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Former House Speaker's Pension Under Scrutiny

Federal prosecutors want to delay Wednesday's hearing to determine whether to resume pension payments for former House Speaker Sal DiMasi.

DiMasi's $5,000 monthly payments were halted by state retirement officials last month pending the resolution of the federal corruption charges against him.

The U.S. attorney's office says pension proceedings could harm its case.

DiMasi is accused of accepting $57,000 in payments from Burlington-based software company Cognos LLC and then steering state contracts in its direction. DiMasi's lawyer Thomas Kiley is expected to fight the move since the former speaker has not been convicted of the charges. DiMasi has pleaded not guilty.

Tuesday, the former House speaker and his three co-defendents argued that the state ethics laws are too vague, and they plan to fight the federal fraud law that DiMasi is charged with violating.

This program aired on July 22, 2009. The audio for this program is not available.

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