‘Kochtopus’ 60 Plus Association ‘Swift Boats’ Fred DuVal with maliciously false ad

While reading the Arizona Republic online today, I see that The Republic is running an online ad from the “Kochtpous” dark money organization 60 Plus Association that accuses Fred DuVal of helping Puerto Rican terrorists gain clemency from the Clinton administration. The ad is also airing on television.

The Republic should be ashamed for having accepted this patently false ad that is purely character assassination, and it should publicly apologize to Fred DuVal for having done so on its editorial page. Today.

The Arizona Capitol Times likewise should publicly apologize to Fred DuVal for publishing a guest op-ed from 60 Plus Association (which I will not link to here), after the Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) did a thorough fact check which found the ad to be without any substance or merit. Fred DuVal is being “Swift Boated” by dark money supporters of Doug Ducey, and the Arizona media is letting them do it. Anti-DuVal group provides no evidence to back up claims:

An independent expenditure group that supports Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey accused rival Fred DuVal of helping a group of Puerto Rican terrorists get clemency from the Clinton administration, despite a lack of evidence that the Democratic nominee had any role in the controversy.

The 60 Plus Association unveiled a new television ad on Thursday featuring Joe Connor, the son of Frank Connor, who died in a 1975 bombing attack at New York’s Fraunces Tavern by the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), a nationalist group that violently advocates for Puerto Rican independence. At the end of the ad, Connors alleges that DuVal played a role in President Bill Clinton’s decision to commute the prison sentences of 16 members of the group in 1999.

The 16 prisoners were not involved in the Fraunces Tavern bombing or other terrorist acts. But their commutations sparked outrage among bombing survivors, law enforcement organizations and congressional Republicans, who alleged the move was made to help Vice President Al Gore and Hillary Clinton in their 2000 campaigns. Both chambers of Congress voted overwhelmingly to condemn the commutations.

DuVal, who at the time served as deputy director of intergovernmental affairs in the Clinton administration, was also co-chair of the President’s Interagency Working Group on Puerto Rico. The working group was involved in the push for clemency and DuVal’s fellow co-chair, Jeffrey Farrow, played a key role in pushing the president to grant clemency.

But DuVal was never implicated in the clemency scandal. A 695-page report issued in 1999 by the House Committee on Government Reform, which investigated the incident, mentions DuVal’s name only three times.

He is referenced twice as being one of four recipients of an email in which Farrow urges a meeting with three congressmen who were advocating for clemency. The report lists Farrow and two others, but not DuVal, as attendees of the meeting.

DuVal’s name also came up in an email that Farrow sent to Clinton’s associate counsel regarding an upcoming plan by clemency advocates to deliver a petition to the White House on March 26, 1998. Farrow noted that he and DuVal would be in Puerto Rico on that date, but said he believed it would help with the clemency issue if the petitioners were received.

The report also states that the working group first became involved in the FALN clemency issue in 1994, before DuVal was a member.

DuVal told the Arizona Capitol Times that he never attended any meetings in which clemency for FALN members was discussed and that he played no role in any discussions on the issue.

“It’s nonsense,” DuVal said of the allegations. “I was not a party to it.”

Several members of the Clinton administration, including Farrow, refused to testify before the House committee, invoking executive privilege. DuVal said he was never called to testify.

DuVal’s campaign spokesman, Geoff Vetter, said his role with the group involved only economic development and growth, and that he visited Puerto Rico to work with the territory’s government on federal grants for mass transit and import/export issues.

“Commutations are under the purview of the White House Office of General Counsel, and Fred was never involved in any meeting where commutations were discussed,” Vetter told the Capitol Times in September.

* * *

Gerry Scimeca, the spokesman for 60 Plus Association, did not provide any evidence linking DuVal to meetings with clemency advocates or any role in lobbying for the commutations. Instead, Scimeca insisted that DuVal must have known what was going on and questioned why DuVal didn’t make an effort to stop the clemency push.

* * *

Scimeca also said that DuVal, as co-chair of the working group, should be held personally accountable for its actions.

“This standard applies to anyone in any profession,” he said.

Scimeca is alleging unlawful conduct. In our system of justice, culpability for an unlawful act must be demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence. This matter was thoroughly investigated, and there was NO evidence that Fred DuVal played any role. 60 Plus is engaged in character assassination by smearing Fred DuVal through guilt by association that borders on Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

The 60 Plus Association is not the first GOP group to allege that DuVal was involved in the FALN commutations. In September, the Arizona Republican Party and Republican Governors Association alleged that DuVal played a role in the controversy.

But neither group could provide any evidence of a role by DuVal. Arizona Republican Party spokesman Tim Sifert insinuated guilt by association and insisted that, as co-chair of the working group, DuVal must had input on the clemency issue. But Sifert acknowledged that he didn’t know exactly what, if any, role DuVal played.

“Who could know that, other than him?” Sifert told the Arizona Capitol Times in September.

Guilt by fantastical speculation from a GOP flack? Fuck you, Sifert! You’re an idiot.