Claude Allen
Encyclopedia
Claude Alexander Allen was the Assistant to the President of the United States
for Domestic Policy in George W. Bush
's White House
and a withdrawn Bush judicial nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
. The African-American Republican was appointed to his White House
position in January 2005. Allen resigned February 9, 2006, stating he wanted to spend more time with his family. On March 10, 2006, news broke that Allen had been repeatedly stealing from retail stores Target
and Hecht's
by engaging in a personal refund scheme. Allen was cited by police for shoplifting on January 2, 2006, which triggered an investigation that resulted in Allen's arrest on felony
counts of theft on March 9, 2006. On August 4, 2006, as part of a plea bargain
, Allen plea
ded guilty to one misdemeanor
count of theft.
Allen, a longtime evangelical Christian, is married, with four children. He was earning $161,000 per year in his federal job at the time of his shoplifting and subsequent resignation.
In 1982, Allen graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
with a B.A.
He was a member of a fraternity, Chi Psi
. Although the majority of the members of the local chapter of Chi Psi at the University of North Carolina were white, the chapter was one of the only truly integrated fraternities on the campus at the time.
, a Republican Congressional candidate in North Carolina
. He switched parties, saying later, in an interview, "I realized after the fact that I agree more with the Republican Party platform, that it talked about independence, that it talked about individual responsibility, individual rights, it talked about the ability to guarantee opportunities, not outcomes."
Allen subsequently began working for Republican Senator Jesse Helms
, of North Carolina; he was Helms' campaign spokesman in 1984. From 1985 to 1987, Allen was a staff member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
.
From 1990 to 1991, Allen was a law clerk
for David B. Sentelle
, a judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, famous for his role in the Whitewater investigation. Allen met and became a protege of Clarence Thomas
, who was a judge on that court at the time Allen was clerking there.
After his clerkship, Allen became an associate at Baker Botts
in Washington, D.C.
, from 1991 to 1995. He then served in the Virginia Attorney General's Office from 1995 to 1998, before becoming Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia
.
to become a federal judge on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination was opposed by numerous liberal educational, religious, and racial groups, including People for the American Way
, the NAACP, and the National Organization for Women
. He was rated as partially "not qualified" by the American Bar Association
. His nomination was stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee and lapsed on December 8, 2005.
Allen was appointed to the position of Assistant to the President
for Domestic Policy in January 2005 where he was
responsible for providing advice on all non-economic policy issues including education, health care, labor, housing, veterans, HIV/AIDS, and other domestic issues.
While Head of the Domestic Policy Council, Allen jointly oversaw the White House Task Force that coordinated response to Hurricane Katrina
along with the Homeland Security Council
.
and saying, 'But if you do, buckle up.'" He supports abstinence
sex education.
Allen is pro-life
. Journalist Doug Ireland
wrote that when serving as Health and Human Services Commissioner in Virginia, Allen opposed certain legislation because it included taxpayer funding for abortion
s.
According to NNDB.com
, "In 1984, as a press aide to Jesse Helms, Allen told the Greensboro News and Record: 'We could expound on and undertake a campaign against Jim Hunt
's connections with the homosexuals, the labor union connection, the radical feminist connection, the socialist connection.'
Subsequent reports claim that Allen's precise words had actually been: 'We could go back and do the same thing with the queer
s[...]' [Allen then] he called the reporter back and apologized for his choice of words."
. According to police, Allen committed refund theft
, a form of criminal activity where goods are fraudulently returned in stores for cash.
Allen was apprehended by Germantown Target
store loss prevention manager Pete Schomburg on January 2, 2006. According to the charging document, Allen "admitted to Agent Schomburg that he was committing fraudulent returns". He was not formally charged until March after a review of security video and credit card activity dating back to 2005. Police said he credited more than $5,000 to his credit card through about 25 similar transactions at other stores.
By all accounts Allen's behavior was bizarre given that his annual salary as an advisor was $160,000. He pleaded guilty to theft on August 4, 2006. He shed tears during his sentencing hearing and apologized to his wife, family, and friends. While apologizing to the court, Allen said, "I lost perspective and failed to restrain myself." Allen's wife cited White House job stress and family stress in raising four young children as reasons for her husband's shoplifting. The judge, noting that Allen had been publicly humiliated by his arrest and that Allen accepted responsibility for the crimes without trying to make excuses, sentenced him to 18 months of "probation before judgment," which means that his record will be expunged if he completes his probation successfully.
