D/C Joseph Sullivan Testifies at DA’s Trial

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.  True to our predictions, Sullivan put on a Comey-esque (Former FBI Director James Comey) show.  Deputy Commissioner Joseph Sullivan testified today in the trial of District Attorney Seth Williams who is on trial for on a litany of charges in federal court today.  He asserted “It didn’t feel right.”, however, this was a full almost two years after, it became common knowledge that Seth was going to be indicted.  This was even after the Feds at the airport, warned him about helping Ali.

Sullivan was too pre-occupied with his own aspirations so he in turn, warned Seth.  Once again, failing the law enforcement community.  Sullivan should have kept that information to himself, and put Country before Career and told Seth, he was uncomfortable with his request. But that isn’t what he did.

Sullivan, who has admitted on the stand, that he attempted to assist Mohammed Ali, the foreign born citizen who lavished Williams with many gifts and trips, by sending cops to the screening area in an effort to circumvent Ali being held up in Customs.  According to the Philadelphia Daily News, “It didn’t feel right,” Sullivan said.”  But what the DN failed to report was by the time Sullivan was meeting Ali and the DA in the Union League of Philadelphia, it was a well known fact that both Ali and Williams was under investigation.  Therefore; he could sound like he did the right thing when he tells the jury he “went straight to the FBI”.

However; he failed to go to the FBI when Williams originally asked him to intervene, in fact, he sent a Police escort.  The DN also wrote that Sullivan testified “When a request comes from the district attorney, I feel comfortable that there is validity to it,” Sullivan testified. “He is the highest law enforcement official in the city of Philadelphia. If he makes a request, it goes to the top of the list.”  Herein lies the problem.  If anyone asks someone in the position of Sullivan to assist a foreign born citizen, with help to bypass the screening process, while re-entering the US, while returning from a Middle-Eastern country, red flags, bells and whistles should have been going on in Sullivan’s head. Sullivan bragged that his job is to “think like a terrorist”, well that day, he thought like an opportunist.

Even after the United States Customs and Border Protection warned him there was “an issue” with Ali, Sullivan complained the officials did not go into detail.  So what did the then-Homeland Security trained Sullivan do, he tried to score points with Seth again, by warning him.

It was only well after a year later, when Seth invited Sullivan to the Union League of Philadelphia to meet with Mohammed Ali at a business lunch, which by then, it was well known that Seth was going to probably be indicted, did Sullivan feel “uncomfortable” and it was after this meeting that Sullivan “went directly to the FBI.”

Sullivan, still talking to potential employers, testified that ““I was a little angry at him,” referring to Seth Williams.  Sullivan then retorted “My reputation is intact. My character is intact. … It’s important that I not be in the company of people who would call my character into question.”  Too late.

You failed the ethics test when you failed to go to the FBI upon receiving the request to help bypass the screening the process, warned Seth about the warning the US CBP gave you, and when you involved innocent cops to meet Ali.  Your character is questionable and your reputation isn’t intact.

There has to be an investigation into Sullivan’s conduct.  Sullivan was spinning his opportunistic motives on that stand.  There has to be an Internal Affairs investigation and maybe even a grand jury investigation after hearing his testimony today.

The fact that a Deputy Commissioner was faced with an ethical dilemma, a few years ago, and failed to take any action, and actually assisted in the illicit request, is problematic.  Sullivan boasts that he has alot of training from the FBI Academy, to his Homeland Security post, yet he failed to immediately report Seth’s request.  In fact, he honored it.  Even when he was warned about Ali being watched, he warned Seth, but not the FBI.

Sullivan, who just can’t help himself as he’s never met a camera that he didn’t love, had to chutzpah to tell the media, as he was leaving the courtroom, “”And thanks to the relationship I have with the other federal agencies, the right information eventually came to light.”  The information only came to light because Seth was arrested.  If Seth was never arrested and the rumors hadn’t been floating around since 2012, Sullivan would have never went to “other federal agencies”.

