What Took Them So Long?

Jack Johnson, the outgoing County Executive for Prince George's County, has been arrested for corruption:

Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson and his wife were arrested at their home Friday and charged in federal court with trying to hide or destroy the proceeds from a bribe from a local developer, according to court papers and federal law enforcement authorities.

Johnson and his wife, Leslie E. Johnson, were charged with evidence tampering and destruction, alteration and falsification of records. After brief hearings late Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Connolly ordered Jack Johnson to be released and placed under electronic monitoring. The judge released Leslie Johnson on her own recognizance. Both Johnsons were ordered to surrender their passports.

The charges stem from a frantic phone call on Friday in which Leslie Johnson told her husband that "two women were at the door" and ultimately ended when federal agents found $76,000 in Leslie Johnson's underwear, according to an affidavit in support of the criminal charges.

I think that we are finally seeing the end of the PG County machine.

It began with Donna Edwards' defeat of Al Wynn for Congress in the 2008 primary, and you can see things piling up in this handy Washington Post timeline.

The FBI has been investigating him for about 4 years, and the fact that he owns about 6 homes, with mortgage payments larger than his salary, might have been an indicator that something odd was going on.

Here's hoping that maybe some reformers get swept in at the next election.