Monday, July 30, 2012
Fitzgerald blasts Vern Buchanan for failing to appear at court deposition
Posted by Mitch Perry on Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 4:50 PM
But that's not stopping him from attending a fundraiser late Monday afternoon in Sarasota.
"I think it's disgraceful," Keith Fitzgerald, Buchanan's Democratic opponent replied to a reporter's question when asked what he thought of Buchanan going to a fundraiser as opposed to showing up at the deposition.
The attorney who is representing Buchanan's former partner in a lawsuit against him, Joshua Kon, tells The Hill that the congressman's failure to appear will now motivate him to move for contempt against Buchanan.
"He was pushing it off... I think this is definitely their plan," attorney Joshua Kon, who is working for Buchanan's former partner in a lawsuit against him, told The Hill. "It's actually why we're moving for contempt. If the court sanctions him for $5,000 or even $10,000 he doesn't care, he has the money. He'd rather get three months [until after the election] for $5,000. We want to hold him in contempt and force him to testify
Fitzgerald says Buchanan's failure to show up in court plays into why Americans are so cynical about their politicians.
"Here we have an incumbent representative who simply fails to show up to an important hearing, where there are important questions, not just about his legal obligations in a business deal, but his integrity and the way he represents people. And it's time for this to come to an end."
Fitzgerald is running an uphill candidacy to defeat the three-term Republican in Congressional District 16 in Florida, where a recent internal poll published by Buchanan showed him with a strong lead in the race. Others say it is closer that that.
Buchanan is facing an ongoing investigations from the FBI, IRS and House Ethics Committee into unrelated charges that his companies improperly reimbursed employees who contributed to his campaigns and that they claimed improper tax deductions, allegations that have dogged him since early in his congressional career.
That company was co-owned by Sam Kazran, the former partner in the suit, who has accused Buchanan of knowing of the illegal activity.
Kazran's attorney, Joshua Kon, tells The Hill that Buchanan's attorneys had repeatedly sought to delay the proceedings since they first tried to depose Buchanan in January, leading to a magistrate ordering July 30 as the date barring "unforeseen illness" — and that Buchanan had used Ornstein's illness as a way to get around the hearing.
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