DeLuca willing to waive privacy rights for some FBI information
Republican Louis DeLuca, in a letter from his attorney Craig Raabe to a Senate panel, said he's willing to allow the release of a nearly three-hour interview with two FBI agents a year ago. In that interview, DeLuca said he spoke about his relationship with Danbury trash hauler James Galante and his motivations for asking Galante to threaten his granddaughter's husband.
DeLuca, 74, who has already pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor threat charge, has said he believed his granddaughter was being abused and could not get help from Waterbury police -- a charge the police chief denies. The threat was never carried out.
But DeLuca won't waive his right to privacy for other investigatory information the federal government might have, including transcripts or tapes of DeLuca's meetings with an undercover FBI agent who offered a $5,000 bribe to DeLuca. The senator did not take the money.
"When the government decides that it should not charge a person with a crime, it should not then turn around and release confidential information that will subject that person to the innuendo and aspersions that necessarily follow from a criminal investigation," Raabe wrote in the two-page letter to the Senate committee.
He said the undercover recordings did not involve "a real relationship" between DeLuca and Galante, who is a target of a federal probe into the mob's influence on the trash industry. Galante is awaiting trial on 93 counts, including racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, fraud and witness tampering.
"Rather, the undercover recordings reflect a fictional relationship and an effort by an undercover agent to entice Sen. DeLuca into criminal conduct, including a bribe that Sen. DeLuca immediately rejected," Raabe wrote.
According to DeLuca's arrest warrant and affidavit, the undercover FBI agent posing as a Galante associate said DeLuca offered to use his political power to help Galante. DeLuca has said he made that comment because he was scared after being offered the bribe.
The six-member Senate panel has until mid-October to decide whether to recommend to the full Senate that DeLuca face expulsion, censure, reprimand or no action. The committee is scheduled to meet again on Oct. 4.
Senators are basing their decision on various documents and news reports. They've also invited DeLuca to appear and answer questions.
Last week, U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor told the panel that DeLuca is entitled to protections under the federal Privacy Act. If the senator consents to the release of the FBI interview, transcripts, recordings and other documents, O'Connor said he would consider providing them to the senators for their review.
DeLuca's partial privacy waiver "strikes a balance between his right to privacy and the committee's role, particularly considering the fact that the committee's review is limited to 'publicly available information,'" said Raabe, referring to the resolution that created the Bipartisan Committee of Review.
Raabe said DeLuca agreed to release the FBI interview, with the condition that the names of other people be omitted from the document.
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