LegiStorm

Soon after billionaire Allen Stanford was charged by the SEC with fraud yesterday, several news outlets used LegiStorm's data to see if any lawmakers were tied to the latest scandal.

The clearest piece of evidence uncovered was a 2004 trip to Antigua and sponsored by Stanford Financial Group Co. for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Cornyn took the four-day trip in Nov. 2004 and filed the necessary trip form, listing costs for himself and a companion (not disclosed but reported to be his wife) valued at $7,441.

The purpose of the trip was listed by Cornyn as "Financial services industry fact-finding mission hosted by constituent company with substantial operations on site" - Stanford Financial Group had a bank arm headquartered in Antigua and also had offices in Houston.

A spokesman for Cornyn told the Austin American-Stateman, "No one is above the law and prosecutors should follow the facts, wherever they may lead."

Over the past few days LegiStorm underwent a server upgrade that caused a few technical issues. While the majority of our users should not have been affected, we know a handful of you ran into site errors.

We apologize for any inconvenience as we sorted out our technical problems. We believe the glitches have been fixed and we expect our new infrastructure will improve the experience for our users as we move forward.

As always, we invite you to contact us if you have any problems or any suggestions.

The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal won't die.

Yesterday, it was reported that Kevin Koonce, a former staffer to Commerce Secretary nominee Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), is the person referred to in court documents as "Staffer F." The documents detail charges relating to a lobbyist providing Staffer F gifts in exchange for preferable legislative treatment. Koonce has not been formally charged with any wrongdoing.

The report follows two other news items relating to Abramoff in recent days. Last week, lobbyist Todd Boulanger, a former congressional aide and Abramoff associate, pled guilty to illegally providing congressional staffers gifts in return for favorable treatment for his clients.

And earlier this week came reports that Fraser Verrusio, a former aide who worked for Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is also implicated in the scandal. Verrusio was identified as the staffer referred to in court papers as "Staffer D," who accepted an expenses-paid trip to a 2003 World Series game in New York from Boulanger and James Hirni, another Abramoff associate who pled guilty late last year.

That trip also led to the downfall of former staffer Trevor Blackann, who also pled guilty last year to charges related to the trip and other gifts he received but failed to disclose.

You can see LegiStorm's other blog posts about recent news relating to Abramoff here.

UPDATE (12/9/2009):

The Washington Post reports that Koonce was cleared and the Justice Deparmtent has decided not to pursue any charges against him.

When we first launched LegiStorm in September 2006, we presented users with less than one year of complete congressional staff salary data. Since that time, we have steadily added more recent data but also historical salary data, not to mention other data offerings.

Now we have reached a new milestone. We have entered all historical salary data from House and Senate expenditure books that the Government Printing Office still makes available. As of now, our salary data is complete from October 2000 forward, or eight full years worth.

Today's release includes an additional year of salaries from October 1, 2000 to September 30, 2001 in the Senate, as well as three quarters of House data from October 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001.

Our next salary data launch is slated for roughly two months from now, after fourth quarter 2008 House salary data is released. Since the Senate releases data in six-month increments, there will be no comparable release of new Senate data for another quarter after that. At this time, we do not anticipate adding any more historical data but we certainly will consider it if the data becomes more easily accessible.

We have reviewed all the personal financial disclosures filed with the House and the Senate and made sure our 2008 holdings are complete. We've gathered all available disclosures for the staffers in our database and made them available online. A handful of other 2008 disclosures may come in from late filers and we will periodically check to make sure we have them all.

Not all staffers are required to file disclosures. Only the top-earning staffers or those holding the most important positions in each office are required to file. For more information on financial disclosures, see our About Financial Disclosures page.

LegiStorm is the only site on the web making congressional staffer disclosures available. We are committed to increasing legislative transparency, and feel it is important the financial dealings of the top staffers - who are often instrumental in writing and passing legislation - are open and freely available.