Sullivan completely failed in his duty to report Seth when the request was initially made.

Sullivan cant be allowed to try to come away from this sh** storm smelling like roses.  He reeks of sh**.   He has the stink of it all over him.   Just like the other parties in this criminal enterprise.

 

Monkey Business-D/C Joseph Sullivan

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil, is what newly appointed Deputy Commissioner Joseph Sullivan did when asked to violate the rules, while he was assigned to Homeland Security.  What genius decided it was a good idea to get Sullivan appointed to the rank of Deputy Commissioner after being fully aware of his involvement in the Seth Williams criminal mess.

At the press conference announcing the indictment of Williams, acting New Jersey US Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick announced that Seth “pressured” a police official to help bypass the screening process. 

Sullivan is expected to testify at the on-going trial of the District Attorney of Philadelphia, Seth Williams on Monday.  This is a guy, who said “my job is to think like a terrorist.”  This is the guy who was hailed by the Philadelphia Daily News who “keeps our city safe.”  Newsflash:  He failed!!!

Sullivan is expected to give a Comey-esque testimony, that he felt uncomfortable with the favors Williams asked him to do for a a Jordanian born millionaire (who is also testifying against Seth) by the name of Mohammed Ali.

The difference between former FBI Director James Comey and Sullivan is that Comey, who admitted that “Lordy, I hope there are tapes“, where Sullivan is probably wishing the opposite.

Sullivan became a self-aggrandizing, self promoting opportunistic parasite, who ignored the tenets of both his job and his duty of an American, in order to ingratiate himself to a financially strapped, celebrity wanna be, Seth Williams, who happens to be the District Attorney.

If Sullivan truly thought like a terrorist, he would have looked into Seth’s background and quickly found out that he failed to pay his bills and had all kinds of liens and judgments against him.

This is how a terrorist would think, is Seth vulnerable and susceptible to bribes? And anyone who looked at his pathetic financials, would come to an inescapable conclusion:  YES.  Had Sullivan did any kind of due diligence, after reviewing his financials, he would have run for the hills.  Because clearly, this Jordanian born millionaire, had the ability to make Seth’s life, a bit more comfortable.

Instead, he was blinded by Seth’s title, and the possibility of how Seth could help in the advancement of his career.

Sullivan, who was the head of Homeland Security in the Philadelphia Police Department, should have known better.  According to the US Attorney, Sullivan felt “pressured”.  Here is Sullivan’s advertisement.

Dimes to donuts that if you asked a rookie cop, if they were asked by the DA to meet with a Middle-Eastern businessman, who was being vetted by U.S. Customs, and to intervene in order to either prevent part of the screening process, or even to simply meet with him concerning the vetting process by the Feds, you would get an unequivocal response of “Hell No”.

If this was a question or scenario before an oral testing board for any supervisory position within the Police Department, anyone who wanted any shot of passing the test, would have not only said “no”, but would have reported it to the appropriate authorities.

 Mohammed Ali was still subjected to vetting by the feds, so his scheme to circumvent the vetting process by using Philly cops, still failed, it did however; lessen his time in Customs, and it is a certainty, that this was because when the agents saw Philly cops standing by waiting for Ali, they worked a little quicker.

But, not only did Sullivan say “yes”, according to the site philly.com, when Ali asked Williams to investigate, he went further then that, “Prosecutors allege that Williams did more than just investigate. He set Ali up with then-Capt. Joe Sullivan, the head of the Police Department’s Homeland Security Unit, who later sent officers to escort Ali through a secondary screening on a subsequent trip through the airport.”

Sullivan betrayed his duty to keep us safe, and his duty to “see something, say something”.

Sullivan was blinded by his wanna be celebrity status and his rising star by making friends with people whom he believed to be important.  This desire blinded his duty to keep us safe.  Sullivan had a duty to, at the very least, report what was asked of him, to the Feds.

