NASA

Stadd found guilty

It took a federal jury less than two hours Thursday 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 had been pressed by Sen. Thad Cochran’s office to spend a $15-million earmark for earth sciences research. From the AP article:

Griffin, now a professor at the University of Alabama, testified that he considered Cochran the most important senator because he was then head of the appropriations committee. He said when he went to Cochran’s office ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing, the chief of staff “let me know in no uncertain terms that the senator was unhappy that his earmark wasn’t being honored.”

Griffin said he promised to get it taken care of and asked NASA staff to do so, although he didn’t remember whether he ever spoke specifically to Stadd about it. He said he considered the earmark, equal to less than a tenth of 1 percent of his budget, an annoyance in the way of more important issues like returning the space shuttle to flight and implementing Bush’s space agenda.

That argument didn’t hold sway with the jury, though, particularly in light of emails presented by the prosecution where Stadd tried to get a client, Mississippi State University, to increase his fee because of the direction of funds to the university.

6 comments to Stadd found guilty

  • Major Tom

    Although ignorance of the law is not a defense, even when directed by a superior and a U.S. Senator’s office to do something unlawful, there would seem to be a lot of mitigating factors in this case that should weigh in Mr. Stadd’s favor during sentencing and appeals. The only thing he really seems guilty of is using the situation as an argument after the fact to increase his compensation with Mississippi State U.

    Per Griffin and Cleave’s testimony, the root of this problem lies with Senator Cochrane and/or his office. It appears that the earmark language called for a competition. If so, Cochrane’s chief of staff should not have told Griffin to steer the earmark money to Mississippi State U, contrary to the language passed by the Congress or the Senate Appropriations Committee. Logically, Cochrane and/or his chief of staff should also be facing DoJ charges (if the earmark was in legislative language) or a Congressional ethics review (if the earmark was in report language). Just like the rest of us, Congressmen and their staff should be persecuted when they don’t respect the language of the laws that they pass.

    FWIW…

  • As a commenter wrote at my blog:

    It just doesn’t seem like Courtney. If only he had been a Member of Congress, he could have steered billions of dollars to anyone he wanted with impunity…

    Two legs good, four legs bad…

    I also have a feeling that if he had been a Democrat, this Justice Department might have been less interested…

  • common sense

    “Just like the rest of us, Congressmen and their staff should be persecuted when they don’t respect the language of the laws that they pass. ”

    I am sure you meant prosecuted ;) ah!

  • Doug Lassiter

    “I also have a feeling that if he had been a Democrat, this Justice Department might have been less interested…”

    Yes, another justice department may well have been happy to look the other way when it appeared that a law was being broken. But I’m pretty sure it was another DOJ that started the investigation in the first place.

    Stadd is a sharp guy, and has been effective in the managerial overhaul of the agency (e.g. F2M). Let’s hope that his appeal is successful and, if not, his sentence is light.

  • I’m pretty sure it was another DOJ that started the investigation in the first place.

    Yes, no doubt. These things don’t happen overnight.

  • Kris Ringwood

    Sad. Once more the small fry are nailed while the big boys slip away scot-free. If the NASA Top Brass- Griffin especially – were investigated,as Stadd has obviously been, as to their close financial tie-in with ATK, the originator of the basic ARES 1& 5 concept, and how they made sure nobody else were able to compete on fair terms, NASA would at this moment be imploding.

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