Senator Denies AT&T, Verizon Cash Bought Spying Immunity Vote
Telecom executives from companies seeking escape from privacy lawsuits accusing them of illegally collaborating with secret domestic spying programs wrote thousands in checks to the re-election campaign of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), THREAT LEVEL reported last Thursday.
But in a Tuesday New York Times story, the lawmaker's spokeswoman denies that the telco cash affected Rockefeller's decision last week to include retroactive immunity for those companies in a bill passed by a Rockefeller-led committee.
AT&T and Verizon executives who had donated only a pittance to Rockefeller over the past 6 years donated more than $40,000 to Rockefeller in 2007, even as they were having private meetings with him to plead for his help in escaping from federal court.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/senator-denies-.html#previouspo...
