Akkam’s Razor

The Inky has an article with John Gallagher, a Center City lawyer and Russian trade expert.  Gallagher has an interesting interpretation of what a Representatives obligations are to his constituents:

"I was very lucky to have my representative also have an interest in Russia," Gallagher, a resident of Weldon's district, said in his spacious office at 18th and Market Streets in Center City.

Gallagher said Weldon, in trying to help him in Moldova, was simply providing good constituent service. "It's my congressman's job," Gallagher said. "He represents me, and a foreign country wronged me."

Agents who searched his law office were investigating possible violations of a federal bribery law, Gallagher said. "Of course I didn't pay Curt Weldon," he said.

Gallagher is the first "subject" to speak about the pre-election raid.  The distinction between "subject" and "target" is immense – needless to say, someone else is the "target".  Subjects typically provide evidence and corroborate – targets are typically the focus and subject to prosecution.

The article goes on to describe the history of Gallagher and Weldon, along with their comingled relationships including the Russians, Serbian strongmen, Delaware County GOP operatives, Weldon's daughter, the country of Moldova, Charlie Sexton, Solutions Worldwide, the Springfield Republican Party, the Delaware County Republican Party, County GOP boss Thomas Judge, Sr., and Itera International Energy, the Russian energy company. 

Gallagher is also connected to the Philadelphia corruption investigation of 2003.  Could this possibly have been the impetus for the Grand Jury surrounding Weldon's affairs?

During the City Hall corruption investigation, the FBI recorded him talking to the late power broker Ronald A. White about raising money for Mayor Street and trying to win city deals, sources said.

On one such 2003 call, Gallagher phoned White from Russia to complain that he wasn't getting his share of city legal work. White said he'd take care of it. "Relax," White told him. "Everyone knows who you are."

Gallagher said in the interview that he and White had been friends since they attended law school together three decades ago.

He said he never paid White to help him with the Street administration. For "all good friends," he said, White "would lend a hand."

It will be interesting to see how this develops.  Will the investigation stumble, now that Weldon is out of office, having been defeated by Joe Sestak in November's election, or is this still the begining?  Also, how does the increasing chilly post-Cold War relationship between the only remaining and former superpowers going to be influenced by Russia's increasingly hostile posture to US Energy Interests? 

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