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No Charges Against Imposter in Denver Three Case

The Secret Service has responded to an inquiry by Sen. Ken Salazar and Reps. Diana DeGette and Mark Udall as to whether criminal charges will brought against the unidentified Republican operative who posed as a Secret Service agent and ejected three Denver activists from President Bush's social security event at Wings Over the Rockies in March.

According to the letter, which you can read here, (pdf) the matter was presented to the U.S. Attorneys' office for investigation of a possible violation of this federal law making it a crime to impersonate a federal official. The U.S. attorneys' office declined the prosecution.

Salazar, DeGette and Udall have responded with this statement, which I received by e-mail.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Senator Ken Salazar, Congressman Mark Udall and Congresswoman Diana DeGette all expressed disappointment with a report received from the Secret Service regarding the investigation of the expulsion of three Coloradans from a White House Social Security event in Colorado in late March of this year.

In a letter dated July 19, 2005 but only received on July 28, 2005, the Senator, Congressman and Congresswoman were informed by the Secret Service that the U.S. Attorney’s office had declined to file charges stemming from the investigation of the March incident. The Secret Service also declined to identify the individual who allegedly impersonated a Secret Service agent, citing privacy concerns.

“I am disturbed by the fact that three people were not allowed to participate in a public meeting about the future of our Nation’s most successful social program – Social Security,” said Sen. Salazar. “As elected officials, we should be encouraging, not discouraging, public participation in open and thoughtful discussions on our Nation’s most important matters.”

"It's puzzling that the Secret Service would take five months to come up with nothing. Frankly, if the Secret Service and White House have nothing to hide, and if no law was broken, don't the American people have a right to know the results of the investigation and who was responsible for ejecting the Denver 3?" Udall said. "Hopefully the White House will put in place procedures for town meetings that allow all views to be heard and that respect all law-abiding individuals."

“Political debate in our nation has gotten too partisan and aggressive. We need to encourage people of differing viewpoints to listen to each other’s ideas,” said Rep. DeGette. “The removal of three Coloradoans from a public, taxpayer-funded Presidential event on Social Security does nothing to foster civil discussion. While I am disappointed that the White House continues to refuse to identify the person involved, I hope that they will at least make their events open to all Americans in the future......”

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    Re: No Charges Against Imposter in Denver Three C (none / 0) (#1)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:44 PM EST
    Why does the US attorney have jurisdiction anyway? It seems to me that the crime was committed in Colorado, in a facility that is not owned by the feds: CRS 18-8-112:
    Impersonating a peace officer. (1) A person who falsely pretends to be a peace officer and performs an act in that pretended capacity commits impersonating a peace officer. (2) Impersonating a peace officer is a class 6 felony.


    He impersonated a federal officer, a secret service agent. That's a federal crime. He wasn't pretending to be a cop.

    ...I hope that they will at least make their events open to all Americans in the future....
    Dream on, Sen. Salazar, dream on. How about holding your state responsible for upholding the law?

    Re: No Charges Against Imposter in Denver Three C (none / 0) (#4)
    by MikeDitto on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:45 PM EST
    Ahh, 16-2.5-101 CRS pretty much backs that up. Bummer. That basically means anybody can impersonate a federal officer to commit a crime on the president's behalf and get away with it. Doesn't really seem quite fair to me.

    Re: No Charges Against Imposter in Denver Three C (none / 0) (#5)
    by veloer on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:45 PM EST
    Just how long will it be for it to be OK for it to be rebublican? These events were taxpayer paid. I know the voters there do not care. They elected those fools.

    OFFER A REWARD ON THE IDENTITY OF THE CRIMINAL. How about if Democrat(s) or a Democratic entity offer a modest reward for information leading to the identity of the criminal? (Impersonating a law enforcement officer is, to state the obvious, a crime, so there's no need to mince words here). Such a reward will result in: 1. Possibly identifying the criminal, allowing a civil suit to progress. 2. The embarrassment of the federal prosecutors, who declined to prosecute, the Bush administration, and their GOP ilk. 3. The likelihood that the Bushies won't attempt such crimes in the future during their staged dog-and-pony "townhall meetings."

    So. The privacy rights of someone impersonating a federal officer trumps the process of free exchange of ideas. I don't know why Bush didn't just film his tour as an infomercial, it would have been more honest and cheaper. Wait, that would be asking them to veer towards the truth, and spend less money... I don't think they've done either in five years.

    Thanks TL for the heads-up. My apologies to Sen. Salazar for the last sentence. On the other point, I still say:

    Dream on, Sen. Salazar, dream on.

    "Posted by veloer: "I know the voters there do not care. They elected those fools." INCORRECT. Bush did NOT win Ohio. 1. Bush-backer SecState was responsible for 8-20 hour waits in line to vote for tens of thousands of Ohioans statewide. Many are unable to spend more than an hour to vote, including elderly, parents, workers, and handicapped. 2. Triad Systems, which mostly runs Ohio's for-profit voting system, according to affidavits by election officials, changed out circuit boards in machines expected to be part of a survey of the vote, and supplied FALSE voting totals to be reported by the precincts, regardless of the machine totals. 3. Thirty states have NO RECOUNT RIGHTS. Their votes are converted into thin air, without paper trail, the results of which are supplied by a range of for-profit companies, all of which are run by Rs who support Bush. The companies that do the testing of those vote-fraud systems? Also Rs who support Bush. 4. Blaming America for a coup committed by conspiracy of these vote-fraud companies and the rightwing of the R party, a grave act of conspiracy, is simply being bigoted. Stop blaming Americans, start blaming the media lies and coup. Fight for the restoration of your voting rights. Diebold, Triad, and the rest deserve investigation and prosecution, not further patronage.

    On topic, the Gonzales Justice Dept. declined to investigate the Ohio vote fraud by Triad, both acts (changing the computers and supplying false numbers) are FELONIES. They don't investigate felonies any more over at Justice. It's become a parking lot for the Clown Bus.

    I just don't understand how someone can impersonate a federal law enforcement agent and then not be prosecuted. If I or anyone else that posts comments on this site tried anything like this they would be locked up quicker than crap through a goose. But somehow a Republican operative can do it and also keep their identity from being known. One thing that gets me is you see alot of seemingly "conservative"commenters on this site saying we should punish anybody breaking immigration laws immediately but it is surprisingly quiet when it comes to crimes committed by english speaking, Republican citizens. The silence of the lack of outrage from supposedly god-fearing, law abiding folks like PPJ,James Robertson, Richard(Dick)Aubrey, and all the other Clowns commenting on this site is deafening. You would think these "conservative" fellows might want to take a truly Conservative view of the law and demand that anybody impersonating a federal agent should be charged, arrested, and given a trial as soon as possible, no matter what their political affiliation. But these hypocrites only want the book thrown at immigrants, minorities, women, liberals, and people that don't quite fit the vision of what their Amerikkka should be.

    I heard one of the "Denver 3" on Ed Schultz show yesterday. It appears they are going to file a civil rights suit. The Myth of National Victimhood

    Too many double standards. Stop in my site. -K Meade