From the Associated Press
Never told Ryan how tax dollars were used to bankroll his campaign, aide says

Wednesday, November 9, 2005

By Mike Robinson
The Associated Press
A political insider testified Tuesday that he never told George Ryan how taxpayer dollars were being used to bankroll his race for governor because he was concerned that he might suffer if he went over the head of the campaign manager.

Richard Juliano, who was deputy campaign manager of Ryan's successful 1998 race for governor, said he knew it was wrong to use state money to pay campaign workers but said nothing to Ryan about it. Nor, he testified, did he tell Ryan that the taxpayers were footing the bill for campaign cell phones and a shredder.

In Juliano's third day on the witness stand, Ryan defense attorney Dan Webb led him through a series of questions that seemed designed to divert the blame for campaign abuses away from Ryan and onto Fawell.

"Were you fearful of Scott Fawell?" Ryan defense attorney Dan Webb asked.

Juliano said that he knew Fawell could be tough on staffers under him but believed he could ride out such storms better than most because he had worked under Fawell for a decade.

"Nonetheless, I had seen that side of him before and knew I was subject to that as well," said Juliano whose promising career as the U.S. Transportation Department's liaison to the Bush administration was ruined by the Ryan scandal. Juliano, who resigned a month before his indictment, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and is now testifying for the government in the hopes of avoiding prison.

Webb seemed to be suggesting that Ryan might not have known about the alleged abuses.

Ryan, 71, is charged in a 22-count indictment along with lobbyist friend Larry Warner with racketeering, mail fraud and other offenses.

Juliano testified Monday that at Fawell's urging he devised a "split time" arrangement under which employees of Ryan's secretary of state's office worked for the state part time and the campaign part time and the costs were divided between the state and the campaign.

The idea was to save money for the campaign, he said. But he said that at least five employees of the secretary of state's office were drawing state pay while doing political work.

"Did you know that was wrong?" Webb asked.

"Yes, I knew it was wrong," Juliano said. But he said that he realized that Fawell would not have done anything about it and that he never made an effort to tell Ryan what was happening.

Webb asked whether Juliano would have been in a position to inform Ryan.

"He would not refuse to see me," Juliano said. But he said the more important factor was "whether Mr. Fawell thought it was a good idea."

Fawell is currently serving a 61⁄2-year racketeering sentence stemming from corruption in the secretary of state's office and the campaign. He has agreed to cooperate with the government and was the prosecution's leadoff witness at the Ryan trial.

Over the last two days, a harsh picture of Fawell has been painted for the jury.

Jurors have seen a May 1998 memo from Fawell to campaign supervisors in which he urged them "to instill some discipline and, yes, some fear that you are the boss" into those under them.

"They fear me, which is why they listen," Fawell said in the memo, in which he also advocated firing certain campaign aides in front of their co-workers as "an attention grabber."

"Did you find Fawell at times to be a braggart with a big mouth?" Webb asked Juliano, raising his voice. Juliano stopped short of agreeing but said that Fawell "told the same anecdotes over and over," sometimes for years, and that they sometimes contained inaccuracies.