Fallout from the New Hampshire phone jamming continues, as feds are pressing their case against Shaun Hansen, who was just a simple conservative Idahoan running a telemarketing firm before he got caught up with the wrong crowd. Or so he’ll argue when he goes on trial October 3rd for his role in the New Hampshire phone jamming.
Hansen’s role was akin to that of the hired hit man – it was his machines that actually did the jamming. But he clearly thinks that he’s getting screwed for being a loyal soldier, so he’ll point fingers up the chain of command when the time comes to defend himself.
According to a list of possible defenses that he’ll use at trial, Hansen might finger Allen Raymond, the national GOP consultant who apparently assured Hansen that everything was above board (Raymond’s already served his time for his role). But he might point higher.
According to the “public authority” defense, Hansen would argue that “his actions in this case were taken under color of public authority.” And by that, he means that Raymond was a bigtime GOP player, and the GOP was the party with control of the White House and Congress in 2002. So Hansen “reasonably assumed … that the activities that his business was being asked to perform had been approved in advance by the national Republican party.”
Not exactly the gloss Republicans have been trying to put on this story.
And since Republicans were the party in power, Hansen’s lawyer thinks it’s relevant that “a convicted co-conspirator, James Tobin, is alleged to have had telephone contact with the White House during the time period that the phone jamming scheme was unfolding.”
This should make for an interesting trial.
(Via Senate Majority Project)
