Mass. pol says charges too vague

BOSTON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A former speaker of the Massachusetts House, Salvatore DiMasi, and a co-defendant say they are being prosecuted under an overly vague law.

DiMasi, his friend and one-time financial adviser Richard Vitale, and two other defendants are scheduled for a federal court appearance Thursday, The Boston Globe reported. They are to be formally charged on a superseding indictment that adds new allegations that DiMasi had a secret interest in a real estate company that managed a state office building in Boston.

Lawyers for DiMasi and Vitale have asked the court to dismiss charges of "honest services" fraud.

"When taken on its face, the concept of honest services is virtually limitless, as almost any act by a state employee, including state legislators and third parties who deal with them, that involves any trace of dishonesty or a remote element of self-interest can be re-characterized as a failure to live up to the fiduciary obligation to provide 'honest services,'" Thomas Kiley and Martin Weinberg wrote.

DiMasi allegedly steered more than a million dollars in contracts to Cognos, a Burlington, Mass., software company, in return for thousands of dollars in payoffs.