Judge acquits ex-GOP official in phone-jamming

Source: Portland Press Herald

CONCORD, N.H. — A federal judge on Thursday acquitted former Republican Party official James Tobin in the 2002 Election Day phone-jamming case in New Hampshire, but said the case will return to an appeals court for further review.

Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, was scheduled for a new trial this week on phone harassment charges. A jury had convicted him in 2005, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year overturned the conviction and sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe.

...

Tobin was implicated in an operation masterminded by former state GOP executive director Charles McGee to use hundreds of hang-up phone calls to tie up get-out-the-vote and ride-to-the-polls phone lines at Democratic Party offices and a Manchester firefighters union office on Election Day 2002.

The election featured a U.S. Senate race won by Republican John Sununu over Democrat Jeanne Shaheen _ an election that will be replayed this year.

...

At the time of the phone jamming, Tobin was a regional official with the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, overseeing Senate campaigns in several states. He went on to serve as President Bush´s New England re-election campaign chairman in 2004, but resigned after the allegations surfaced.

Read more: http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D8UV2N9G0-51.html

---

Damn Damn Damn. I assume this will go to appeal, again.

He was in private practice in Concord, New Hampshire from 1980 until his
appointment to the federal bench in 1992 by President George H. W. Bush.

We have to clean out all these bastards that are now making a joke of our
country.

taken over by *'s cronies...like cockroaches. No more Justice from the Judiciary.

How do you stop that, short of the rest of the world invading us and Nuremberging these Bushie bastards, then restoring our democracy as we did for Nazi Germany after DubyaDubyaTwo?

Answer: You don't.

I'm sick of this shit!!! If you are Republican doing the bidding of powerful billionaires you get away with anything and everything in this country. Bring back the guillotine!!! Put a little fear into these rich head cases.

Source: AP

A federal judge Thursday acquitted a former Republican Party official accused of taking part in a plot to jam state Democratic Party phone lines on election day 2002.

James Tobin, the former regional chairman of President Bush's reelection campaign, was convicted in federal court in 2005 of helping to arrange more than 800 hang-up calls that jammed get-out-the-vote phone lines set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters' union for about an hour.

Republican John E. Sununu defeated then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen for the Senate that day.

But the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction last year, sending it back to U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe, who scheduled a new trial for Tobin that was to have started this week. The appeals court ruled that Tobin's actions did not fit the specific law he was convicted of violating.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-acquit22feb22,1,2008897.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Can't the Democratic Party sue Tobin?

Though it sounds ridiculous to do something like that, nothing would surprise me with this crowd these days!

I am amazed that he was acquited. It is always interesting to see how little Republicans get punished for breaking the law.