What lottery chief will tell Senate

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee staff attorneys are clearing the way for testimony by Larry Littwin, the former Texas lottery director, in hearings on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

He will testify under oath, WorldNetDaily has learned, of bipartisan political corruption.

He will shed new light on the approximately $160,000 in payments to Miers' Locke Liddell law firm made by George W. Bush's gubernatorial campaigns – including $19,000 in 1995 so she would keep the lid on the Bush National Guard scandal, according to Jerome Corsi, WND columnist who has been researching the story.

In negotiations with Senate Judiciary Committee attorneys, GTECH, the scandal-plagued company at the heart of the Texas lottery story, has agreed to release Littwin from the gag order imposed on him in 1998 by the $300,000 "negotiated settlement" reached then to end his wrongful termination federal lawsuit

The Texas Lottery Commission fired Littwin Oct. 29, 1997, to end an investigation he had launched into political influence-buying that involved GTECH, the Rhode Island company operating the lottery, prominent Texas lobbyists on GTECH's payroll, and a laundry list of Texas politicians, including both Democrats and Republicans.

When Gov. Bush wanted Littwin's investigation stopped, Commissioners Harriet Miers and John Hill complied, reports Corsi.

Corsi believes that Littwin, according to an examination of hundreds of contemporary Texas newspaper accounts, will be able to establish under oath that the GTECH contract was preserved on a no-bid basis by then-chairwoman of the Lottery Commission Miers in order to "keep the lid on" the National Guard controversy involving then-Gov. Bush.

The lobbyists included Ben Barnes, the former Texas lieutenant governor who claims he pulled strings to get Bush into the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.

Littwin, who was hired by Miers in June 1997 and fired just five months later, wanted to reopen the GTECH contract for competitive bid, according to Corsi.

The Rhode Island company has held the operating contract on the Texas Lottery since the lottery began in 1991.

When Littwin sued GTECH over losing his job, Barnes gave a five-hour deposition. But GTECH settled with Littwin for $300,000, under the condition that he destroy all documents pertaining to the litigation, including the Barnes deposition.

Until now, Corsi reports, Littwin has been under a gag order as part of his "negotiated settlement" with GTECH, under which he would suffer a $50,000 penalty if he discussed openly any details of his Texas Lottery employment.

Corsi says insiders following the Texas Lottery Commission scandals believe Littwin's testimony is "potentially explosive."

Rumors are circulating, he adds, that influence-peddling crimes, including money laundering, may yet remain to be prosecuted.

Senate Judiciary Committee leadership has pledged to investigate fully Miers' background and qualifications for a lifetime appointment as associate Supreme Court justice.

A tale of bipartisan corruption – Texas size

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