In September 2011, the D.C. Court of Appeals suspended his license to practice law in D.C. for one year, after his license to practice law was suspended for 30 days in Virginia and Pennsylvania. The opinion gave much discussion as to whether the act was one of moral turpitude, concluding that it was not.
about the issue [of allowing military chaplains to be more explicit about their faith]." However, Allen denied these reports, stating that he had resigned to spend more time with his family.
After the arrest, Mallon Snyder, Allen's attorney, said he would prove the felony theft scheme allegations are a "a series of misunderstandings."
President George W. Bush
said on March 11, 2006, "If the allegations are true, Claude Allen did not tell my Chief of Staff and legal counsel the truth, and that's deeply disappointing. If the allegations are true, something went wrong in Claude Allen's life, and that is really sad. When I heard the story last night I was shocked. And my first reaction was one of disappointment, deep disappointment that — if it's true — that we were not fully informed. But it was also one — shortly thereafter, I felt really sad for the Allen family."
The weekend of March 11–12, 2006, Allen's church, Covenant Life Church
in Gaithersburg, Maryland
, voiced support for their congregant. Senior Pastor Joshua Harris
said that the church's pastors had remained in close contact with Allen since news of his arrest broke that Friday, March 10. Harris said, "Our role is not to provide legal counsel. Our concern is for his soul. Our desire-- and Claude shares this-- is for him to walk with humility and integrity."
The Huffington Post
posted a racially charged opinion piece the day after Allen's arrest called "When Black Republicans Go Bad." The piece opined that Allen, along with other prominent black Republicans, "stake out ultra-right-wing positions perhaps to prove their bona fides to their white superiors."
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
for Domestic Policy in George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and a withdrawn Bush judicial nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...
. The African-American Republican was appointed to his White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
position in January 2005. Allen resigned February 9, 2006, stating he wanted to spend more time with his family. On March 10, 2006, news broke that Allen had been repeatedly stealing from retail stores Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
and Hecht's
Hecht's
Hecht's, also known as Hecht Brothers, Hecht Bros. and the Hecht Company, was a large chain of department stores located mainly in the mid-Atlantic and southern region of the United States....
by engaging in a personal refund scheme. Allen was cited by police for shoplifting on January 2, 2006, which triggered an investigation that resulted in Allen's arrest on felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
counts of theft on March 9, 2006. On August 4, 2006, as part of a plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
, Allen plea
Plea
In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a civil or criminal case under common law using the adversary system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a criminal defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response to a criminal charge, whether that...
ded guilty to one misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
count of theft.
Allen, a longtime evangelical Christian, is married, with four children. He was earning $161,000 per year in his federal job at the time of his shoplifting and subsequent resignation.
Early life and education
Allen, a native of Philadelphia, grew up in a two-bedroom apartment in a working-class section of northwest Washington, D.C. He attended Archbishop Carroll High School, a Roman Catholic school. His mother worked part-time at a Catholic school; his father worked for a plumbing supply business. In a television interview, Allen said "Probably the vast majority of the kids who grew up in our neighborhood were either strung out on drugs or in jail or dead."In 1982, Allen graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...
with a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
He was a member of a fraternity, Chi Psi
Chi Psi
Chi Psi Fraternity is a fraternity and secret society consisting of 29 active chapters at American colleges and universities. It was founded on Thursday May 20, 1841, by 10 students at Union College with the idea of emphasizing the fraternal and social principles of a brotherhood...
. Although the majority of the members of the local chapter of Chi Psi at the University of North Carolina were white, the chapter was one of the only truly integrated fraternities on the campus at the time.
Career after college
Allen grew up in a Democratic household, but he took a job after college as press secretary for Bill CobeyBill Cobey
William Wilfred Cobey, Jr. is a former one-term Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina....
, a Republican Congressional candidate in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. He switched parties, saying later, in an interview, "I realized after the fact that I agree more with the Republican Party platform, that it talked about independence, that it talked about individual responsibility, individual rights, it talked about the ability to guarantee opportunities, not outcomes."
Allen subsequently began working for Republican Senator Jesse Helms
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001...
, of North Carolina; he was Helms' campaign spokesman in 1984. From 1985 to 1987, Allen was a staff member of the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Foreign Relations Committee.
