THE OUTRAGEOUS AND ILLEGAL RAILROADING OF FORMER CONGRESSMAN GEORGE HANSEN – PART TWO
Part one delved into the machinations used to indict Congressman George Hansen (R-ID) for not reporting his wife’s finances as mandated by the 1978 passage of the Ethics in Government Act (EIGA). The problem that the Department of Justice (DOJ) faced is that the when EIGA was passed only civil sanctions could be imposed, criminal sanctions were expressly not included.
This is why, as explained in part one, the DOJ relied on another criminal statute 18 USC 1001 to indict Hansen. Full Stop! 18 USC 1001 is not a well understood law. Furthermore its use should not apply to EIGA violations since the final passage of the Act specifically excluded criminal penalties. This is why following Hansen’s conviction, one hundred twenty-three members of Congress filed an amicus brief to the DC Appellate Court arguing that Congress did not intend criminal sanctions to attach to EIGA violations. Another amicus brief was filed by the Institute for Government and Politics, Free Congress Foundation and attorney Lawrence Arlen Withers expressed the same sentiment. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/772/940/249859/
Unfortunately the DC Appellate Court did not overturn Hansen’s conviction. Conviction of Hansen Upheldwas the August 31, 1985 headline of the New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/08/31/us/conviction-of-hansen-upheld.html
Even worse the opinion upholding Hansen’s conviction was written by no less than Antonin Scalia a conservative mastermind who soon after was nominated by President Reagan to serve on the US Supreme Court. Afterwards Senator Orrin Hatch flat out told Scalia, “I hope your not going to be as pigheaded on the Supreme Court as you were on the Appellate!” (Personal communication James McKenna to Mark Adams.)
In 1985, as a judge on the D.C. Circuit, Scalia wrote the opinion upholding Hansen’s conviction in which he described the 18 USC 1001 language as “sweeping” and clearly covering omissions on Hansen’s EIGA financial disclosure forms. Ten years later Scalia, now a Supreme Court judge, changed his mind and ruled in a separate case involving 18 USC 1001 that the language was not sweeping and in fact applied only to the Executive Branch NOT the Congress. This ruling gutted the legal foundation for Hansen’s 1984 conviction enabling him to successful challenge his conviction.
In order to understand what drove the government to lock up Congressman Hansen at all costs it’s necessary to illuminate the many battles he courageously fought on behalf of his constituents.
Did IRS Want to Get George Hansen?
This was the headline of the April 10, 1984 edition of THE HERALD. The article was written by Lee Roderick then Washington Bureau Chief for 30 newspapers and later President of the National Press Club.
At the beginning of the article Roderick explains an encounter he and his wife had while traveling in Germany with an IRS agent chasing after suspected tax cheats overseas. After gloating over some of his victories Roderick explained how the conversation turned to Congressman George Hansen:
“We’ll get him,” the auditor bragged.
“How?” Roderick asked.
The auditor’s response was chilling. “WE HAVE OUR WAYS.”
Roderick explained how Congressman Hansen caustically accused the agency of using “brute force, harassment lies and cover-ups” against ordinary citizens.
In that same article Roderick provided other examples of Congressman Hansen’s battles against corrupt government. When one of Hansen’s constituents, Bill Barlow, rebelled against harassment from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) he worked with Barlow to fight his case all the way to the Supreme Court and won a judgment outlawing OSHA searches without cause.
In another battle he successfully fought the INS (now ICE) after the INS entrapped Idaho farmers by trucking illegal aliens from Mexico into Idaho and dumping them on farms. When the farmers hired the illegals INS quickly arrested them. Congressman Hansen smelled entrapment and worked with the farmers to take their case to federal court and secure a resounding victory.
In 1976 after the State Department had failed to go to the aid of an Idahoan youth languishing in prison in Bolivia, Congressman Hansen flew to Bolivia and confronted the prison officers directly. Not only did Hansen secure release for the youth but forty others were also released.
This is but a small sampling of the battles that Congressman Hansen fought for his fellow Idaho citizens. While the citizens were endeared vengeful bureaucrats despised him and sought revenge. Finally in the Orwellian year 1984 they succeeded in taking down a fearless congressman who won many battles for the ordinary citizen.
National Security Commentator Mark Adams