if only to reiterate a request for postponement while he asks a federal appeals court for immunity.

It appeared unlikely last night that Bulger will answer any questions before the committee.

''I have concerns about letting my client go under oath in two different forums to answer the same questions, thereby putting him unfairly in harm's way,'' said Bulger's lawyer, Thomas R. Kiley, in a statement last night.

In April 2001, Bulger testified before a federal grand jury about a contact with his fugitive brother, James ''Whitey'' Bulger. Any discrepancy between that testimony and what he might tell the congressional committee could lead to perjury charges.

Bulger's lawyers spent yesterday in a swirl of efforts to protect the former state Senate president, who has been subpoenaed to testify before the congressional committee scrutinizing the Boston FBI office's handling of top-echelon organized crime informants, including Whitey Bulger.

The lawyers were rebuffed at every turn.

Kiley asked in a letter to the US House Committee on Government Reform to postpone Bulger's appearance or let him testify in private.

Meanwhile, in US District Court, Bulger's lawyers asked a federal judge to release the secret minutes of Bulger's grand jury testimony last year. They also asked US District Judge Douglas Woodlock to extend to Bulger the immunity from prosecution he had before that federal grand jury.

Both requests were denied.

Woodlock ruled that the congressional committee hearing today is separate and unrelated to the criminal grand jury proceedings last year, and so Bulger's immunity agreement with federal prosecutors did not apply to the congressional investigation.

The committee chairman, US Representative Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican, said yesterday that the members had voted to deny Bulger's request for a closed hearing.

''I think this is an issue that needs to be illuminated for the people of Massachusetts,'' Burton said. ''We've decided that this issue ought to be discussed before a public hearing.''

In opening remarks at yesterday's hearing, Burton said he had not made the decision lightly to call Bulger and the committee doesn't plan to make unfair allegations.

''Our purpose is not to embarrass him,'' Burton said. ''I think there are a number of fair and legitimate questions that ought to be asked, and that's what we plan to do.''

Through spokesmen, Bulger promised to attend the hearings, but his spokesman Doug Bailey, when asked whether Bulger would answer questions or assert his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, said, ''We don't know what's going to happen.''

If the congressional committee doesn't postpone its hearing pending Bulger's appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Bailey added, ''He's going to exert all his rights and privileges.''

''It appears he's trying to delay his appearance,'' said Blain Rethmeier, a spokesman for the committee.

The Globe reported this week that Bulger testified for two hours before a federal grand jury in 2001 about contact he had with his gangster brother after Whitey Bulger fled a federal indictment in January 1995.

Bulger told the grand jury that he did not urge his brother to surrender to face a federal racketeering indictment, that he did not know where his brother is now, and that he felt no obligation to help authorities bring him in.

William Bulger was subpoenaed to testify today before the committee after he indicated he would not appear voluntarily.

In addition, Rethmeier said, ''The committee will not grant Mr. Bulger any immunity for tomorrow's hearings. The committee intends to ask Mr. Bulger any questions it has.''

Whitey Bulger is wanted for 19 murders on racketeering charges, but has eluded federal authorities for seven years. He is on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.

William Bulger told the grand jury he spoke to his brother only once, early in 1995, and advised him not to turn himself in. Bulger, a lawyer, said he was giving his brother legal advice - a statement that might invoke attorney-client privilege.

If William Bulger's testimony under oath today differs from his previous statements, federal prosecutors could bring him back before a grand jury and possibly even charge him with perjury.

Federal prosecutors already have charged another Bulger brother, John, with perjury for allegedly lying about his contact with Whitey Bulger since he's been a fugitive.

In a three-hour emergency hearing in federal court yesterday, Bulger's attorney argued for the immediate release of the 2001 testimony, contents of which have been reported in the Globe.

Bulger is ''figuratively between a rock and a hard place,'' Kiley wrote in his petition to Woodlock.

''If his testimony before the Congressional Committee, although truthful, differs from the transcription of his testimony before the grand jury, the United States Attorney's Office can prosecute [Bulger] for perjury,'' Kiley wrote.

Furthermore, Kiley argued, Bulger must have access to the transcript in the interest of fairness, especially if the congressional committee intends to base questions on that testimony.

In denying the motion, Woodlock said there was no compelling reason to violate the secrecy of the grand jury, even though the transcript has already been leaked to the media.