Law degree and subsequent career
Allen returned to school in 1987; in 1990, he finished a three-year law program and was awarded a J.D. degree from Duke University School of LawDuke University School of Law
The Duke University School of Law is the law school and a constituent academic unit of Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law began as the Trinity College School of Law in 1868. In 1924, following the renaming of Trinity...
.
From 1990 to 1991, Allen was a law clerk
Law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Law clerks are not court clerks or courtroom deputies, who are administrative staff for the court. Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who...
for David B. Sentelle
David B. Sentelle
Judge David Bryan Sentelle is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.- Early life and education :...
, a judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, famous for his role in the Whitewater investigation. Allen met and became a protege of Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court....
, who was a judge on that court at the time Allen was clerking there.
After his clerkship, Allen became an associate at Baker Botts
Baker Botts
Baker Botts L.L.P. is a major United States-based international law firm of around 800 attorneys, with a long, prominent history, significant political connections, boasting more than half of the Fortune 100 companies among its clients. Headquartered in One Shell Plaza in Downtown Houston, Texas,...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, from 1991 to 1995. He then served in the Virginia Attorney General's Office from 1995 to 1998, before becoming Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
White House service
In 2001, Allen was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2004 Allen was nominated by President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
to become a federal judge on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination was opposed by numerous liberal educational, religious, and racial groups, including People for the American Way
People For the American Way
People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy group in the United States. Under U.S. tax code, People For the American Way is organized as a tax-exempt 501 non-profit organization.-Purpose:...
, the NAACP, and the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
. He was rated as partially "not qualified" by the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
. His nomination was stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee and lapsed on December 8, 2005.
Allen was appointed to the position of Assistant to the President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
for Domestic Policy in January 2005 where he was
responsible for providing advice on all non-economic policy issues including education, health care, labor, housing, veterans, HIV/AIDS, and other domestic issues.
While Head of the Domestic Policy Council, Allen jointly oversaw the White House Task Force that coordinated response to Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
along with the Homeland Security Council
Homeland Security Council
The Homeland Security Council is an entity within the White House Office tasked with advising the President on matters relating to Homeland Security...
.
Policy positions
Allen has said of condom use, "It's like telling your child, 'Don't use the car,' but then leaving the keys in the LamborghiniLamborghini
Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A., commonly referred to as Lamborghini , is an Italian car manufacturer. The company was founded by manufacturing magnate Ferruccio Lamborghini in 1963, with the objective of producing a refined grand touring car to compete with established offerings from marques like...
and saying, 'But if you do, buckle up.'" He supports abstinence
Abstinence
Abstinence is a voluntary restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to sexual abstinence, or abstention from alcohol or food. The practice can arise from religious prohibitions or practical...
sex education.
Allen is pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
. Journalist Doug Ireland
Doug Ireland
Doug Ireland is an American journalist and blogger who writes about politics, power, media, and also about gay issues. He is the U.S...
wrote that when serving as Health and Human Services Commissioner in Virginia, Allen opposed certain legislation because it included taxpayer funding for abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
s.
According to NNDB.com
NNDB
The Notable Names Database , produced by Soylent Communications, the same entity that produces Rotten, Daily Rotten, Dr. Sputnik's Society Pages and Penny Postcards, is an online database of biographical details of over 36,000 people of note...
, "In 1984, as a press aide to Jesse Helms, Allen told the Greensboro News and Record: 'We could expound on and undertake a campaign against Jim Hunt
Jim Hunt
James Baxter Hunt Jr. is an American politician who was the 69th and 71st Governor of the state of North Carolina . He is the longest-serving governor in the state's history.-Early life:...
's connections with the homosexuals, the labor union connection, the radical feminist connection, the socialist connection.'
Subsequent reports claim that Allen's precise words had actually been: 'We could go back and do the same thing with the queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
s[...]' [Allen then] he called the reporter back and apologized for his choice of words."
Arrest and plea
Allen was detained on January 2, 2006, after one alleged theft, then arrested on March 9, 2006, for a series of similar alleged thefts in Montgomery County, MarylandMontgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...
. According to police, Allen committed refund theft
Refund theft
Refund theft, also known as refund fraud, refund scam or whitehouse scam, is crime which involves returning goods to a retailer in exchange for money or other goods.The goods returned may be stolen, or they may be damaged goods recovered from a dumpster. The return provides cash or an exchange for...
