On Monday the trial of former NASA official Courtney Stadd got underway in Washington. Stadd was charged earlier this year by federal prosecutors of steering nearly $10 million in NASA funds to a consulting client, Mississippi State University, during a brief stint at the agency in 2005 shortly after Mike Griffin became administrator. During the opening arguments, according to the AP report, the defense provided new details to explain what happened, explaining the money came from a $15 million earmark that the Mississippi’s congressional delegation and Griffin’s predecessor, Sean O’Keefe, agreed would go to the state:
Stadd’s lawyer, Dorrance Dickens, said Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran had pressured Griffin during his confirmation to uphold O’Keefe’s commitment, and Griffin told Stadd and other senior NASA officials to “get it done.” Griffin is expected to testify in the case.
Dickens said Stadd was trying to walk the line between carrying out Griffin’s orders and complying with ethics rules when he said the money should go to Mississippi, without ever specifying it should go to Mississippi State University.
[…] The Congressional defense – Space Politics […]
I think one of the problems here is that there are emails in which Stadd asks for a bonus from one of his consulting clients by pointing to the money he helped to steer to Mississippi.
[…] to convict Courtney Stadd on ethics charges stemming from a brief stint he had at NASA in 2005. As noted earlier this week, the defense argued that Stadd was only following orders from NASA administrator Mike Griffin, who […]