Hud Secretary Resigns Under Cloud of Suspicion. Yep, he's off to take care of his family.

Bush's Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson has resign stating:

"There are times when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters. Now is such a time for me."

It sounds like he wishes this were just about a visit to a call girl.

But excerpts from Washington Post report "HUD Secretary Jackson Announces Resignation " say:

He made no mention of the controversies that have cast a pall over his agency at a time of crisis in the nation's housing industry.

...

Earlier this month, Dodd, Murray and other senators questioned Jackson closely about a federal lawsuit that accused him of using his public office to punish the Philadelphia Housing Authority after it refused to transfer a valuable property to one of the secretary's business friends. Jackson refused in two Senate hearings to discuss his role in the matter.

The lawsuit alleges that Jackson, in a call to Philadelphia's mayor in late 2006, demanded that the authority turn over the $2 million property to developer Kenny Gamble. Jackson's top assistant secretaries insisted in numerous letters and calls in 2007 that, if Philadelphia didn't give the property to Gamble, the housing authority would be found in violation of a federal contract. The housing authority's director, Carl R. Greene, repeatedly refused.

In December 2007, the Department of Housing and Urban Development found the city agency in violation of a much larger agreement that would cost it $50 million in federal funds. That prompted the authority to sue HUD and Jackson.

...

Jackson is also the target of investigations by a federal grand jury, the FBI and the Justice Department. Those investigations began after a speech in Dallas in April 2006, in which Jackson said he had arranged the firing of a contractor who told him, "I don't like President Bush."

Also under investigation is:

whether Jackson intervened in the business of the New Orleans and Virgin Islands housing authorities to steer work to friends. One source briefed on the probe said the investigators have been working to get a key former HUD employee to cooperate in providing  information about Jackson's role.

The Post also notes that Jackson had worked with public housing authorities, in Dallas, St. Louis, and "the District" (DC I suppose), and a Texas power agency before being offered the Deputy Secretary position at HUD at the start of Bush's first term. 

More interesting facts at source.

tags: alphonso jackson  bush administration  hud  political corruption  

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