, a form of criminal activity where goods are fraudulently returned in stores for cash.
Allen was apprehended by Germantown Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
store loss prevention manager Pete Schomburg on January 2, 2006. According to the charging document, Allen "admitted to Agent Schomburg that he was committing fraudulent returns". He was not formally charged until March after a review of security video and credit card activity dating back to 2005. Police said he credited more than $5,000 to his credit card through about 25 similar transactions at other stores.
By all accounts Allen's behavior was bizarre given that his annual salary as an advisor was $160,000. He pleaded guilty to theft on August 4, 2006. He shed tears during his sentencing hearing and apologized to his wife, family, and friends. While apologizing to the court, Allen said, "I lost perspective and failed to restrain myself." Allen's wife cited White House job stress and family stress in raising four young children as reasons for her husband's shoplifting. The judge, noting that Allen had been publicly humiliated by his arrest and that Allen accepted responsibility for the crimes without trying to make excuses, sentenced him to 18 months of "probation before judgment," which means that his record will be expunged if he completes his probation successfully.
In September 2011, the D.C. Court of Appeals suspended his license to practice law in D.C. for one year, after his license to practice law was suspended for 30 days in Virginia and Pennsylvania. The opinion gave much discussion as to whether the act was one of moral turpitude, concluding that it was not.
Reactions to resignation and arrest
On February 10, 2006, the day following Allen's resignation, the Washington Times reported that "According to a military source, Allen resigned to protest the White House's refusal to lean on the PentagonThe Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
about the issue [of allowing military chaplains to be more explicit about their faith]." However, Allen denied these reports, stating that he had resigned to spend more time with his family.
After the arrest, Mallon Snyder, Allen's attorney, said he would prove the felony theft scheme allegations are a "a series of misunderstandings."
President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
said on March 11, 2006, "If the allegations are true, Claude Allen did not tell my Chief of Staff and legal counsel the truth, and that's deeply disappointing. If the allegations are true, something went wrong in Claude Allen's life, and that is really sad. When I heard the story last night I was shocked. And my first reaction was one of disappointment, deep disappointment that — if it's true — that we were not fully informed. But it was also one — shortly thereafter, I felt really sad for the Allen family."
The weekend of March 11–12, 2006, Allen's church, Covenant Life Church
Covenant Life Church
Covenant Life Church is a 3000+ member "reformed charismatic" church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The church was established in 1977 by a group of Christians including Larry Tomczak and C.J. Mahaney. It is currently led by Joshua Harris, the best-selling author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and Boy...
in Gaithersburg, Maryland
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Gaithersburg is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The city had a population of 59,933 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth largest incorporated city in the state, behind Baltimore, Frederick, and Rockville...
, voiced support for their congregant. Senior Pastor Joshua Harris
Joshua Harris
Joshua Eugene Harris is an American pastor and author, perhaps most widely known as the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye , in which he explains what he believes to be the biblical approach to dating and relationships.He is currently senior pastor of Covenant Life Church, the founding church of...
said that the church's pastors had remained in close contact with Allen since news of his arrest broke that Friday, March 10. Harris said, "Our role is not to provide legal counsel. Our concern is for his soul. Our desire-- and Claude shares this-- is for him to walk with humility and integrity."
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
posted a racially charged opinion piece the day after Allen's arrest called "When Black Republicans Go Bad." The piece opined that Allen, along with other prominent black Republicans, "stake out ultra-right-wing positions perhaps to prove their bona fides to their white superiors."
External links
- Opposition statement by the National Abortion FederationNational Abortion FederationThe National Abortion Federation is an organization of abortion providers. Though originally a U.S. group, NAF has expanded to include practitioners in Canada and Australia as well as many European countries and Mexico...
to the nomination of Claude Allen to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth CircuitUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fourth CircuitThe United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...
. - U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Legal Policy, resume of Claude A. Allen
- Nominations Sent to the Senate, White House Press Release, January 20, 2004.
- Personnel Announcement, White House Press Release, January 5, 2005.
- President Thanks Domestic Policy Advisor Claude Allen for Service, White House Press Release, February 9, 2006.
- Former Top Bush Aid Accused of Md. Thefts, Washington Post, March 10, 2006.
- When Black Republicans Go Bad at The Huffington Post, March 11, 2006.