A sacked US Attorney, a dead Assistant US Attorney, the DC Madam ... and some complicated questions

Shortly before midnight, December 3rd 2003, young Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Luna , vanishes from his desk in the federal courthouse in downtown Baltimore.

Without explanation he mysteriously drives away from his office in the courthouse, away from his life, embarking on a wildly improbable midnight ride.

In his office he leaves behind oddly important, personal items. His laptop. His cell phone. His eyeglasses.

And a bad plea agreement he was unable or unwilling to complete.

The next morning, shortly before dawn, Luna’s body is found face down in a cold stream outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He’s been stabbed thirty-six times, once for every thousand dollars missing from a courthouse safe.

His car idles beside him at the side of the murmuring creek. He’s seventy miles from his office, at the far end of a midnight ride that carried him across four states.

In The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna, writer William Keisling reconstructs the last hours in the life of an American public servant.

Wayne Madsen reports that the DOJ gave US Attorney Thomas DiBiagi the DC Madam Palfrey case who succeeded in getting a crooked cop Ed Norris (a pal of NYC Police Commisioner Bernard Kerik and now a talk show host) to squeal on the escort service in May 2004 It seems they admitted Madam Palfrey's escort service had received illicit payouts from official (charity) police funds.

Norris and Kerik also figured in the work of one of DiBagio's assistants on the DC Madam case who had foundRepublican Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich and lobbyist Jack Abramoff were DC Madam clients. (Ehrlich will be remebered no only for re-introducing the death sentence in Maryland (he refused clemency for the two who died during his term) but also for being the only sitting Governor in the 2006 elections to lose office ,whilst sitting )

Then, DiBiagio became the first U.S. Attorney fired by the Justice Department after Bush's re-election in 2004 - but that was after the Maryland Governor's Chief of Staff called up DiBagio and essentially threatened him. DiBagio indicated that he viewed the contact as a personal threat to him and immediately reported it to the DOJ. You know the rest. The threat was ignored and DiBagio was forced out, the investigation was kiilled.

Vastly underreported, DiBagio's probe had linked Republican governor Ehrlich to Bob Ney, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham and others but the investigation died when he was fired. On November 28th 2005 "Randy" Cunningham pleaded guilty to tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud - he gets out of prison on June 4th 2013.

..and who was the Attorney who was working with DiBagio that discovered the nocturnal comings and goings of Republican Governor Ehrlich and the now imprisoned Duke Cunningham, and their pals Jack Abramoff et al......

The now very dead Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Luna

More, lots more here >>>>>

The pic shows Baltimore NAACP president Marvin Cheatam, and two others -- York, PA city councilwoman Toni Smith and Baltimore's Darren Muhammad -- speak on the third anniversary of Jonathan Luna's disappearance from the federal courthouse in Baltimore. They speak outside the same courthouse where Luna vanished, in front of a statue of U.S Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. December 4, 2006.

Baltimore NAACP Marvin Cheatam told those gathered, "We would say justice delayed is justice denied. And it is quite clear that there are enough questions about Mr. Luna's death that this issue must be brought back up again. A full investigation must take place. Another autopsy must take place because not only were there multiple stabbings but stabbings in the back."