Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow and husband Tom Athens implicated in growing John/Monica Conyers Scandal

BREAKING NEWS!!

Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to accepting a pay-off in the Syrango trash dumping scandal. She has since resigned her position on the Detroit City Council. Her husband Congressman John Conyers is now under investigation.

But late breaking news from Right Michigan, that the invesigation is widening and could now be targetting Tom Athens husband of Democrat US Senator Debbie Stabenow.

Athens, readers of LR may remember, was busted two years ago for a fling with Detroit hooker Alycia Martin (photo). Athens was let go with a warning. But Martin ended up spending jail time for the incident. Athens is also the former CEO of Air America.


From Right Michigan, Feb. 16, 2009:

That's the reality Senator Debbie Stabenow has faced for the last six months as her husband, Tom Athens, made bank on the payroll of Democratic mega-donor and alleged lothario Jim Papas. Unfortunately, despite the unending rhetoric about transparency and ethics in the Dem controlled Congress, the Senator who once voted to establish the Senate Office of Public Integrity chose to turn a blind eye to her husband's criminal actions, putting him, partisan election interests and the family bank account above Michigan residents and campaign promises.

According to a weekend report from the Ivory Tower, Athens worked illegally as a lobbyist, putting pressure on officials in the Granholm-Cherry administration, lawmakers, business interests and members of Congress in an effort to get the go-ahead for a reboot of a toxic waste injection well in Romulus. His boss, Jim Papas, stands to make millions, most immediately from the Detroit Police and Fire Retirement System, a fund which has already lost $33 million on the wells and has now agreed to pay the man $10 million more.

Papas' name is not unfamiliar to residents in and around Detroit but he's not as well known out-state. His (barely) above-the-table resume filler includes the Motor City's Greektown Casino, which he helped "build." Granted, the man has spent almost as much time in the courtroom as he has on the gaming floor, battling requests for personal protection orders after allegedly assaulting the children of business partners, state investigations into his use of HUD money to build luxury hotels and allegations (plural) of sexual harassment. Maybe more importantly, according to Department of State and FEC records he's a six-figure-a-cycle Democratic money man.

Now this from the Detroit Free Press just hours ago:

[Sam] Riddle told the Free Press in an exclusive interview published Monday that Papas hired him -- around 2007 -- and that he did no work for the money. Riddle told the newspaper that Monica Conyers demanded $10,000 as a "finder’s fee" for getting Papas to hire him. Sometime after the hiring, Riddle said, Monica Conyers helped generate a letter from U.S. Rep. Conyers to the Environmental Protection Agency asking for favorable treatment for a waste injection well in Romulus, which a Papas company had taken over... Monica Conyers pleaded guilty last Friday to a felony for accepting bribes in a unrelated $1.2-billion sludge disposal deal. Her husband has not responded to interview requests about his letter to EPA.

RightMichigan concludes:

Not a bad collection Papas had there. A United States Senator, a United States Congressman and the top dog on the Detroit City Council, all either directly on the payroll or accepting cash through one paper-thin degree of separation.

Note - Libertarian Republican fmr. State Rep. and current Chairman of the Michigan Taxpayers Assoc. Leon Drolet serves on the editorial board of MichiganRight.

LINKS

This story picked up by WinkyDog.com.