How Many St. Louis County Government Jobs Are Bribes?
If you read the Steve Stenger DOJ bribery documents, it seems like it could be quite a few. That's felonious, right?
I have to admit, of all the St. Louis characters, Steve Stenger is one of my favorites. He was St. Louis County Executive, which means he was mayor for 1,000,000 St. Louis residents. Though he wasn’t in the job too long, I enjoy Stenger, because he’s a man who exulted in corruption. He apparently took bribes from pretty much anyone, he reportedly showed up in the office in shorts and sandals, he didn’t take it all too seriously, and—frankly—when he got pinched by the Feds, he took it Mob-style and didn’t throw anyone under the bus. Fun stuff, classic stuff.
Please understand, I don’t like these attributes as a citizen or as a national security analyst, but as a Nnapulidano, I appreciate this in the same way I am actually quite fond of Paul Manafort and his ostrich blazers. These things should be done in certain ways, with respect for tradition and a bit of panache. Paolo Manaforte is actual New England made man, if not underboss and he knew that when it’s your time, you do things correctly. For example, showing up in court in the wheelchair with one sock. This is rispett’ per o miester’, a proper respect for tradecraft. Now, Manafort might possibly have re-flipped the Philippines back on America’s side after his incarceration, which is also how proper made men do things. After all the fun is had, the real ones still take America’s side.
I mean, are we not to appreciate that a lot of St. Louis-area uomini d’affari didn’t help us literally take out nuclear trash after World War II when we dropped those two big ones on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Actually, uomini d’affari maybe isn’t the proper term since some of those guys were Lebanese and Irish, but those who know what I mean probably ain’t gonna take offense.
Anyhow, we’re not personal friends, but I have a great affection for Stenger for providing what I think are the most entertaining quotes from audio intercepts ever reduced to text in Federal charging documents. Like this one from his office after his election on November 7, 2018:
STENGER: “How ‘bout that motherf---ers? I don’t show up to the Council meetings. I don’t do f---ing shit. I’ve been sitting at my house for the past two months f---ing raising money and then won by 20%! The world’s a f---ed up place.”
Or this one from January 4, 2019, when Stenger discussed how many jobs were not based on merit in the St. Louis County government:
“That’s one of the greatest powers I have. That I have 52 people who I hire and nobody knows where they’re coming from. For instance, there are 2 slots over at the jail. Nobody knows if Julia Childrey [Director of Department of Justice Services] put those people there, or I did. It’s good f---ed up. We like it f---ed up. I care about my politics.”
Given that jail employees in Missouri can actually engage in signals intelligence collection, and no judge has even bothered to authorize wiretaps for a decade, I guess it’s important to know who has put the jail staff in their fake jobs with the real surveillance powers.
But of all the fake jobs Stenger arranged, probably the most important is the one he arranged for the husband of Rex Sinquefield’s personal assistant. As Stenger bragged on November 7, 2018:
“I have aligned myself, the very best way you can be aligned with these guys [Better Together], which is like John Doe, which is like, I’ll explain it to both of you [William Miller and Jeff Wagener] in person. John Doe is here for one reason and one reason only. John Doe is an insurance policy. His wife is working for Rex, it’s a good faith effort on my part, I’m saying, hey look at, I’m willing to hire John Doe at 130 Grand. She’s Rex’s assistant. Kind of sends a message to all of them that I trust them. And they’ve done a lot to demonstrate that they trust me and they should. They’ve given me a lot of money, they’re almost up to like 700 Grand.”
Since some of that 700 Grand was reportedly money-laundered through a labor union, this seems very important. Money laundering is evidently illegal.
Also, just how many jobs in St. Louis County are handed out to people as the return of a favor? Just how many contracts? It seems like a rather important question that was hard to answer when St. Louis County employed an auditor who had no auditing experience.
Stenger’s role around here gets more interesting when you look at the charging documents for his co-conspirator John Rallo, a scion of the famous Las Vegas casino parking lot construction family.
Given that we’ve already partially addressed the role of hostile foreign intelligence around Ferguson, any media operations to change the narrative might immediately assume a decidedly counterintelligence flavor, one that would delay both investigation and prosecution for a few years. This is one of the many reasons I wonder if the issues around Ferguson aren’t quite resolved.
Why did Rallo hang out in Mormon country after his indictment? No idea. I guess everybody is in Utah these days, for so many interesting reasons.
Otherwise, I found it interesting that U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen couldn’t be involved in the prosecution of Stenger.
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