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FBI Investigated Scandal-Plagued Virginia Dem For Taking Bribes To Push For Pardons
The FBI believed a Virginia state senator accepted money in exchange for using his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to seek pardons for criminals, newly unsealed documents obtained by The Daily Wire said.
Joe Morrissey is a disbarred attorney who once successfully ran for office from a jail cell, where he was serving time for having sex with an underage girl who worked as his secretary. He was pardoned by Gov. Ralph Northam (D) just before Northam left office in 2022.
The FBI search warrant, which was unsealed last month after two years had passed, alleged that Morrissey was charging money from criminals to seek pardons from Northam as well.
“Senator Morrissey offers services to inmates and defendants through his business, Premier Jury Consulting Services, LLC,” the June 2023 search warrant says. “Senator Morrissey has pamphlets for Premier Jury Consulting Services, LLC at numerous jail facilities throughout the greater Richmond area. The pamphlet has a photograph of Senator Morrissey with the caption ‘Senator Joe Morrissey.'”
The consulting business listed the same address as his Senate office, and advertised to potential customers that “Joe Morrissey is currently a Virginia State Senator having served in the Virginia General Assembly since 2008 when he was first elected to the House of Delegates. Senator Morrissey currently serves on the prestigious Senate Judiciary Committee.”
The pamphlet contained a list of “success stories/testimonials” from people who were “pardoned, paroled, or released early from incarceration.”
In February 2023, the Virginia State Police told the FBI it had evidence that Morrissey “accepted a $15,000 payment from the father of a Virginia inmate in exchange for getting the Virginia Governor to pardon the inmate.”
The father told the police that he knew Morrissey as an elected official, and that Morrissey told him he would get a pardon for his son from Gov. Northam in exchange for $30,000.
“Witness 1 said he was unable to pay that amount and Senator Morrissey agreed to get the Governor to pardon Inmate 1 in exchange for $15,000,” the FBI affidavit said.
The father met with Morrissey and an attorney in Morrissey’s office, and the attorney told him the son had no chance of being pardoned because he had stabbed a law enforcement officer. “Senator Morrissey met with Witness 1 privately in his office without Attorney 1. Senator Morrissey reassured Witness 1 he could get the pardon for his son and that they would listen to him because he was a State Senator,” it continued.
In October 2020, the father wrote a $15,000 check to Premier Jury Consultants, in addition to $1,500 he had already paid, receiving a receipt for, “Payment of: Jury Consulting/Legal Research.”
Morrissey’s senate aides then handled further correspondence with the father, according to emails reviewed by the FBI. The aides used a Gmail account senatorjoemorrissey@gmail.com, but signed the emails using their names and signature blocks with their titles, such as, “Legislative Assistant, Office of Senator Joseph D. Morrissey.”
On March 1, 2021, Morrissey wrote to the father, “The good news is that the [General Assembly] Session is officially over today.”
The next day, he sent a copy of a Petition for Conditional Pardon that he said he had “hand delivered to Clark Mercer, Chief of Staff to Governor Northam. Further, I spoke with Mr. Mercer today and I am going to personally sit down with him and go over your case with him.”
Later that month, Morrissey sent a letter on his Senate stationary to Mercer and Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Thomasson that said it was a “follow up to my recent visit to your office wherein I provided you with a Petition for Conditional Pardon.”
On May 3, 2021, he sent a letter on Senate stationary to the inmate, letting him know that on April 28, “I met with Clark Mercer, Governor Ralph Northam’s Chief of Staff regarding 12 inmates whom I whole-heartedly support the release of and you were on [sic] of them.”
The father asked how to make arrangements for the inmate to come home. In April 2022, the father noted it had been a year since the meeting, and a legislative assistant replied saying “I spoke to [the inmate] today.”
Virginia State Sen. Joe Morrissey (D), left, poses for a photo with a supporter on May 11, 2023.(Photo by Gregory S. Schneider/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The FBI asked the court for permission to obtain data in the Gmail account from Google, saying “It appears Senator Morrissey engaged in bribery when he corruptly solicited $30,000 from Witness 1… Official Senate correspondence refers to official acts Senator Morrisey took regarding the pardon.”
The search warrant was granted, but Morrissey was never charged. The allegations have not previously been reported. Morrissey did not return a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
The affidavit does not say that Northam agreed to grant any pardons sought by Morrissey. Northam pardoned more than 1,200 people–including, in January 2022, Morrissey himself on his conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Prosecutors had accused Morrissey of having sex with a 17-year old receptionist at his law firm in 2013 and of possessing child pornography — a photo of the girl he shared with a friend. Morrissey denied the relationship, but when she turned 18, the girl was pregnant, and Morrisey married her.
Morrissey took a plea deal that downgraded the charges to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to six months in jail. The judge allowed him out during the day to run for office for the House of Delegates while returning to his jail cell at night, and in January 2015, he was in jail when he learned that he had won re-election.
He was nonetheless disbarred as a lawyer for a “fraud perpetrated on the court” by claiming the photo had been placed on his phone by a hacker.
Morrissey later received a promotion to the state Senate, where he occupied an influential role due to his Joe Manchin-like role as a centrist Democrat in a narrowly-divided chamber.
In the end, it was that centrism–not his sexual abuse of a minor–that crossed the line for Democrats. He was defeated in the June 2023 primary by a black female who criticized Morrissey’s opposition to abortion.
Around that time, his wife filed for divorce, saying he had sex with her while she was a minor and cheated on her repeatedly.
In the early 1990s, Morrissey served as Richmond’s prosecutor, during which time he spent five days in jail for punching a defense attorney. He was indicted on bribery charges in 1993, but acquitted.
Virginia’s burgeoning reputation for rough-and-tumble politics has been on display as Democrats proposed amending the state’s constitution to gerrymander the state to include 10 Democrat and one Republican districts. They plan to put it on the ballot with biased language that asks: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections?”
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