The Caso Sentencing

Russ Caso, former chief of staff to former congressman Curt Weldon gets sentenced today in Washington.

He's getting probation, allegedly for providing such great cooperation to U.S. prosecutors.

Caso was charged with failing to report a total of $19,000 that his wife was paid by a non-profit. The government claims Mrs. Caso did little work for the money. Caso failed to report the income on his government ethics disclosure form. Pretty small beer when it comes to federal corruption cases.

Weldon associate, Ceci Grimes, was also ensnared in the probe when she foolishly ditched several items the feds demanded she turn over to them. She too got probation.

But Caso's sentencing suggests that the main target of the Weldon investigation, - an investigation that led them to execute FBI raids on homes and offices THREE WEEKS before Election Day, 2006. Weldon has never been charged with any criminal wrong doing.

It has been at least four years since the feds opened their investigation into Weldon and what do they have to show for it? Two guilty pleas to crimes unrelated to the probe. Pleas that have resulted in sentences of probation.

Federal prosecutors refuse to say what others in the legal world reasonably suspect - that they have no case against Weldon, otherwise they wouldn't be sentencing Caso.
The idea for prosecutors in such cases is that you squeeze the little fish to get the bigger one. That prosecutors are saying the Caso cooperated in extraordinary fashion and yet, they have not charged Weldon, the likelihood of Weldon ever being charged gets slimmer and slimmer.

Typically, cooperating witnesses are not sentenced until they have testified in open court against bigger (more powerful and high profile) defendants. That hasn't happened here.

Unless prosecutors have a really big surprise for everybody, the Weldon probe, the one that helped end his 20-year career in Congress, is wrapping up with a wimper.