A Tale of Two Felonies

"News today may shed light on the mystery of Allen's resignation. According to the Montgomery County Police Department, Allen was arrested yesterday and charged in a felony theft and a felony theft scheme. According to a department press release, Allen conducted approximately 25 fraudulent 'refunds' in Target and Hecht's stores in Maryland."

Here's the Montgomery County press release , including mug shot.

Ernesto Londoño and Michael A. Fletcher wrote in Saturday's Washington Post that Allen's attorney, Mallon Snyder, "said he feels confident that Allen will be able to prove that the incidents were 'a series of misunderstandings.' "

Lt. Eric Burnett, a police spokesman, said that Allen would purchase an item, take it to his car, return to the store, select the same item, take it to the counter and get a refund based on the receipt for the merchandise in his car.

"Burnett said Montgomery police contacted the White House to verify Allen's identity after the Jan. 2 incident. He said that was the extent of their communication with the administration."

John Files and Robert Pear wrote in the Saturday New York Times: "Mr. McClellan gave this chronology: On Jan. 3, Mr. Allen discussed the incident with Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, and told her that he had been returning merchandise and there was confusion with his credit cards because he had moved many times. He assured Ms. Miers that the matter would be cleared up.

"Mr. McClellan said the White House gave Mr. Allen 'the benefit of the doubt' because he had gone through extensive background checks before his judicial nomination.

"Within a few days of the incident, Mr. McClellan said, Mr. Allen told Mr. Card and Ms. Miers that he was thinking of leaving the White House to spend time with his family. But Mr. Allen decided to stay for a while because he was working on domestic initiatives for the State of the Union address, which Mr. Bush delivered on Jan. 31."

Michael A. Fletcher and Joshua Partlow wrote in Sunday's Washington Post: "Despite its prominent profile, the chief domestic policy job was only a consolation prize for Allen. Bush had named him in 2003 to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, but the nomination was scuttled by Senate Democrats who saw Allen as too conservative and too inexperienced, and blocked it from coming to a vote."

Allen is friends with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas: "The two would often go to lunch, sometimes talking about the burdens of being black conservatives. 'He would always say to make sure I conducted myself appropriately,' Allen recalled in an interview last year."

Holly Bailey and Pat Wingert write in Newsweek: "The mystery of Allen's resignation may have been solved, but the answer leaves a bigger question: why did he do it? He may have been short on cash. Allen made a comfortable living -- $161,000 a year, the highest pay scale for White House staff -- but he had a large family and had bought a $958,300 house the same month he allegedly started stealing. Even so, if money were the only issue, he could have made millions as a lobbyist. Allen's former White House colleagues were surprised by the pettiness of the alleged crimes, especially since Allen was regarded in the ranks as being a bit stuffy and holier-than-thou. As one White House aide, who asked for anonymity to avoid embarrassing the administration, put it, 'When you hear about a White House official getting busted, you'd hope it would be for something so much better than this, like securities fraud or embezzlement. But robbing a Target? Are you kidding me?' "

Byron York writes in the National Review's blog: "Of course it is reasonable to believe that Allen, if the charges against him are true, might well have lied about it to his employers. But White House officials surely must have put two and two together when, a few weeks after the call from Montgomery County Police, Allen suddenly resigned. So why, then, did the White House claim so confidently that Allen simply wanted to spend more time with his family?"