Apparently a case of government corruption, ehum, hinges on an argument over what exactly the definition of “Meatballs” is. No, joke.
A Pennsylvania courtroom turned rather amusing this weekend after a pretrial hearing regarding government corruption kicked off. The New York Times reports that former Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski is on trial for apparently accepting $150,000 in campaign donations in exchange for city contracts.
Pawlowski apparently accepted the donations (or, ehum, bribes) in exchange for the money. Although, it took prosecutors a bit to actually find out what he had done. This is where it gets interesting, and ,rather amusing.
Pawlowski apparently was caught by federal authorities after the feds had actually wiretapped cell phones and such belonging to his associates and his team. In the wiretaps, they, apparently overheard the word “Meatballs” being used a few too many times. Prosecutors apparently believe that “Meatballs” was code for contracts and such that Pawlowski promised to donors (particularly high rollers) in exchange for some pretty steep campaign donations.
“The meatballs are overcooked” followed by “It may be time to go get some more meatballs”. All of these phrases were apparently used in code, out of fear, that he had been compromised by authorities.