Sullivan, unlike most citizens and even alot of cops, had a fast-track to the Feds, because of his title in the PPD Homeland Security Unit, and this enabled him to directly report this illicit “favor”.  Sullivan had no idea about this guys background, or if Sullivan felt like he was being “pressured”, he would have politely declined to meet with Ali.   He could have explained to Seth, that on the face of it, it simply looks bad.

Ironically, we are told on the Philadelphia Police Department’s Intelligence Bureau website to “Report:  The Solution Starts With You“.  Ironic.

Rumor has it, the Feds gave him a “bye” because of his graveling about his FBI leadership training and his incessant ranting about being uncomfortable and “pressured” about being involved in this debacle with Seth.  But he did it.  He got involved.  Maybe this is why the City of Memphis took a “bye” on Sullivan.

The Feds went along with the story, because it must have been difficult to say no a sitting DA, and herein lies the problem.

If you have the head of Homeland Security, afraid to say “no” to what he perceives to be at the very least, something wrong, how can you expect a street cop to say “no” to the corruption of a supervisor?  If Sullivan actually testifies that he felt “uncomfortable” or “pressured” with the meeting, but went anyway, and then even interceded by having local Police on stand-by for the foreign born Ali, then there is a problem with his decision-making skills.

At the very least, he violated and breached the duty he has to the citizens of Philadelphia and the department to which he serves.  It’s very difficult to be a whistleblower, no matter how high you ascend in the ranks, especially if you are a social-climber.

One can argue that where was he supposed to go to report the actions of Seth?  That is a more valid argument of former FBI Director James Comey.  However; Comey, not only took detailed notes of an uncomfortable meeting, but he told a superior in the Department of Justice.  Sullivan, if he didn’t trust telling Commissioner Richard Ross, could have used the contacts he had within the Federal government as a result of his role as head of Homeland Security, to report Seth’s misdeeds.  Sullivan should have also been more concerned about what items Ali was bringing into the country.

That is a disgrace.  Sullivan was a flip-flopper.  Sullivan was being duplicitous when dealing with the Feds.  When Sullivan thought Seth was the side to be on, he failed in his duty as head of Homeland Security for the PPD.   The fact that Sullivan had a Police escort for a foreign-born traveller, returning from a country that is just North of Syria and in the middle of the Middle East, where most of the recent terrorism is emanating, is proof of both his poor decision-making skills, and the fact that he wanted to be on the side that most beneficial to his career.  When he found out Seth was done, he quickly skirted over to the side he should have been on in the first place, the side of doing what is right.

Sullivan should not leave this mess smelling like roses.  He should smell like everyone else involved in this mess who knew they were doing, at the very least, something wrong, and at the most, something criminal.  Sullivan saw something, but failed to say something, until asked.  Is caving into “pressure” a good leadership skill?

Anyone with any type of patriotism, not even law enforcement, question why this guy didn’t want to be vetted by customs?  This is some monkey sh**.  Sullivan must go.  But then again, newly appointed to the rank of Inspector, Joseph Bologna, is still in charge of the Background Unit, but failed the background for the FBI Academy.  Use of the word “appointed” because both Sullivan’s and Bologna’s promotions were not the result of a civil service examination, but the result of an “appointment”.

Let’s see if Sullivan succumbs to “pressure” tomorrow when he is testifying.  Let’s see if he admits in open court that he was either afraid of Seth Williams, intimidated by Seth Williams, or felt compelled to cooperate with Seth Williams.  Let’s see if he immediately reported the conduct of Seth Williams, (which we already know he did not until whispers started going around that Seth was being investigated), or if he just went along in order to do the same thing that Mohammed Ali said he did:  went along because it’s nice to have friends in positions of power.

At the very least, he must be removed from both his appointed rank of Deputy Commissioner, and as head of Homeland Security.  Hopefully, Mayor Kenney or Commissioner Ross will feel “pressured” to put Sullivan in a position where he will be less “pressured”.

Final Thought:  Is there an Internal Affairs investigation into the actions or lack thereof; of Joseph Sullivan?

Stay tuned for his testimony tomorrow.