James Wilson, chief counsel to the committee, attended the court hearing but took no position on release of the transcript.

Burton already had criticized the leak, however, and Wilson said the committee was not in possession of the grand jury testimony.

''We don't have it, we haven't seen it, and we've already gone on record saying this isn't the way we think business should be done,'' Wilson said.

In a letter to the congressional committee received yesterday afternoon, Kiley told the committee Bulger would request a closed hearing in order to preserve ''all rights and privileges available to him,'' but intended no disrespect to the inquiry.

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2002

Answers

The scum just pleaded the fifth, refused to testify afterall.

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/06/bulger_hearing.htm

Bulger declines to testify before committee on mob informants

By Denise Lavoie, Associated Press, 12/06/02 William Bulger testifies before the House Committee on Government.

BOSTON -- A congressional committee probing ties between FBI agents and mob informants adjourned abruptly Friday morning after University of Massachusetts President William M. Bulger refused to testify about his fugitive brother.

Bulger invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions. His attorney had tried unsuccessfully to have the hearing postponed or held behind closed doors.

The House Committee on Government Reform has been investigating the improper relationship between some Boston FBI agents and their mob informants.

The panel wanted to question Bulger about older brother James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious gang leader who is wanted in connection with 21 murders. Whitey Bulger was also a top-echelon informant who provided the FBI with information about the New England faction of the Italian Mafia.

Committee Chairman Dan Burton, after denying the request to delay the hearing or make it closed, asked if Bulger had talked to his brother since 1995, where his brother was then, and where he is now.

Bulger, in response, said that he was invoking his right against self- incrimination.

"The Fifth Amendment's basic function is to protect innocent men who might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances," he said. "I find myself in such circumstances."

Burton then asked if he intended to answer all questions in the same manner.

"Yes, sir," Bulger said.

Whitey Bulger went on the run in January 1995 after being tipped off by former FBI Agent John J. Connolly Jr. that he was about to be indicted. Connolly was convicted earlier this year for warning Bulger and other mobsters about their indictments.

The committee may also have planned question William Bulger about a real estate deal he was involved in while he was Senate president. Bulger was one of the state's most colorful and powerful politicians during 17 years in that post.

Bulger's lawyer, Thomas R. Kiley, said after the hearing that Bulger had pleaded the Fifth because of fear that law enforcement agencies might try to entrap him with his own statements. Bulger had testified to a grand jury in January of last year that he had contact with his brother shortly after Whitey Bulger fled.

"Any mistakes that he might make, could be used against him," Kiley said. "If they cannot have one Bulger, we fear they will have another."

Kiley also spoke of Bulger's loyalty to his brother, saying the UMass president feels "a brother's love" and "a brother's ache" for what has transpired

"He has tried to do his best with a family matter that few of us would envy," Kiley said.

Excerpts from Bulger's testimony were published in The Boston Globe earlier this week. Bulger was granted immunity from prosecution for that testimony, but a judge said Thursday that the immunity would not extend to his appearance before the committee.

In his testimony, Bulger acknowledged he had received a phone call from his brother several weeks after he became a fugitive. He said he didn't urge his brother to surrender, "because I don't think it would be in his interest to do so."

Putting Bulger on the stand without allowing him to see the transcript could leave him vulnerable to perjury, Kiley said, and "an innocent person may be smeared in ambiguous circumstances."

Kiley cited the case of Bulger's brother John Bulger, who was charged with purgery and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury about his contacts with James Bulger.

After the hearing adjourned, Burton said he was disappointed that the committee was not able to get answers from Bulger.

"I understand that Whitey Bulger is his brother, but he's one of the 10 most wanted fugitives in the United States," Burton said.

At Thursday's session of the committee's hearing, a former federal prosecutor, Jeremiah O'Sullivan, testified he knew two mobsters were murderers and FBI informants, but did not indict them in a horse race fixing case because he felt he did not have enough evidence to convict them.

O'Sullivan also acknowledged that Connolly and another agent asked him not to indict Whitey Bulger and another man, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, because they were informants.

But O'Sullivan said he had already made up his mind not to indict Bulger and Flemmi in the 1979 horse race fixing case, in which 21 other members and associates of Whitey Bulger's Winter Hill Gang were charged.

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2002

I suspect that the mob will take care of him soon. They can't have such a poorly plugged leak, you can be sure.

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2002