Boston, MA: City Hall Aides Sought 'Payback' For Unions Loyal To Walsh, Prosecutors Say

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City Hall Aides Sought 'Payback' For Unions Loyal To Walsh, Prosecutors Say
By Isaiah Thompson
July 23, 2019

In 2014, Kenneth Brissette and Timothy Sullivan were beginning new chapters of their careers as fresh hires by the city’s new mayor, Marty Walsh.

Brissette, who had worked for the state film office, was the city’s new head of Tourism, Sports and Entertainment. Sullivan, a former leader of the Massachusetts AFL-CEO, was appointed the director of “intragovernmental affairs,” a title which apparently included acting as a liaison between the city and unions.

More or less immediately, according to federal prosecutors, both men entered in a conspiracy to extort Crash Line Productions -- the company behind the Boston Calling music festival, then gearing up for its second year on Boston City Hall Plaza -- into hiring union labor.

The men weren’t after money or other direct personal benefit -- instead, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Kaplan told a federal jury Tuesday, the men were seeking “payback [for] a union that was a political supporter and ally of their boss, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh.”  ...

More at WGHB

This is not looking good for Marty.

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... Assistant U.S. Attorney argued organizers never had to hire union labor for the festival until Walsh was elected and that obtaining permits became more difficult. The prosecutors allege the promoter was forced to hire union workers as payback to a union and political supporter of Mayor Walsh.  ... NBC Boston

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... Legal experts say Walsh will need to tread carefully if called to the stand.

“They (prosecutors) assume he’s a pro-union guy,” criminal defense and civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silvergate said. “Maybe they figure they can kind of bait him into saying something that makes it look like there really was an extortion here, there really was official pressure and threats exerted.”

Walsh won’t necessarily be ready to go to bat for the two officials still working at City Hall, others said.

“He’s going to want to come across as even-handed and fair,” Boston criminal defense lawyer David Yannetti said. “In light of his politics, he’s likely to be sympathetic to the union side of this. I’m sure he’s going to be very careful not to appear biased in that way.”  ...  Boston Herald

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Unions have paid Marty handsomely, as feds allege ‘payback’ in City Hall extortion trial
By Joe Battenfeld | joe.battenfeld@bostonherald.com | Boston Herald
PUBLISHED: July 23, 2019 at 7:52 pm | UPDATED: July 23, 2019 at 7:52 pm

Mayor Martin Walsh — now spotlighted by feds at the center of a City Hall extortion trial — has been good to the unions and they’ve paid him back, showering him with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions throughout his political career.

Prosecutors in the extortion trial of two top Walsh aides have sought to portray the mayor as beholden to unions, saying that’s the reason the aides muscled the Boston Calling music festival into hiring union stage hands.

And there’s no question the mayor has been on the receiving end of union largess — both personally and politically.

Walsh, both as a state rep. and mayor, has raked in more than $300,000 from union political action committees, and much of that came during Walsh’s 2013 run for the top City Hall job.  ...  More