New Documents were uncovered by the US House of Representatives Ethics committee on January 24th including emails and other legal documents that seem to support suspicions that Congresswoman Marie Newman (D-IL) signed a contract that promised a six-figure salary to a Palestinian-American professor at Columbia College Chicago and failed congressional candidate, Iymen Chehade, who made national news by screening the anti-Israel propaganda film “5 Broken Cameras” to his students in 2013. In other words: that’s Bribery. This scandal led to his class being canceled due to the biased presentation. At the time Professor Chehade said “Israel is committing crimes against the Palestinian people. And the college is taking the position of supporting a settler-colonialist state that has waged a war against a people for decades.” From all appearances, it seems that Newman bought off Chehade to get him out of the race.
According to the Committee Complaint,
“Rep. Newman, during a successful campaign for election to the U.S. House of Representatives, may have promised federal employment to a primary opponent for the purpose of procuring political support. If Rep. Newman used her candidacy to promise federal employment, she may have violated federal law, House rules, or standards of conduct.”
It’s Called Bribery… It’s Kind Of A Thing In Illinois
In the explosive document released by the committee: an employment contract signed with Chehade, Newman stipulated that upon her successful election, beginning with her first term in office, she would hire Chehade as her “Chief Foreign Policy Advisor” and either a District Director or Legislative Director as long as she remained in office. The jobs would pay Iymen handsomely for stepping aside to the tune of $135,000 and $140,000 per year. However, Newman welched on the deal, leading him to file a lawsuit shortly after which was quietly settled out of court for an undisclosed amount according to Rollcall.
Here’s the buyoff in black and white.
It would seem though that House General Counsel Douglas Letter took a novel approach in her defense against the suit which she may echo in her Ethics committee proceedings as Rollcall reported, arguing that the agreement between Newman and Chehade was signed by the Congresswoman as a private citizen and not in an official capacity, as she was not yet in Congress… (which is kind of ridiculous)
“Although the agreement was signed by Congresswoman Newman in her personal capacity (because she had no official capacity in which to act before her election), it purports to bind her in her official capacity to hire Mr. Chehade in her Congressional office,” Letter said in the filing.
The Office of Congressional Ethics’ findings, however, speak for themselves. “In a motion to dismiss Mr. Chehade’s case, Rep. Newman, through her legal counsel, the General Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives, acknowledged that her contract was violative of House employment and federal contracting rules,” the findings said. Newman claimed that she was hiring Chehade due to her lack of understanding regarding the Palestine-Israel issues in foreign policy. In my 2018 race, one of the failures that I had personally that I’m accountable for is that I did not understand the Palestine-Israel issue very well,” Newman said.
But the OCE doesn’t seem very convinced. Rather they see Newman’s true motive pretty clearly.
“The OCE found that Mr. Chehade’s policy expertise was not the only reason she contracted to employ him in the future. Instead, Rep. Newman likely was motivated to enter the agreement to avoid competing against Mr. Chehade in the next Democratic primary,” the report said.
Surely enough… since the deal didn’t go through with his benefactor, Chehade is getting his name back on the ballot in Illinois and unironically retweeting confirmed anti-semitic leftist Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and known socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and seeking to attach himself to the coattails of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. With Newman floundering under the weight of her obvious and odious corruption, another radical Palestinian leftist might actually have a shot at Congress. Talk about a no-win scenario.
#Studentloandebt is holding back our #economy and leaving millions of families in crushing debt. I agree with @AOC, who said, "We have a moral obligation, an economic obligation, a political obligation to cancel student debt." #cancelstudentdebt #iymen4congress #iminwithiymen pic.twitter.com/bZGkJAwIbs
— Iymen Chehade (@iymen4congress) January 21, 2022
