Missing Money Meeks Brakes Pledge to Reveal His Files

Never make a promise to the press you have no intention of keeping!

Democrat politico, Gregory Meeks, congressman from New York recently promised on a news show that he would reveal, according to his files the number of Hurricane Katrina survivors he’s actuallyhelped.

In less than 24 hours, a reporter from the New York Post which is on Meeks’s case over what happened to over $30,000 dollars he raised through his non-profit group that was supposed to aide Hurricane Katrina survivors.

There’s a difference between a promise made to help in damage control, and what one is really all about.

The New York Post reports:

Thanks for nothing, Mr. Meeks!

Under intense grilling about missing money from a Hurricane Katrina charity fund, Rep. Gregory Meeks had offered to open his files to show all he'd done for the victims -- but slammed the door when a Post reporter arrived at his Queens office yesterday to take him up on it.

Meeks, who for weeks had dodged questions about the controversial fund, promised on Monday that he would bare his books.

"I'd love to have you come to my office. We can show you the files of the individuals that we helped," the Queens Democrat said in an interview on NY1's "Inside City Hall."

His appearance came after a series of Post articles that revealed troubling questions about New Yorkers Organized to Assist Hurricane Families, or NOAH-F, the Katrina fund associated with another nonprofit he helped create.

NOAH-F received at least $31,000 in donations -- but a Post investigation found that only $1,392 had gone to Katrina victims. The rest is unaccounted for.

Meeks -- who initially promised that "every dime" would go to help victims -- insists he isn't responsible.

But he solicited donations for the charity on his Web site, and happily posed with an oversized $10,000 check to NOAH-F five years ago.

In addition, he steered money to the charity that administers the fund, the New Direction Development Corp., which also has funds that are unaccounted for and is being investigated by the feds.

Less than 24 hours after Meeks offered to open his files, The Post took him up on his invite -- but was promptly rebuffed.

When a reporter asked to see the files at about 9:15 a.m., office administrator Marilyn Wilds-Barnes refused the request due to "client confidentiality."

After being told what Meeks said on NY1, she called the congressman's chief of staff, Robert Simmons, and the reporter was told Simmons would come in to assist The Post at 2 p.m.

Despite the long wait, Wilds-Barnes wouldn't let the reporter stay in the waiting room at Meeks' Jamaica office.

"You can't wait in here. This is a congressional office," she sniped.

So the reporter waited down the hall.

At about 1 p.m., Wilds-Barnes emerged from the office, said Simmons was "stuck in a meeting" and referred the reporter to Meeks' spokeswoman, Lupe Todd.

Todd finally said the files couldn't be shown yet because information from them needed to be redacted.

"I apologize for that," she said.

The files, she insisted, had information about roughly 200 Gulf Coast victims that Meeks' office assisted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Via New York Post

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