What rises to 'criminal level' in Bonusgate?

HARRISBURG -- Quid pro quo.

When top-ranking legislative staffers talked via e-mail to other staffers who did campaign work for legislators, was it made clear that state bonuses would be given to compensate the employees for political work?

Were the bonuses for extraordinary staff work plus campaign work?

What was the mix?

How clear were the conversations?

Were subordinates doing what they were told to do by superiors?

These are questions that will arise in 2008 as key legislative staffers, legislators and ex-lawmakers face the next phase of an investigation by Attorney General Tom Corbett. The probe could lead to criminal charges.

E-mails among staffers -- and some with former Rep. Mike Veon, D-Beaver Falls -- have surfaced that would appear to suggest there was a bonus-for-politicking trade-off. Seven top staffers were fired as a result of the e-mails, according to House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Greene County.

But keep this in mind: Each exchange was different and each will be scrutinized and turned inside out by defense attorneys.

One suggestive e-mail doesn't mean someone is guilty of a crime. Whether a pattern of illegal activity existed may be the key.

No one has accused anyone of wrongdoing in the so-called Bonusgate scandal, save for former Rep. Frank LaGrotta, D-Ellwood City, who faces unrelated conflict-of-interest charges for putting relatives into alleged no-show jobs.

The state will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any staffers doling out bonuses, or allegedly conspiring to do so, did so with a direct trade-off of taxpayer money for campaign duties.

Who leaked the e-mails• It's not known but most fingers point at DeWeese or his attorneys since the limited information published in newspapers might suggest that DeWeese had no knowledge of what went on. It also came just before DeWeese began a statewide public relations campaign.

Don't forget that e-mails are just one piece of the puzzle. If the investigation continues to move forward and if some cases go to hearings or trials, these staffers -- believed by many to have been thrown under the bus by DeWeese -- will be asked or compelled to testify. That testimony will be the key to proving a case.

Are there other e-mails?

Will these staffers support the case DeWeese is now building that he was unaware of the bonuses• Not likely. Don't forget that it was DeWeese who sent a letter to bonus recipients last December advising them not to discuss their bonuses with other employees.

One thing is clear: If there is one shred of evidence -- one "cc:" on an e-mail to DeWeese -- these former staffers will be quick to tell Corbett's investigators about it.

We'll take DeWeese at his word for now. But his apparent effort to lay it all at the feet of subordinates is not without risk. For one, he now has a huge target on his back.

Second, he demonstrated to the House Democratic Caucus -- based on his own explanation -- that he didn't have a clue what was going on.

But how could a $2 million-plus bonus scheme take place under DeWeese's nose without him knowing about it?

It defies all logic and tradition in the General Assembly to think that aides acted unilaterally. One of the guys allegedly at the heart of the e-mail string on bonuses was Mike Manzo. He was close to Veon. But he was DeWeese's chief of staff. He never mentioned the bonuses to his boss?

Ever?

Really?