Key figure in Philly bugging probe now top Cain aide

A KEY FIGURE in the Philadelphia corruption probe of the Street administration in the early 2000s has resurfaced as a high-ranking aide to GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain.

Jamie Brazil, a longtime Scranton political consultant and wheeler-dealer, was never charged with a crime in the high-profile investigation. But a watchdog group essentially barred Brazil from the securities industry in 2006, after he tried to invoke the Fifth Amendment rather than answer questions about his work for two municipal-bond firms.

During the corruption probe, federal wiretaps also showed that Brazil sought business on behalf of a well-known Philadelphia Muslim cleric later convicted on charges of racketeering, commercial bribery, multiple frauds and income-tax fraud, and sentenced to seven years in jail.

Brazil may have been banned from bond work - but not from high-stakes politics. As vice president of field operations for the campaign of the former pizza- company chief executive and top-tier Republican White House wannabe, aides said the operative from northeastern Pennsylvania is part of Cain's inner circle of five top aides. Another member of that circle, press aide J.D. Gordon, said Brazil is "essential."

"This is an old and tired story," said Gordon of Brazil's ties to the Philadelphia probe. He said he had discussed inquiries from the Daily News with Brazil yesterday. "He was never accused of anything and never targeted."

Gordon said the 2006 finding by the National Association of Security Dealers that prevented him from associating with its member firms was not important because Brazil never was a registered securities dealer - precisely the reason that the industry watchdog group was probing his work for two mid-Atlantic bond firms.

Brazil's murky background is sure to add volume to complaints about the quality of Cain's campaign staff, which has been reeling in recent days from its handling of sexual-harassment allegations, as well as from Cain's seeming lack of knowledge of foreign-policy issues, including a disastrous, fumbling answer to a question about Libya. Cain, who had been leading in some national polls, has now fallen behind Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in new surveys.

Brazil's story is colorful. Until three years ago, the now-aide to a tea-party favorite was a Democrat, known for his ties to the family of that party's stalwart Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state.