Haven’t we seen this movie before?
Marion Barry is consorting with a woman who is not his wife. He might be having sex with her; might not. He is giving her city contracts. But she might not be performing any work in return. And he sees nothing wrong.
“I am a different kind of council member,” he said yesterday after the sordid story unfolded.
Our eyes might glaze over when we hear the tale of Marion and Donna. Sounds so similar to the Marion and Rasheeda affair. Remember Rasheeda Moore? She’s the paramour who also was not his wife, who lured then-Mayor Barry into the Vista Hotel back in 1990. She plied him with cognac, he smoked crack cocaine, lawmen watched from cameras in the next room and busted Barry. Rasheeda was “the bitch who set him up.”
This time around, Barry might have set himself up; and this time, he might even take the fall.
Marion and Donna Watts-Brighthaupt were the lead characters in a report released Tuesday to the city council. Last year the council hired attorney Robert Bennett to investigate allegations that Barry had given his girlfriend, Donna, city contracts. They asked Bennett to probe other contracts, called earmarks, by which Barry seemed to be funneling city money to buddies.
Bennett’s verdict: Barry “breached the high ethical standards expected of him” and “breached the public trust.”
Nothing new here for Marion Barry. He’s been “breaching” various standards and levels of trust for decades.
What’s new here in the Bennett special counsel report is that Marion Barry may — for the first time in his 40-year career in public office — have done something truly corrupt and gotten caught. Bennett told council members Tuesday that Barry lent money to Donna, gave her city contracts, handed her the checks, drove her to the bank to cash the checks and then made her pay back the loans.
Confronted with this scenario in depositions, Barry first said it “absolutely” never happened, but then he admitted he took her to the bank “to get my loan.”
For good measure, Bennett said Barry had obstructed his investigation.
“It implicates the criminal law,” Bennett told the council, and he recommended it refer the matter to the U.S. attorney.
Marion Barry has done many things — good and bad — over the years, but he’s never been formally charged with violating financial corruption laws. If true, this might be a first. But did he violate any laws? Is it is worth prosecuting? Will he step down?
As Barry said, he violated no D.C. laws on contracting by council members because there are none. But he might have violated federal laws on public corruption. So he is vulnerable.
Will incoming U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen prosecute Barry as one of his first acts in office? Doubtful.
Will Barry step down? Never.
“This is a lawless town,” Barry said from the council dais Tuesday afternoon. He was referring to Mayor Adrian Fenty’s refusal to send contracts up for council review.
Lawless — that’s the way Barry likes it.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at
[email protected]
