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Friday, May 11, 2007

Rudy Giuliani: Making the world safe for Oxycontin marketing
Posted by Jill | 6:09 AM
Funny how the New York Times has buried Rudy "Law 'n' order" Giuliani's connection to Purdue Pharmaceutical deep in its article about the company's executives' guilty plea to marketing Oxycontin withoug mentioning how addictive it is, repeating the assurance of Bracewell and Giuliani's spokeswoman that "Mr. Giuliani had not been involved in representing the company for several months."

And how long has this case been brewing?

ABC News finds that Giuliani was, in fact, connected with the case:

Drug Enforcement Administration officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com Giuliani personally met with the head of the DEA when the DEA's drug diversion office began a criminal investigation into the company.

According to the book "Painkiller," by New York Times reporter Barry Meier, both Giuliani and his then-partner Bernard Kerik "were in direct contact with Asa Hutchinson, the administrator of DEA."

Hutchinson told the Blotter on ABCNews.com today that Giuliani asked for a meeting, "and we gave him a meeting." Hutchinson says he was aware the company was under investigation at the time, and "any time a company is under investigation I like to give them a chance to make their case."

Kerik told New York Magazine at the time that Giuliani had raised $15,000 in donations for a "traveling museum operated by the DEA."

Some officials told ABC News there were questions inside the agency of whether the donations were an attempt to influence the DEA.

Meier wrote that "with Giuliani now in the mix, the pace of DEA's investigation into Purdue's OxyContin plant in New Jersey slowed as Hutchinson repeatedly summoned division officials to his office to explain themselves and their reasons for continuing the inquiry."

Giuliani publicly praised the company, Purdue Pharma, when it hired him in May 2002 for an undisclosed amount. "Purdue has demonstrated its commitment to fighting this problem," he said, referring to the issue of drug addiction.

According to Giuliani Partners, Kerik, a New York City police commissioner under Giuliani, was in charge of helping Purdue improve security at the New Jersey plant.

Kerik left Giuliani Partners after disclosures he was under criminal investigation.

In hiring Giuliani, Purdue said, "Giuliani Partners is uniquely qualified" to address the issue of preventing drug abuse.

The Web site for Giuliani Partners lists Purdue Pharma as one of its current clients.


Funny how Bernie Kerik always shows up in Giuliani's shadier dealings isn't it? Good old Bernie Kerik, the guy Giuliani vouched was so flawless that he didn't need vetting to become the head of the new Homeland Security agency?

Imagine, if you will, a presidential race between Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards. You know as well as I do that Giuliani would hammer Edwards over the head for being a "trial lawyer", and the spin machine at Fox and Elsewhere would thump the meme till it screams for mercy. But that's the Republican way, isn't it? Attack a trial lawyer for trying to get justice for a child whose intestines were sucked into a faulty pool pump when its own standard-bearer lobbied the FDA to go easy on the makers of Rush Limbaugh's narcotic of choice.

The pattern of Rudy Giuliani's corruption becomes clearer every day. From "gifts" of 200,000 worth of World Series rings in return for a subsidy for a new stadium for the Yankees to bribing the DEA, Mr. Tough Prosecutor's chumminess with Bernie Kerik is obviously for reasons far beyond a shared interest in canasta.

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