Scandals swirl around Missouri Democrats

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch a federal search warrant has connected a former Democratic campaign strategist to a bombing last year that injured a Clayton attorney.

Federal law enforcement officials searched a downtown loft rented by Milton H. "Skip" Ohlsen III, seeking "evidence related to the planning, execution, and/or cover-up of the bombing in Clayton, Missouri, on Oct. 16, 2008" two months after the October bombing, In recent weeks Ohlsen has been at the center of a swirling political scandal involving various Missouri Democratic politicians - including Democratic Senator Jeff Smith. Attorney John Gillis of the Armstrong Teasdale firm was injured in the Clayton bombing; however, investigators believe Gillis was not the intended target of the bomb that exploded next to his car in the parking garage at 190 Carondelet Boulevard. Rather, police suspect the bomb was intended for Richard J. Eisen, a former Husch and Eppenberger attorney who has a direct connection to Ohlsen and who had an office in the Clayton building that was bombed. According to the Dispatch article, Ohlsen is the former Democratic operative involved in the federal investigation into the failed 2004 Congressional campaign of Jeff Smith. Smith, now a state senator from St. Louis, and Steve Brown, a state representative from Clayton, have been involved in that federal inquiry, according to state government sources. Ohlsen was arrested on federal fraud and firearms charges on Dec. 18 in an unrelated case. Breaking News Before this story was posted, Senator Jeff Smith resigned, according to a breaking story in the St Louis Post - Dispatch.UPDATED: 2:47 P.M. ST. LOUIS - "Missouri state Sen. Jeff Smith and Rep. Steve Brown just pleaded guilty to felony charges related to Smith's 2004 campaign for the U.S. Congress, according to testimony in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice. The first count is for obstructing a Federal Elections Commission investigation in the aftermath of the 2004 Congressional election, and the other is for obstructing a federal grand jury investigation this year.