Doug Jones, one of the
most powerful labor leaders in the U.S., was indicted last week on federal
corruption charges. No, the indictment is not politically motivated—in fact, if
politics played into it, President Trump would likely put the kibosh on this prosecution.
Jones is accused of siphoning more than $1 million in union
funds for luxury travel, extravagant dinners and purchases of high-price
cigars, golf clubs and apparel for himself, his family and his lieutenants.
You don’t suppose he listed that as income on his 1040, do
you? (Stolen/embezzled/illegally obtained income must be reported on a person's income tax return.)
The federal
probe has broadened to look into Black Lake (pictured here), the autoworkers’
fabled if incongruous luxury golf course and retreat secluded in a northern
Michigan woodlands. Ostensibly, Black Lake is used as a training center for
union leaders (and this is true)— but its championship golf course offers a
nice setting for cigar-chomping UAW leaders to make sweetheart deals with auto executives
on the links, much in the fashion of the current U.S. president. (And a separate legal matter, a lawsuit by GM, alleges that the UAW gave a sweetheart deal to Fiat/Chrysler, putting GM in a bind for labor negotiations.)
Quoting from
today’s New York Times:
In raids at Mr. Jones’s home and elsewhere,
agents seized thousands of dollars in cash, hundreds of bottles of high-price
liquor, hundreds of golf shirts, multiple sets of golf clubs and large
quantities of cigars that had been billed to union accounts, according to court
filings. One dinner described by prosecutors ran up a bill of $6,599.87 that
included $1,760 for four bottles of Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne.
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Now that
President Trump has reversed convictions of military tribunals involving war crimes, the president has time this week to give thanks for another
corrupt president who operates his empire like a mob boss. It's the new America. Doug Jones, you
might be home for the holidays next year.
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